The power of Gardens

Oliver Sacks was a neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and author.

He believed that the brain is the “most incredible thing in the universe”.

He wrote numerous best-selling books, mostly collections of case studies of people, including himself, with neurological disorders.

He loved gardens.

He wrote: “As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit.”

“The importance of these physiological states on individual and community health is fundamental and wide-ranging. In forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens.”

You can read more about the power of gardens at:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/05/27/oliver-sacks-gardens/

PS: thank you to Kristy, Facility Manager here at VASS for alerting me to this.