7 ways I improve my mental health through nature

Taking the time to connect with nature can be an effective way to refresh yourself and thereby make stress and anxiety easier to deal with.

Go for a walk or picnic in a local park or nature reserve

This is the most obvious choice on the list, but it is effective.

Spending a few minutes or hours per week — however much your schedule and energy allows, strolling through greenspace can help by physically removing you from your normal environment and thereby taking your mind out of a stressful situation.

Having regular exposure to sunlight and fresh air has also been shown to aid in reducing stress and anxiety, meaning that just by being in nature, you are aiding your ability to process negative emotional states in a way that will be healthy and beneficial to you.

Additionally, if you live in a major city, and are able to go and visit an area that’s more rural, you’ll be giving your body a much-needed break from the usual levels of pollution you would be exposed to.

Visit a botanical garden

Similar to visiting a park, but with less focus on exercise and more on learning, about plant species you are familiar with and some you might not have seen before.

Visiting botanical gardens can also be a great way to get inspiration, for a wide array of creative pursuits, whether you go alone or with a friend. Indeed, walking through nature with someone close to you is a great way to relieve stress and refresh your mind.

If you visit outside of the more popular visiting times, which will more than likely mean going during the winter times, when there’s a little less vibrancy in the plant life, it can still be a pleasant experience, since the gardens will be quieter, and therefore a more peaceful environment if that is what you are after.

Take a nature photography class or workshop

Using nature to inspire you creatively can be very refreshing, especially if you haven’t worked with those sorts of themes previously in any creative pursuits you have.

If you haven’t engaged in many creative pursuits recently, taking a class in nature photography or any artistic medium you prefer, can refresh your understanding of, or allow you to learn entirely new techniques. This in turn can help you gain a new understanding, and perspective of the kinds of plants, insects, and even animals that are native to your local area.

Additionally, if you are unable to go out as often as you’d like, many classes in photography and other creative mediums are available online, on websites like Udemy, meaning you can simply access the content without needing to attend live sessions.

Being on or near a natural body of water

Enjoying the stillness and quiet of being out on the water is an excellent way to wash away the tension and stress you’re carrying with you.

Of course, if this idea is not accessible to you, simply walking or sitting by any body of water — be it the sea, a lake, river, or canal, is perfectly fine too. Just as long as you can have the time and space to relax, breathe and listen to the sounds of the water and other surrounding wildlife.

If you want to feed ducks or other freshwater fowl that might be in the area, please remember that bread is not good for them, and it’s better to feed them things like peas, sweetcorn, and oats. Peas and sweetcorn you use to feed the birds can all be uncooked but please ensure you allow them to fully defrost first.

Plant a garden or grow your own indoor plants

However, much space you have available to you, even looking after a small pot of herbs can be a relaxing and rewarding process. Not only do indoor plants help to improve air quality and help to create a natural and inviting environment for your home, but they also provide a creative outlet by offering an opportunity to experiment with different colours and designs in your home.

Even if you live in a place that doesn’t get much natural light, there are plants that thrive in darker conditions and can help pull excess moisture out of the air in your living space, reducing your risk of respiratory issues.

Additionally, If you grow any sort of edible plant, being able to literally taste the fruits of your labour is a uniquely rewarding and refreshing experience.

Watch a nature documentary

If going outside isn’t a viable option for you right now, whether because of your schedule, energy levels, or any other factor, then simply relaxing indoors with a nature documentary is perfectly fine to do instead.

There are hundreds of documentaries, about every corner of the world and every type of habitat imaginable, made by a range of different presenters and production companies, so if you are willing to do some research, and dip your toes into the content that’s out there, you should be able to find the perfect type of documentary to relax, and inspire you. Whether you are the type of person to give a documentary your full attention, or simply have it as background noise while you are completing another task, documentaries can provide a pleasant level of enrichment.

Gather litter from your local greenspace

Gathering litter is an important part of keeping your local greenspaces safe — removing hazards from the habitats of local animals and bugs, providing more clean space for plants to grow, reducing the amount of material that might attract flies, and also making the area safer for other people who visit those areas.

So, not only are you getting exercise and fresh air, but you’re also giving back to nature and helping the planet is a way that lets you see your progress, as well as the longer-term effects of your efforts on local wildlife, if you do it often — especially if you go with a group of people.

If you are able to do this, please wear gloves and sturdy shoes, and have a suitable litter picker tool with you to avoid injury, and to reduce your exposure to potentially harmful substances.

If you would like to discuss these ideas further, or would like some additional guidance, consider getting in touch with me via my life coaching service — Psyche Coaching, on Fiverr.

If you like my content here, consider giving me a follow so I can keep making more.

Thank you for being here.

Related posts:

Your customers want rock-solid, bug-free software that does exactly what they expect it to do. Yet they can't always articulate their ideas clearly enough for you to turn them into code. You need Cucumber: a testing, communication, and requirements tool-all rolled into one. All the code in this book is updated for Cucumber 2.4,

Idea generation is at the heart of the design thinking process, I’m going to take you through the 10 most important idea generation techniques so you can start incorporating them into your design…

Have you ever discovered that your zipper is down and wondered how long you had been parading around in this condition and why no one informed you? How do you navigate these sensitive situations? I…