Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Farms Relieve Stress

Cow and bullI was interested to read about a study showing that visiting a farm relieves stress and tiredness. According to the BBC:
Scientists said they found that after spending a few hours on a farm, 95% of those analysed were less tired, 91% less tense and 55% felt revitalised.
It went on to say:
Anger and hostility levels decreased for 70% of visitors, feelings of confusion and depression both decreased for 80% of visitors, vigour increased for 55% of visitors, tension and anxiety levels decreased for 91% and nearly all visitors - 97% - said they felt a reduction in fatigue.
Those figures are remarkable, but somehow not surprising. It passes the "reality check": visiting farms and rural locations has the same effect on me. How about you?

I have just finished reading A Good Life, a biography of John Seymour, the father of the self-sufficiency movement. I don't think he'd have been surprised by this research either:
To John all of the foundation of human happiness was based on the deep seated urge and need for human beings to be closely associated with the land that they came from. Not the country but the very earth itself beneath their feet. Every form of human joy in one way or another swelled from this single point of view.
I do wonder how to reconcile the amazing calming and restorative powers of nature with the terribly high suicide rate amongst farmers - about twice the rate of other workers. Perhaps it just underlines the desperate situation British farmers are in.

9 comments:

benjymous said...

My wife and I spent a blissful week's holiday in a cottage on a farm two weeks ago, and had a wonderful time. - there's nothing like being greeted by friendly lambs every morning :)

Being 10 minutes drive from Glastonbury probably helped the serenity too :)

Joyce said...

I just experienced this last weekend. We didn't visit a farm, just a very large botanical garden with a woodland section that was so lush and green it was heaven. After being in town for months, it was just what I needed! I could feel the stress melting away.

Unknown said...

I had to laugh at this ~ I'm finally dry after spending an hour in the rain this morning with a very perverse goat & a puc wanting to help & protect his girly. Persi had tangled herself up badly & wouldn't help me untangle herself, in fact as soon as I'd sorted out 1 run round a tree, she tied herself up again. I've tethered her out of harm's way now as she keeps escaping from her field & goes to eat the baby forest by me. I did have to wrap Pan's chain around a tree to keep him out of my way as I couldn't wield stick, knife & work Persi's chain free.

Just as I was about to reward myself with coffee, a puppy caught Tabitha & decided upon some puppy on kitten violence. Tabitha had been playing kitten games on my (empty) clothes horse before tiny puppy caught her. I also had to remove various puppies from the cow(chicken)shed as they wanted some eggy snacks ~ their mother had taught them about eggs.

So far this day I've not had to sort out chicken on chicken violence, & with the horses on the Curragh there's no pony attacks on the dogs... & I only have a tiny smallholding

Farms are relaxing, just so long as it's not your own farm you're visiting. Go visit someone else's farm, then you can relax as none of any problems that may occur are yours!

Yodood said...

These farms you speak of are not to be confused with where 95% of meat, poultry and dairy come from. Visits to these "farms" will have the exact opposite reaction.

Sadly, no matter which type of farm we visit, the factory farm has the overall sway on our health and actual well being despite our purposeful attitudes.

Anonymous said...

I don't think it's only farms, Mel. I find myself feeling better and actually being aware of my blood pressure going down when I'm in my back yard playing at gardening with my pots of stuff.

I also get a lot of benefit from having cats around, in fact we all do. They make us all feel happier and friendlier towards each other, and they have made so much difference to my mentally ill son that I keep thinking someone should write a paper on it.

Sharon J said...

I lived on a farm for about 6 months when my children were small and have to say that I found it quite stressful because there were so many dangers around. Although I've never been an over-protective parent (my kids have always climbed trees, skied from a very young age, spent the night alone in tents etc) the dangers that lurked on the farm far outweighed anything we'd experienced before.

I guess visiting a farm is different to living on one, though.

Yellow said...

Mel, what was that book you leant me about the Australian Family who decided to go self-sufficuent for a year? It was a great read, very revealing, honest, full of hope as well as tears. I'd love to read more books written on a similar theme. I'll never take the plunge myself, but it is something I love reading about.

Melanie Rimmer said...

Yellow, it's called Living the Good Life by Linda Cockburn. The project was to spend no money for 6 months.

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