Farming is not something people think about as being healing. The truth is, gardening, harvesting, and working the land is an ancient practice that can be very rewarding and teach people lots about how to handle seasons of waiting, seasons of loss, and even seasons of working towards a long-range goal. Learn more about farming and how it may help your recovery.
Everyone Works
One of the great things about a farm and working the land is that everyone has a job. Every task is essential. Nothing is more essential than the work of healing. Every person comes because, out in the world, it feels like everything is falling apart. On a farm, it feels like time stands still and everything is focused on the task, rather than worrying about what is going on in their own head. Using farmland to help people who struggle with mental illness or addiction can be restorative and community building.
Power of Community
Getting to work on a farm can feel restorative in ways people cannot imagine. While working on the farm, with the many tasks to complete, there is power in forgetting about life for awhile and focusing on the tasks to be done. Working with animals, crops, and implements on the farm can teach people a lot about working together to get a job done. Being on a farm can build community in other ways by taking away distractions like electronics and putting people into spaces where they are forced to work together to solve problems, achieve a goal, and help other people above themselves. The farm does not run on its own, it needs people to make it work.
Dealing with Setbacks
On the farm, it is inevitable something will not go as planned. Perhaps a piece of machinery breaks, things are not working, or people get sick and others have to pick up the slack. Learning to find a way out of setbacks and to cope with what is hard can be very rewarding. Setbacks happen in life, on the farm, and in recovery. When a person can learn to deal with this effectively, it can be immensely helpful to their journey of recovery.
There are places people can go to work on a farm for short periods of time. You may even considering joining a cooperative farm that helps you plant and receive proceeds from a piece of farmland. There are many ways to engage with farming at home, as well, that result in cultivating many of the same types of skills, on a smaller scale. The rewards of working land to produce fruits of the labor can be satisfying and helpful in finding peace and serenity in recovery.
The Springboard Center’s addiction treatment programs are tailored to meet the needs of each client. By utilizing a set of diverse methods of addiction treatment, we are able to deal with your addiction from all angles and concentrate on every aspect of your healing process. It is important to recognize that many of our services offer a group setting and environment, so that the client spends time with other people affected by the same chronic disease and problems. 432-620-0255
