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3 reasons to enjoy Naked Gardening Day â and 4 reasons to give it a miss
Gardening is a popular bank holiday pastime, but will you be taking it a step further and daring to bare on Naked Gardening Day today?
Depending on your body confidence levels, Naked Gardening Day may or may not be marked in your diary.If itâs not a fixture on your calendar, hereâs the lowdown: Naked Gardening Day takes place this Saturday, May 2 (and the first Saturday of May, every year), and itâs pretty much what it says – a day when everyone is invited to embrace the joys of being in nature, au naturel.
But is it really such a good idea?
While we accept gardening stark naked could be sort of liberating, weâre also aware of all sorts of possible secateur-related injury.So what side of the picket fence do the experts fall on?âMany people do [naked gardening] on a daily basis (weather permitting of course) and for those people having a âdayâ to celebrate it would make them feel included and nude gardening a socially sanctioned behaviour,â says Dr Elle Boag, senior lecturer in Social Psychology at Birmingham City University.
It sets you free
âThis is a good thing psychologically as it bolsters positive self-concepts,â Boag continues.âFor those who do not usually participate in nude gardening, having a dedicated day of the year whereby nude gardening is celebrated might encourage people who enjoy novel experiences to engage in this type of behaviour without the constraints of embarrassment (if, for instance, a dedicated âdayâ were not put aside for it).âIn addition, it might simply allow people to symbolically snub societal norms and values and use the day as a means of excusing what can be considered to normatively be antisocial behaviour.â
It gives you confidence
For both types of people who would not normally participate in nude gardening, engaging in such behaviour can have positive psychological outcomes; the first type the person can experience increased psychological arousal that is used to facilitate further âriskyâ behaviours as they are viewed as positive by the individual.The second type of person might be likely to view the anti-sociality of their behaviour as a means of increasing their positive self-views (such as self-esteem and self-efficacy).âSo, overall, gardening naked can lead to a real sense of self-directed positivity which can only be argued to be a good thing.â
It ups your vitamin D
Weâre always being told we need more vitamin D, and low levels have been linked with increased risk of rickets, cancer, depression, osteoporosis, heart disease and even dementia.So whatâs a good way to up your levels? Get outside – vitamin D is produced by the body in response to skin being exposed to sunlight.
And whatâs a good way of topping up your levels even more? Get outside naked, surely, so youâre exposing as much skin as possible.
BUT it also exposes you to sunburnâŚ
While some sun on your skin boosts vitamin D, too much sun on your skin will just lead to irreversible sun damage â be it immediate painful sunburn, or long-term cancerous melanoma.Of course, you can (and should) put sun cream on, but reaching all your nooks and crannies can be hard enough when youâre clothed, so doing so with no clothes at all must be impossible.
And rashesâŚ
A few years ago, a professor of dermatology at an Ohio university said that âwhile most of the skin reactions resulting from direct contact with a hazardous plant are more of a nuisance than anything else, there are some instances where the reaction can affect the entire body and pose a potentially more serious risk.âYes, thanks to all the potentially poisonous plants and weeds lurking about, gardening can be a dangerous pastime â some people break out in hives just from brushing a lowly stinging nettle. Now imagine where that stinging nettle could potentially reach while youâre busy enjoying Naked Gardening DayâŚAnd accidentsâŚA pair of pruners.
Nakedness. One small mis-cut. You do the mathsâŚAnd indecent exposure
Letâs face it, while the dream of naked gardening might involve gambolling about, flowers in hair, in some wild and idyllic countryside mansionâs lawn, most of us live in towns and cities with overlooked or even shared gardens. Again, you do the maths.
