It is easy in this day and age to become overwhelmed and frustrated. There’s a lot of stress relievers out there, from massages to watching TV to reading to yoga. I propose an other kind of stress reliever: growing a plant.

It recently moved and had to get rid of my dog in the process. I missed his cute fluffyness, but in a strange way, I also missed taking care of him. My apartment does not allow for pets, so I could not get a new pet to relieve my need to nurture something. Because kingdom animalia was out, I turned to plants.

Growing a plant can seem geeky or weird, but I’ve found that it’s actually very relaxing. I got a rare kind of woody vine that looks like a bonsai tree when in bloom. This vine is not native to our beautiful Northern Idaho, and to sprout, it needed special care. I had to place a plastic greenhouse type of thing over the seeds so they would be insulated and receive the humidity they need.

Every day I checked on the little seeds, and occasionally had to water them, keeping the delicate balance of moisture they needed to germinate. After a week or so, they had all bloomed. It was a small, but very rewarding thing. I had managed to make a little photosynthesizing organism grow, and hopefully thrive.

Growing a plant alone was not enough to help me adjust to moving. But it certainly helped. I would definitely recommend trying to grow a plant as a type of cheap therapy. It may not work for everyone, but is definitely rewarding for people who it does help.

[whohit]Grow-a-Plant,-Decay-Stress[/whohit]