The psychology of mowing the lawn

I've mowed the lawn twice in the last 10 days. Spring is coming, surely.

Surely. We never want to say bad of any rain, but I think we’ve all had enough of it and the wind and drizzle for this year. I’ve hibernated well and am ready to face the world.

I love to mow the lawn, with a push mower. It’s neater, you are exercised, there is no chance of any multi-tasking (no phone calls, no podcasts) and no-one can talk to you (ahem, children) the drone is too loud. It’s a mind-numbing form of relaxation. Our kids love it too. If the mower is groaning away, they are playing happily alongside.

This I am going to call the psychology of mowing the lawn. And then I googled it. I’m late to the party. A lawn mowing rabbit hole ensued. Psychology Today agree’s, the University of Queensland has taken it one step further and spent 7 years developing ‘Serenascent’ and then there’s virtual lawn mowing to quell anxiety and then there’s this from Freakonomics on our obsession, cost and environmental impact of tending lawns. The end point of this was not where I intended to be…