Timber Frame Swing: Stimulating Appeal For Backyard Retreat
Adding an aesthetically pleasing timber frame swing to a backyard is more than ornamental; it can create a beneficial sensory therapeutic garden for a more healing landscape.
It doesn't take research and studies to understand that babies are comforted and soothed by the gentleness of rocking and swinging motions. Cradles, rockers and swings have been used for centuries to calm little children and make them happier. Volunteers assist at hospitals to cradle and gently rock infants to increase healing and save lives. Researchers have indicated that patients suffering from Alzheimer and dementia benefit from the motion of a rocker or a swing by helping them to relax and decrease agitation. Swinging is relaxing and stress relieving.
Specialty schools are using swings for vestibular therapy as well as sensory integration because swinging helps to regenerate the senses causing children to become more aware of the world around them.
Swing Away In A Backyard Therapeutic Garden
Touch, sight, sound, movement, body awareness and the pull of gravity are senses we experience. The brain organizes and interprets the information it receives from the integration of our senses and provides information crucial for learning and behavior. For most children, ordinary childhood activities develops their sensory integration but for some children it does not develop as efficiently. Classes for autistic children often integrate swings to enhance sensory integration inside of classrooms providing hours of therapy that the children enjoy.
Children love to swing but swinging is not just for children. There have been new ideas to reintroduce the swing in unique ways to stimulate and revive the joy of swinging for adults. Some excellent examples of swing project ideas can be seen in The Red Swing Project and Musical Light Swings on the Streets of Montreal. Another innovative project to check out is this Anatomy of a Swing Park promoting swings for exercise and entertainment in vacant areas or bus stops.
The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch swing with, never say a word, then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation that you ever had. Arnold H Glasgow
The benefits of swings are being rediscovered again in some fitness gyms, incorporating indoor swing sets for added exercise and in getaway spas for relaxation and emotional relief. Evidence suggests that emotional distress is enhanced by too much inward attention and that an act as simple as swinging can be healing by amplifying outward cognitive attention.
Timber or wood can also be comforting and stimulating to our senses as well. When you touch your fingers on wood you can physically feel the breath and vibrations of the forest, a living organism. It is warm to the touch. It pulsates and it is ever changing with the temperature as it naturally adapts to the environment. The fragrance of wood entices our sense of smell and its grains unfold fascinating variety of spirals and color that captivate our eyes. Just as violin vibrates in the hands of its master, wood vibrates and transforms us with renewed energy.
Timber/wood is not only stimulating to our senses but it is strong and durable. A timber frame swing can be integrated into other outdoor living structures such as an arbor or pergola to expand for more usable living areas as well. Timber has the stability of steel and the environmentally aesthetically pleasing appeal of blending into nature with the beauty of wood.
Gravity is an essential part of our world and with the right kind of motion and swinging stimulation it can add brain development and a sense of balance becoming more aware of one's self in space.
The right swing can provide years of relaxation and refocusing to any backyard. The warmth and beauty of wood naturally stimulates our senses for a more calming and youthful atmosphere. A porch or glide swing can be a nice quiet place to relax with that someone special in your life in your own backyard getaway retreat.
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