What Is a Meditation Garden?

A meditation garden is a space that welcomes you into a state of mind, bringing peace and solace. It is a dedicated area that you want to go to for healing, meditating, practicing yoga, boosting your energy, or finding relaxation. 

Meditation gardens often go hand in hand with Zen and healing gardens as they all serve the same purpose. These gardens are gaining popularity with hospitals, schools, public gardens, and private residences.  

How Meditation Gardens Rooted Themselves in History

Meditation gardens have been a part of Eastern communities for thousands of years. 

Meditation gardens became an important element in Mahayana Buddhism gardens, and appear to have originated in 6th-century Japan during the reign of Empress Suiko. Japanese gardens focus on harmonious asymmetry that promotes passage through the organic flow of the natural world.

Since 500 to 300 BCE, formal meditation gardens were nurtured by the Persians. Elaborate mandala designs were a key element introduced sometime between 226 and 641. Persian gardens focus on balance, symmetry, and geometric elements. 

Physical Benefits of Being in a Meditation Garden

Gardening offers us exercise in many ways. Simple everyday practices like strolling through the garden, pulling weeds, laying down mulch, and planting benefit our bodies physically.

Gardening can also prevent straining of the eyes. Our society has a strong connection with cell phones, computers, and other media-related devices. Stepping away from the cell phones and introducing your eyes to soft colors and textures can soothe your eyes naturally. 

Both gardening and being in a meditative garden have been shown to reduce blood pressure. Removing outside stressors and taking deliberate time to spend in a natural space that you tend has a way of slowing your body down.

People have even reported pain reduction after spending time in meditation and healing gardens. Pain tolerance can vary significantly from person to person. Placing yourself in a calm environment while performing tasks can take the focus off the pain in your body. 

Lastly, meditative gardens have been shown to improve the quality of your sleep. Between reducing your stress, resting your eyes, exercising your body, and alleviating your pain levels, this creates the ideal combination for improved sleep. 

Mental Benefits of Being in a Meditation Garden

Being in a meditative garden can help strengthen your attention span. People commonly scroll through social media without truly absorbing the information and move on quickly to the next post. Slowing down and sitting in a space can bring that focus onto elements in the garden. 

Studies have shown that meditative gardens help reduce age-related memory loss. Gardens are always evolving, yet timeless. Gardening tasks bring structure to our daily lives and provide the expected. Plants and nature invoke memories from the past and encourage us to apply those memories to current scenarios. 

People living with addictions have been shown to improve impulse control after spending time in meditative gardens. Gardening itself creates a focal point on the task at hand. Being in a healing garden space pivots the attention to the act of being in that space and the elements surrounding the person.

Emotional Benefits of Being in a Meditation Garden

Everyday stressors impact our emotional wellbeing. With the natural removal of stressors while being in a garden sanctuary, achieving emotional stability becomes easier to fulfill. 

Meditative gardens are shown to reduce anxiety-related disorders. Nature is grounding. Being in a garden and observing the surroundings naturally brings tranquility and an escape from the triggers that anxiety stems from.

Decreased depression symptoms are another benefit of spending time in a meditative garden. The brain can focus on beauty through sensory exploration, and simple scents such as roses in the garden can increase the levels of serotonin in the body.

The Key Elements of a Backyard Meditation Garden

Let's look at some of the key elements of meditation gardens that work in harmony to create the physical, mental, and emotional benefits I mentioned above.

A Threshold

A threshold is the invitation into a space set aside from all others. A threshold begins the journey into the garden and starts to take your mind on this adventure.

Thresholds can be as simple as the thoughtful placement of an arch, trellis, gate, or even large stones.

Pathways

A path guides you through the space, leads you on your exploration through the garden. The garden pathway can be straight and formal, natural and moving with the growth of the space, or purposeful with geometric elements such as labyrinths or mazes.

The pathway material can be simple—crushed granite, stone, flagstone pavers, or mulch. 

Borders

Borders create the division between the path and the organic plant bed space. Borders offer respect towards plantings and non-plant elements in the garden by separating us from those spaces that belong to the plants. 

Borders can be stones, pavers, steel edging, etc. 

Seating Areas to invite relaxation

Now that you’ve been invited through a threshold, walked along a path, and admired the green space, it’s time to find a space to sit and enjoy your solace. This is vital to a meditation garden because it allows you to be present and mindful and to ground yourself. 

Take a moment and picture an area that you would want to walk to at the end of a long day of work. Is there a chair, a bench, a flat rock, or a spot under a shade tree that calls to you? Is resting your back important? Creating a place to sit in a meditative garden is important, and the location of the place needs to be significant to you. Your comfort is vital. 

Elemental features

Being of nature, we are attracted to elements that nature itself is formed from. Meditative gardens tend to place focal points of the elements throughout the space, which can invoke our senses and have an instant grounding effect. The below elements can be combined together to create a striking focal point in your garden:

• The element of earth seems straightforward enough. Stones, soil, and plants are all a part of the element of earth. To attain a connection with earth, try using a stone with texture that can be touched while walking on the garden path.
• The element of air can be brought into a garden by introducing plants that create sound and have textures that move with the breeze. Placing trees with seed pods, tall grasses, and wind chimes all connect us with the element of air.
• The element of water can be introduced into your garden with fountains, waterfalls, and ponds. Placing plants that are water-loving such as the iris can add beautiful texture.
• The element of fire can be established with a fire feature or by creating a focal point with bright sunlight. Planting warm-color plants with reds and oranges can enhance this experience. 

How to Get Started With Your Own Meditation Garden

Find a source of inspiration by visiting local botanical gardens and arboretums. These can offer plant concepts, layouts, and elements that appeal to you. Being physically present in your garden is your goal, so inspire yourself by physically exploring the options rather than turning to social media!

Figure out the intention of your meditation garden. Is your goal to relax at the end of the day away from your home? Is your goal to create a space to practice yoga? Are you looking for a space to read and nap? 

What elements do you find the most soothing in a garden? Are you more drawn to hearing trickling water, watching fish swim in your pond, or feeling the warmth of the sun or fire?

What do you need, want, and desire from your garden space? Do you need complete privacy? Do you want the space to be elegant? Do you desire edible plants to produce herbal teas to enhance this healing space? 

What else can you add outside of plants to enhance your place of solace? Consider seating, statues, wind chimes, fountains, arches to walk under, and gates to enter into the space. 

A Summary About Meditation Gardens

Meditation gardens provide many benefits to us mentally, physically, and emotionally. This is a wonderful way to enhance your daily life.

There are many unique elements brought into this space that set it apart from your general landscape. Create a journey with gateways to pass through, paths that crunch under your feet, arches to walk under, benches to sit and reflect as you admire your fountain surrounded by colorful foliage and scented blooms. 

Explore what appeals to you when planning this space. Visit gardens and feel the space as you walk through. Be mindful of the colors, textures, scale, and features in garden spaces. 

Consider how you want to use this space. What do you picture?

Amanda Weides of Mindful Blooming

In addition to being a Gardenary-certified garden coach, Amanda has an A.A.S. in Ornamental Horticulture and is certified in Sustainable Horticulture. She's always been passionate about nature, but when she got her degree and began working for a landscaping company, she realized she wanted to focus more on overall wellness. She founded Mindful Blooming, and now, she teaches workshops focusing on mental health through mindfulness while gardening. She loves creating spaces where people can slow down and take a deep breath.

Amanda has a farm with chickens, goats, cats, and 70 house plants! She has an avid passion for meditation and herbalism.

Her visits to Altamont Gardens in Carlow, Ireland, and Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL, helped inspire her passion for making something more out of garden spaces. Thanks to Amanda for sharing her beautiful pictures of these gardens with us!

Follow Amanda on Instagram to see how her gardens are blooming.

Photo credits belong to Gardenary and Mindful Blooming.