How Nature Can Support Your Mental Health

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is #ConnectWithNature, spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing.

We all have different experiences of nature, and different reasons for wanting to connect with it more, or feeling unsure about whether to try. Someone might find they get something completely different from one activity compared to someone else.

We've outlined 5 activities in nature for you to try during Mental health Awareness Week. 

1. Discover a new walk

From the Malham Tarn Estate in the Yorkshire Dales to the Coombe Hill and Chequers trail in the pretty village of Ellesborough, the UK is brimming with fantastic walks no matter where you live. Walking helps improve mental and physical wellbeing, tackle depression and anxiety, and connect us with our world and those around us. 

2. Forage for fruits and flowers

May is the ideal time to get yourself out into nature and gather, learn, explore and experiment with foraging. Chickweed, Hawthorn, Lime, Sorrell, and Mallow are all on nature's menu in May and the act of foraging is a brilliant way to connect with nature but also to focus your mind on both searching for, and identifying those edible plants.

Remember to harvest responsibly and only take what you are confident you can identify. Being self-reliant and self-sufficient creates feelings of achievement and attainment within us and fosters the seeds for self-confidence to grow.

3. Nature spotting

Get outdoors this month, it's a joy! Wildlife begins to emerge and explore the warmer weather. Across Britain, hedgerows are white with cow parsley, and in damp woods carpets of wild garlic and wood sorrel cover the ground. In the west of Britain, sea trout are making their way upstream to breed, in the air, keep an eye out for Look out for the big, noisy, and harmless cockchafer beetles as they blunder about on warm evenings. If birds are your thing you'll find nightingales singing in woods to the South and garden warblers and blackcaps in scrub and woodland, you'll also find Swifts darting about the city streets.

4. Give back and look after the environment

Why not take yourself and a group of friends or family on a litter-picking walk to clear up a bridle path or hedgerow nearby. Even closer to home, you can do your bit to help out garden birds and bumblebees by planting helpful seeds, such as berry bushes or flowers or even building a hedgehog house to support your spiky little garden dwellers. Spending just a little time in the natural safety of your garden can lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels.

5. Build a bird feeder

Whilst caring for your local wildlife it's far easier to connect with nature, hang a bird feeder outside a window or, if there's space, you could build a small wooden nesting box on a tree or under a windowsill and keep watch on the chicks as they grow. Watching birds encourages us to live in the present moment and gives us perspective. 

Nature is a simple, free and beautiful antidote to anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem, you can begin your journey toward improving your own mental health right now by appreciating, exploring, and assisting all the wonders of nature that surround you.