Say hello to nature
This article was contributed by Jane from The Hello Nature Project.
Want to boost your health, happiness, creativity, feel less stressed, lower your blood pressure and play?
Then go outside for a dose of nature!
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about nature’s healing power: “In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man…”
And that delight, that awe and excitement – it’s so good for us.
Even just looking at an image of nature on your phone has benefits – it can boost your focus, it can improve your performance and it can really simply make you feel good.
We spend less and less time outside and more and more time inside – 90% of our time is spent indoors and an office worker spends around 5 years of their life sitting at a desk. 5 years!
Research has found that spending time in nature can help protect us against a whole range of diseases including depression, diabetes, obesity, ADHD, cardiovascular disease, cancer plus many more. Not only can nature help boost our immune system, but gazing at a garden can help speed healing from surgery, infections and other ailments.
Connecting to nature can even make us better people – more empathetic and with more meaningful relationships and stronger community ties.
Connect to nature
- Get in your garden – now is a great time to plant basil, beans, rhubarb and tomatoes!
- Take your lunch outside to your local park or patch of sunshine
- Cloud gaze – look up!
- Sshhhhh…listen out for the birds
- Get up close and smell the flowers – literally
The Hello Nature Project wants to help remind you that you don’t have to travel outside of the city to find nature, it’s all around us, right here.
You don’t have to go outside of the city to find nature – it’s the plants and wildlife in your garden, it’s the trees in your street, it’s the succulents growing on your windowsill and it’s looking up when you go outside.
Sign up to receive daily emails throughout November with a fun, simple activity to help you connect to nature. The activities will include cloud gazing, freeing your feet and standing on the grass, listening out for birds and insects and taking your lunch outside.
It’s these daily connections to nature that can change a person – boosting your health, happiness and creativity and helping you become more connected to your community.
