Nature for wellbeing
Mental Health Awareness week is pretty timely this year. How has lockdown affected your mental health? For me, lockdown has made it very clear how much I depend on regular access to nature for my wellbeing. As an outdoors professional I usually spend my days outdoors either in forests or on a farm and so it was quite a shift for me to suddenly become almost house-bound with two children full-time. We are incredibly lucky though - we, unlike millions of others, have a garden and if I’m not in the garden then I often find myself standing at a window gazing at it. It has really highlighted to me just how important access to nature is for positive mental health.
Why is nature important for mental health?
A wealth of studies have gone into the benefits of the natural world for our mental health and wellbeing - gardening and farming have been used widely as a form of ‘eco-therapy’ to support those with mental health difficulties for centuries. Nurturing a plant from seed and watching it flourish can be incredibly rewarding and can also provide us with a sense of purpose. There is also evidence that suggests that microbes in the soil (Mycobacterium vaccae) are a natural antidepressant, stimulating the production of serotonin in the brain and making us feel relaxed and happier.
It’s not just the physical act of being outdoors and getting your hands dirty though. Research has found natural views have a therapeutic effect on hospital patients - reducing stress levels and speeding up recovery times. The natural world is inherently beautiful (the psychology behind it I’ll save for another post) - whether or not you are immersing yourself in a beautiful landscape or gazing at it from a hospital bed, appreciating natural beauty can create intense positive emotions which can do incredible things for our mental health.
Interested to know more? A comprehensive list of 25 benefits that gardening can bring to mental and physical health from boosting mood, memory and self esteem can be found here.
Nature and children’s mental health
Time spent in natural environments has been shown to provide children with a whole host of cognitive, emotional and physical benefits such as increased ability to concentrate, improved academic performance, improved memory and attention, greater imagination and creativity, reduced stress and aggression levels and reduced risk of obesity.
Mental health problems affect 1 in 10 children and young people and despite the science showing clear links between access to nature and wellbeing, government research has shown that 1 in 9 children have not set foot in a natural environment or green space in the last 12 months.
It’s important to recognise the role schools have to play here as Forest School or Outdoor Learning might be the only time many children spend in a green space. It is frightening how many school children I encounter during my work that are visibly afraid of being out in the great outdoors and unable to bring themselves to sit on the ground should they get ‘dirty’. How have children been allowed to become so far removed from our natural habitat?
Encouraging children and families to overcome barriers and spend more time playing and exploring outdoors is crucial if we are to raise a generation of young people that not only have good mental health but that also have an appreciation and respect for the natural world.