The other day I heard someone say how boredom can become a real issue when struggling with mental health issues, and how being interested by nature and seeking out new species can be a help. It made absolute sense I thought. If mental health issues oblige you to take time out, to step back fromContinue reading “Well Spring”
Tag Archives: nature connection
Concrete Cows
A few years ago I heard about Providence Youth Club in Battersea, London, welcoming a group of farm animals from The Shallowford Trust’s Dartmoor farm to a local city carpark for a week. Londoners could come to see the calves, lambs and pigs in the straw in pens just across the street from shops andContinue reading “Concrete Cows”
Art Meets Nature
Have you heard of the Singing, Ringing Tree? It is an outdoor sculpture on the Wayside Art Trail, on moorland high over Burnley in Lancashire. Hearing about it recently for the first time, the Tree really captured my imagination. What a unique way to draw together art, nature and music in one structure. The steelContinue reading “Art Meets Nature”
The Garden Shed
People like to joke about men retreating to the shed to escape a nagging wife or household chores. But there’s a positive side to this too. A shed can become a refuge, a haven, a space away – to enjoy solitude or gardening or woodwork maybe. It’s an outdoor shelter. And it’s spawned an entireContinue reading “The Garden Shed”
Music Of The Night
Do music and nature seem worlds apart to you? As I think more about how art, music and nature can all draw together to enhance wellbeing, I’ve seen how music and nature in particular can be interwoven on different levels. Song titles might reference nature: think Nat King Cole’s Ramblin’ Rose or I Talk ToContinue reading “Music Of The Night”
Opening Up Nature
The other day I came across a magazine feature about beetle research, inviting citizen scientists to record the beetles they see. Insect sightings and citizen science might seem unlikely themes for a wellbeing blog. But it struck me that taking part in research like this is another, different way of connecting with nature, with allContinue reading “Opening Up Nature”
Free To Connect
By opening people’s eyes to nature and the great outdoors, lockdown’s new perspective throws up questions about how and why people respond to nature so strongly and why it can have such a positive impact on our mental health. So it is no wonder that the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (10-16Continue reading “Free To Connect”
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