According to the Mental Health Foundation, our relationship with nature is critical to supporting good mental health.
At the start of Mental Health Awareness week, Ranger Tony shares his advice about the benefits of wellbeing walks.
At the core of any wellbeing walk is mindfulness. It’s a technique that dates back more than 2,000 years with its roots embedded in ancient eastern and Buddhist philosophy. Above all, it’s extremely easy to practise.
Mindfulness simply requires us to connect fully to our surrounding and how we are feeling, without any form of judgement. Because we don’t doesn’t need any prior knowledge, mindfulness can be practised by anyone and can be a fantastic way of helping us manage our mental health by bringing us into the moment and allowing us to gain a fresh perspective on life.
During any wellbeing walk the most important aspect is using our senses to bring us into the present moment. Without that presence of mind, it is difficult to get out of any spiralling or worrying thoughts that can lead to critical self-judgement and stress.
Connecting with the senses is a vital part of the process of immersing oneself in nature.
It’s one of the 5 pathways recommended by the Mental Health Foundation report for better nature connectedness.
Without the senses we are left drifting in a sea of thoughts. The senses are the conduits that blend the outer world with the inner world and the inner with the outer – they harmonise. So, using or connecting with our senses is a vital tool in enhancing and promoting our mental health and wellbeing.
Through a series of simple exercises linked to our senses we can guide ourselves into the present and garner a greater feeling of our true nature. Using our senses fully, we can connect deeply with the natural world around us, appreciating the form of a tree, for example – the way its trunk emerges from the ground, the shape of its branches as they reach and search for the light and the form, colour and movement of its leaves – all incredibly beautiful and awe inspiring.
That experience of awe and wonder we feel when confronted with the majesty and beauty of nature is incredibly valuable and important, it can have a profound effect on our mental health, by allowing us to put our anxieties into perspective and to offer us a connection to our own inner peace.
Again, the smell of wildflowers can fill our nostrils with an immediacy that transcends the worries of the past and future and roots us in the now and, if you’ve never truly studied the geometry of flowers, take in the moment to revel and marvel at the precision and pattern of the laws of mathematics exhibiting themselves in physical and visual form. It is utterly breathtaking and remarkable!
The psychologist Dacher Keltner says that research reveals that experiencing awe can reduce stress, quiet our inner critic, and inspire us to act more altruistically toward the people around us. So, providing ourselves with moments of awe and wonder through activities such as a mindfulness wellbeing walk outdoors in nature can be an essential tool for improving our health and wellbeing.
Cock your ear and listen! There is always bird song in the air. Nature’s musicians and composers constantly writing and rewriting each song, singing to mark territory, attract a mate or just for the communal fun of it.
Our hearing is often the sense to bring us into the moment the quickest, some say it is the finest of the senses. So, listen very carefully to each note of a bird singing. Listen with as much gratitude as you can muster (the bird won’t charge for the song it offers) and allow each note to bring you closer and closer to the immeasurable and immanent moment.
Listen for the space around and between each sound, notice how each note rises from stillness before descending again to join the stillness that gave rise to it (like the lark ascending and descending) and you’ll soon notice that a wandering, chattering mind will fall quiet to appreciate the beauty of song and the calming effect of stillness. Try it, it’s impossible to be anywhere else!
A study commissioned by the National Trust found that listening to bird song, as part of a woodland soundscape, was 30% better at increasing feelings of relaxation than a voiced meditation app. The woodland sounds, of which birdsong was the favourite, reduced stress by a quarter and anxiety by a fifth. Additionally, research from the University of Surrey has suggested that actively listening to birdsong contributes to perceived stress recovery and attention restoration.
But remember, mindfulness is a skill and, like any skill, needs to be practiced. Give yourself time and avoid setting goals, they can lead to frustration. Simply take notice, connect and accept. Remember to be kind to yourself on any wellbeing walk. Practising mindfulness can sometimes highlight difficult feelings or emotions, so noticing how these emotions or feelings manifest in the mind or body, and accepting them without judgement, can often be the first step in letting them go.
Participating in a wellbeing walk means you have given yourself permission to take the time needed to connect to the environment around you and the world within you.
So let your senses be your guide. Not so easy when we live in a world lived at break-neck speed and so full of distraction and pressure. This is where the beauty and simplicity of a wellbeing walk comes into its own. Take time, take care, be aware.
