Forest Bathing will change the way you connect with nature
Snippets on the research
Nature spirituality and religious experience (April 2024)
Talking forest therapy on science podcast (February 2023)
Collated evidence for nature connectedness (January 2023)
Global warming and biodiversity loss in stripes (December 2022)
2022 meta-analysis: Improving Nature Connectedness in Adults (October 2022)
Do we really have “environmental problems”? (July 2022)
Thoughts on nature & being
Visiting old friends & country (December 2022)
Practicing nature relationship (October 2022)
Weeding as a great antidote to perfectionism (August 2022)
Reciprocity (July 2022)
Nature spirituality and religious experience
April 2024
Here are two interesting things I’ve read rcently, which touch on the overlaps and depths of ecospirituality, or nature reverence, or belonging and care for country. I find them very relevant personally and to the practice of relational forest therapy.
From Esoctericicm to Embodied Ritual: Care for Country as Religious Experieince by Yin Paradies & Cullan Woods Joyce (journal article in Religions)
This article is about “erroneous characterisations of Aboriginal ritual practices” by post-Enlightenment Eurocentric observers and how in Aboriginal worldviews, the ‘everyday’ (such as preparing food, looking after children) is sacred because it is all “melded and moulded to, with, and via Country”.
They discuss how modern Western worldviews (even well-intentioned, well-traveled anthropologists) have put a distinction between common people and priests or other ritual holders, and what is mundane and spiritual, when trying to describe Aboriginal ways of being. I think it echoes the chasm in our culture that we live with now between humans and ‘nature’ and we’d probably do well to notice and question it wherever it comes up.
I found lots of chewy bits in there, so if you’re interested, go read it, it’s open access. But one more quote:
“Our paper is … a reflection on how spirituality looks once we stop over-prescribing layers of meaning onto spaces that are already sacred, intrinsically holy, meaningful, and replete with wonder; saying instead: behold, this is enough!”
A region born secular: Nature, spirituality, and secularity in the Pacific Northwest by Sarah Wilkins-LaFlamme (News article)
This shorter read has an interesting take on how and why a version of eco-spirituality, termed ‘reverent naturalism’ has arisen in the American Pacific Northwest, and includes how it can be both problematic and lifting up of Indigenous perspectives and teachings.
Citizen science brings wellbeing & nature connectedness
March 2023
Recent research results from the University of Derby show that nature-based citizen science can benefit the wellbeing and nature connectedness of participants and gather environmental data.
They also looked into how to make counting backyard birds more enjoyable.
Talking forest therapy on science podcast
February 2023
While I was down in Canberra /Ngunnawal country last year, I went on a friend’s Sunday morning radio show - here’s the podcast, and timing of key questions below.
2:20 - What is the crux of forest therapy?
14:20 - How does a session begin?
24:30 - What research is behind forest therapy?
33:40 - Will forest therapy change feelings and attitudes around climate change?
37:40 - What feedback have you had from those who've done forest therapy with you?
41:50 - Taster of forest therapy presencing
Collated evidence for nature connectedness
January 2023
You might have heard me harp on about the difference between spending time in nature and having a relationship with nature.
It’s the relationship, or ‘connectedness’ that is the fruit I want to help grow in all of us (myself included). This is because while spending time in nature is good for humans, it doesn’t necessarily translate to being good for nature.
But when humans have a strong psychological or even spiritual connection with nature, it affects how they live in a way that is better for all of the Earth and her future generations. Everyday we make choices about how we use, move, eat and interact, and if the wellbeing of the Earth is in mind, we’ll make more sustainable choices, and be happier about them too.
There’s been a growing realm of research into this, but it’s been a bit hard to bring together because it’s being done by researchers (and published in the journals of) very different disciplines: medicine, psychology, conservation and design.
So, hooray for a research collaboration between colleagues in France, the UK and USA for bringing us Psychological and physical connections with nature improve both human well-being and nature conservation: A systematic review of meta-analyses this month in the journal Biological Conservation (where the above diagram is from)! They went through 832 independent studies across all these fields to pull them together and add more voices to this call.
You can read the original article in the link above, or a more readible summary from researcher Prof Miles Richardson on his Finding Nature blog: Nature Contact is not Connection.
Visiting old friends & country
December 2022
This is me visiting Mt Ainslie’s forest and grasslands (Ngunnawal/ Canberra) in November. They were so incredibly more lush than when I spent 6 months hanging about there in 2020, studying for my certificate in forest therapy guiding. I caught up with some favourite trees and saw the huge difference between that fiery year and the recent flooding rains.
I took a few weeks to travel across the country to visit friends in Newcastle, Canberra, Melbourne/Naarm and country Victoria and (as a last minute surprise!) be a celebrant stand-in at my friends’ wedding in Adelaide.
It was a joy to catch up with old friends, human and non-human; and to take the time to travel slowly across our lands with long-distance trains and buses.
Global warming and biodiversity loss in stripes
December 2022
In the image on the right (LPI 2022. Living Planet Index database. 2022 www.livingplanetindex.org): You probably recognise the top layer of blue-to-red stripes indicating average temperatures over the last 50 years. The second layer is a new one to show the alarming loss of biodiversity too. Biodiversity is just as important and life-threatening, though it receives a lot less media coverage. You can read more about it here: https://biodiversitystripes.info/
Just some of the reasons biodiversity is key to human health (and of course to the planet): diverse ecosystems ensure we have food and safe drinking water security, protection from infectious diseases, medicinal plants and a healthier mental outlook. You can read a short fact sheet on biodiversity and human health from the World Health Organisation, and follow the links there for the full 2015 report: Connecting global priorities: biodiversity and human health: a state of knowledge review.
It is essential we care for the Earth, and bring others with us in our love and respect for the planet and all life. Remember that the forests and future descendants are with you. Here’s to you for your courage in standing up for the Earth and having difficult conversations this festive season!
2022 meta-analysis: Improving Nature Connectedness in Adults
October 2022
“With clear links between an individual’s nature connectedness, their psychological wellbeing, and engagement in nature-friendly behaviours, improving nature connectedness can help unite human and planetary wellbeing.”
The latest meta-analysis (a study, comparison and summary) of all the relevant research on a topic) into nature connection finds we’re on the right track, and we need more of it.
It’s not a big surprise for me, but it’s great to have the research back us up. You can read the research team’s blog about their analysis in short and sweet language, or check out the original article in Sustainability journal.
Practicing nature relationship
October 2022
Do you consider your relationship with nature to be a practice? My mum especially hates the use of the word ‘practice’. She thinks it sounds a bit stuck up or self absorbed, and perhaps the kind of people who tell you that they have ‘a practice’ can be. But it’s just a word describing something you do regularly, perhaps something that takes a lot to master, or that may never be master-able. Just something to practice. Like guitar, or yoga, or cooking dinner for 3 hungry kids, or playing fetch. A regular habit, a way of living or being, a lifestyle, something you want to be doing more of, a part of your identity?
I recently chatted with another guide who makes sure that she talks about forest therapy as a ‘practice’ rather than an experience. Amanda guides urban nature therapy walks in Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
To increase our opportunities for deepening nature connection practice in community, I’m working on two things. The first is an application to the council’s Healthy Sunshine Coast program - a weekly Finding Presence in Nature hour.
I’m also working on an outside community circle: a regular date, a time and a place, a chance to honour the land and some fresh herbal tea. A little bit of ritual to bring us together, and then some time to chat, or not, or try a simple invitation. let me know if you’re interested with a email :)
Weeding as a great antidote to perfectionism
August 2022
As I was pulling out a thicket of fishbone fern from my garden, (here's the weed report by Brisbane city council) I was struck with the idea that the practice of weeding is a great antidote to perfectionism.
Most would agree, weeding is a never-ending task. Highly successful plants have numerous clever adaptations that allow them to reproduce quickly and or evade the garden- or bushland-weeder.
I also find that weeding is a bit of a worrisome concept. Who am I to decide what should and shouldn't grow here? To make decisions of life and death because of what I want to see grow. What does 'native' truly mean? Is it a colonial idea to be 'weeding' out what doesn't suit me? Am I, of white settler heritage, a weed? The ruminations spiral until I remember to notice the beauty of the earth, the sounds of the birds, the dogs, the traffic going past again. At some point, I need to draw a line, and I have decided that I will make some decisions about this patch of Earth where I live that suit me for the next few years. Ok. So I'll remove these weeds.
But can you ever really remove all the weeds in one go? The clever, plucky little buggers will do their best to come back. The best I can do is make a good go of it today, and know that I will need to come back another day. Perfectionism cannot withstand weeds.
A while back I found this great free resource - a workbook called 'Perfectionism in Perspective' from the WA government's Centre for Clinical Interventions.
"Perfectionism involves putting pressure on ourselves to meet high standards which then powerfully influences the way we think about ourselves. ... parts of perfectionism are helpful, and parts are unhelpful. "
They have these nifty free downloadable workbooks for a whole list of common mental health struggles. It's a really good read, a gentle course in self-evaluation and reminder for self-compassion. Just like the weeds.
Do we really have “environmental problems”?
July 2022
I've returned recently to a book I read a few years back which put me on the path to nature therapy: The Psychology of Environmental Problems. It's a few years old now, but the thesis is more relevant than ever - we don't have environmental problems, we have problematic (unsustainable) human behaviours and attitudes.
There is much to unpack here and I'm not a psychologist. Conveniently, there is a bunch of free resources about psychology of sustainability on a simple website, there to enable more people to learn and teach it - teachgreenpsych.com
In a short textbook chapter which you can read here, the website authors Britain Scott and Sue Kroger explain: "We burn fossil fuels that pollute the air and change the climate, dump wastes into water and soil, overconsume resources, and invade the habitats of other species. Because the real problem is destructive human behaviours - and underlying thoughts, attitudes, feelings, values and decisions - psychologists are increasingly applying their expertise to these issues ... to the achievement of a sustainable world."
They go on to briefly touch on insights from social psychology, theories of personality, behavioural, cognitive, developmental, health and clinical psychology. And being psychologists, they recognise that reading about this might cause some reactions in readers. Notice any yourself?
Reciprocity
July 2022
Reciprocity ~ a social norm of responding to a positive action with another positive action
How does one give back to a tree or a park? Inspired by traditional and indigenous ways of being, I have taken up a mental habit of introducing myself and stating my intention when I move into a new place. Hello park, it's Jay here, from Buderim. I was here last week. I've come to visit you and do some thinking.
It was weird at first, but becomes more and more natural, as habits do. I now sometimes find myself immersed and caught up in the 'doing' half an hour after arriving and I feel embarrassed. I am caught being unpolite, having just barged into the home of others.
Today I was reminded again of how my intention is often for my own, or other humans' gain - to do some thinking, to get some groceries, to learn something, to contribute to a project, to see friends. How can I change this to be intentionally reciprocal with the more-than-human beings, or the land?
These hundred year old trees don't need me to water them, they appear to have everything they need in the rain, sunlight, earth, birds and insects. Perhaps I offer them some thin extra layer of protection, by keeping an eye on them, calling the council when I have concerns, making sure they know that I know that they are responsible for their safety and longevity. And then a remembered thought came along - I am here. In being here, I am demonstrating to everyone who passes that the trees are loved and visited. Valued. That someone can spend a whole afternoon between the buttressing roots, under showers of fig detritus dropped by the birds, eyed off by the brush turkeys. It is a start, and that will do for now.
Gratitude to nature
June 2022
Are you grateful to 'nature'? Do you demonstrate or celebrate it in some way, like a festival, an offering, a prayer, a song, or a silly dance? Are you just grateful in general, or do you notice specific moments of gratitude? Does this gratitude affect how one interprets and behaves to the environment?
Kim-Pong Tam from the Hong Kong University for Science and Technology is an environmental psychologist who's begun researching gratitude to nature (he also wrote an interesting paper ‘Saving Mr Nature’ about anthropomorphising nature a few years back). Surprisingly, there hasn't been much research on it, although most people have an opinion already.
Some suggest that it's an overly human way of being and could be somewhat extractive, so not helpful to conservation efforts. This article discusses the nuance around this, and points to the idea that motivation towards environmental protection is 'neither anthropocentric nor ecocentric, it is relational' (yes, that’s what I offer relational nature therapy). The benefits of experiencing and creating reciprocity, and the encouragement of gratitude, a positive emotion may be another important and sticky way of communicating and educating about the environmental crisis.
Handbook of nature connection
June 2022
I’ve mentioned this group before, the University of Derby nature connectedness research group. They have elicited a set of pathways to nature connection, offer a free online course on nature connectedness and now have extended this work into a nature connection handbook for professionals and providers. I hope you can use it.
Your brain in nature
May 2022
Many people are not quite coping with daily life, and there’s much talk of a mental health crisis. A pandemic, a collapsing climate, increasing instability and rising costs of living all contribute, and then there’s the ridiculous speed at which many are trying to live, to keep up with … well, to keep up?
Alongside all this are the personal struggles of relationships, death AND some people work and or volunteer in high-stress environments. As an SES volunteer I was given access to a mindfulness course ‘Mindarma’, which I found to be almost cringe-fully relevant and have decent, down-to-earth good advice.
They also ran a recent ’Your brain in nature’ webinar, partnering with Black Dog Institute for participants which you can access here. The panel hosted with psychology Professor Navjot Bhullar, nature-based therapist Kit Kline and John McGarvey, a senior firefighter and peer support officer from NSW Fire & Rescue. It’s broad-ranging and could have spent more time on half a dozen of the topics mentioned, but it’s nice to see the links being made.
Nature is good for our mental health. Or perhaps, being in captivity isn’t?
What seasonal patterns are surrounding you?
April 2022
I have been noticing the clearer skies and that the recent full moon has been coming through loud and clear these past few nights. The top knot pigeons have come back to flying over Buderim in big family flocks, the bees are loving my neighbours’ salvias, and my first pumpkin and passionfruit harvests have been absolutely delicious.
How often have you been told that there are four seasons to each year, and that they each last exactly three months long?
Is this true for you and the place you live in?
I invite you to wander out and notice the patterns of where you are. Who is in bloom, in fruit, in repose; who is singing, busy, coming or going?
Guided or not?
February 2022
Is it necessary to have a guide for forest therapy?
Nope. But when I think about this question, I consider the differences between stretching on my bedroom floor to joining a yoga class, sketching my fruit bowl to signing up for an term of art workshops and cooking dinner at home to dining at a restaurant. It's different, probably in the social and emotional rather than physical ways. I would like to do a bit of both, based on how I feel, and frankly, how much I can afford. I don't see it as a competition between DIY vs guided, nor is either always reliably 'better'.
I love the social connection, the shared insights, the security and the humour of joining a group. In a practical way, it also makes me stick to the plan of heading outside. If you'd like to try it, sign up for a walk!
STEM can stem from stems
November 2021
Playing in the dirt, with sticks, imaginations and non-human beings. It's good for us socially, developmentally, health-wise, and by 'us', I think I mean all Earth beings. This article by Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles and colleagues on The Conversation describes some new research into how nature play is STEM education: Children learn science in nature play long before they get to school classrooms and labs.
It relates to me how I've come to nature connection: along a rationalist, scientist, educator, science communicator path, to discover something that was there all along, but I needed the 'proof'. From my days facilitating Scitech Outreach Early Childhood Education program, not to mention teaching in a state school, I know the paradox of how hard it is to take kids outside. There are forms, risk assessments, paperwork, 'falling behind on classwork', handwashing, discomfort and complaints. Which is why (no joke), we provided a human-made 'insectarium' with plastic insects to observe …
Language and 1% efforts
November 2021
How often can you tell if a bird is a 'he' or a 'she'? Or maybe they go by they/them pronouns? Does using ‘it’ sometimes seem unkind? And what about trees? Robin Kimmerer proposed a new pronoun for the English language in her Orion Magazine article 'Speaking of Nature'.
It's well written, and you should read it in full rather than any pithy summary I can do. I will think on it myself, and combine it with something Jack Latimore wrote in the Age about the respectful ways to talk about Blackfellas:
"it’s weird that everybody accepts and celebrates the sporting parlance:
“It’s the little, 1 per cent efforts that make a real champion”, but are quick to dismiss the same logic when it applies to communication."
So, in what some would call 'wokeness' and I would call 'trying to be respectful as you learn more about others' experiences', I'll practice using more pronouns, and capital letters.
Colours of nature
November 2021
A few years back I used a really old half cask of red wine to dye some pyjama pants and I was surprised at how well it worked. I've been meaning to try dying clothes with plants for a while, and on my list was eucalyptus leaves, warrigal greens and red onion skins. A month or so ago I found artist Sally Blake's website where she systematically shows variations in eucalyptus leaf dyes gives simple instructions. She's also recently been featured on ABC's Gardening Australia (around the 40 minute mark).
I had a go, and my fingernails looked pretty grotty for a week, but it works! The ironbark gum tree at our bus stop sheds beautiful soft green and sometimes red leaves, the bark is a dark grey with red in the centre, and the dye from the leaves (using some rusty iron as a 'mordant') made my white t-shirts shades of purpley-grey mushroom. The placemat setting under the teapot on the left is from one of these.
I wonder if you can find a few minutes today to step outside and use your full-focus eyesight. What colours is nature going to show you today?
‘The land has grown us up’
October 2021
I recently heard Dr Mary Graham talk about the relational ethos of indigenous cultures and the Earth's need for all of us to adopt this worldview and act accordingly. In Mary Graham's words, "the land created us, and it has grown us up". To understand fully the circle of life: that we come from and return to the land.
To keep these circles at the forefront of our minds at all times can encourage us to give back, to play a part in the reciprocal nature of 'nature'. And it does not need us to adopt anyone else's spiritual beliefs or conflict with our own: you eat plants and maybe animals and fungi, and they grow out of sunlight, water, air and the earth. When you die, your body (whether buried or cremated) will return to the earth, and become Earth again. Mary suggests that we can allow this understanding to help us form a sacrilised ecological stewarding responsibility.
This is the kind of thinking I would like to see shape us all. Again. I heard Dr Graham speak at the Regen Brisbane conference earlier in the year, and look forward to hearing more from her at the upcoming New Economy Network Australia's annual conference in Brisbane next month. I'm excited and nervous to be able to offer guided nature therapy walks to the participants.
Dr Mary Graham is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland and has lectured in Aboriginal history, politics and comparative philosophy. She is president of Murri Mura Corporation and Indigenous Directions and Development, and a Kombumerri woman. She is also part of the Black Card team, offering cultural education workshops, tours, training and consultancy online and in South East Queensland.
Relational nature therapy
September 2021
Nature therapy or forest bathing is often touted as an excellent modality for maintaining individual human health and wellbeing, and it is. But it is the capacity of the practice for recognising and deepening a relational ethos which I find the most powerful.
A booklet titled 'The ANFT Way of Forest Therapy' (pdf) discusses various styles of nature therapy and forest bathing, their lineages and how they differ. It was written originally for ANFT-trained guides to help them communicate about their work to governments and organisations. In it, Ben Page describes three problems that nature therapy seeks to address:
the degradation of human health (including rise in chronic diseases, addictions and mental health challenges),
the degradation of global ecology or decline in the health of our environments at human hands,
and the degradation of cultural values: 'the most pressing problems in our society ... [are] in some way connected to the prevalence of apathy, greed and selfishness in our culture.'
The training I have received acknowledges the work of nature therapy on all three problems, but focuses on the third. How do we as a society restore healthy relationships between humans themselves and between humans and the other-than-human world? To learn to think, see and perceive the world differently? The sequence we guide participants through has been carefully considered to engender an awareness and perhaps a transformation of our relationships with nature, with others, with ourselves and the present moment.
He describes the interplay between the three areas: 'If our health is the gift we may receive from Nature, and ecological renewal is our reciprocation [through planting, tending and reversing human impacts], then we might consider our relationship as an act of devotion that ensures we may never forget our interconnectedness again. ... To feel alive, fall in love, and take good care of the world in such a way that it benefits all beings.'
‘The Great Outdoors’ was made for white people
September 2021
Outside is free, but getting to a national park, living in a green leafy suburb or going camping can be costly, require resources, be time-intensive or unsafe and out of reach for many. Is it hard for you to access ‘the great outdoors’? I’m really conscious of the inequitable (and usually fossil fuel-based) access to thick green spaces. I’m focusing on how I can offer walks in areas accessible by public transport, at different times of the week, and being conscious about how I get there myself and the privileges it entails. If this is a new idea to you, have a read of this article by Marya T. Mtschali in The Nation. They’re based in the USA, but it’s the same here, and possibly worse, because we have a smaller population, so less public transportation and facilities.
Children with nature
September 2021
This snapshot of the benefits of children’s time spent in and connection with nature from the Children & Nature Network was popular on my Held Outside facebook page.
It’s a good dense summary of a bundle of recent peer-reviewed literature on the effect of nature on children. Better social skills, self-esteem, health, pro-environmental behaviours, improved grades, stronger relationships, all from interactions with the non-human world.
You can download the full poster (with references to research on their website.
Anticipatory & disenfranchised climate grief
August 2021
It’s a relief to me that I’m starting to see more mentions of and resources for climate or world grief and anxiety. And while I find our future frightening, what I find most alarming is that in most ‘normal’ circles, it has not yet hit home.
I recently attended a training course to facilitate Grief & Loss support group courses for the bereaved and for those who care for someone with dementia. The materials identified disenfranchised grief in the context of a loved one who has dementia as “a grief experienced that is not recognised, or under-recognised by self or others. People may say things like, “lucky you have a husband”; “they look pretty good to me - I don’t see the problem”. They described anticipatory grief as “a complex, multi-dimensional and unconscious process of an emotional response to the threat of losing a loved one.”
I have felt these for a very ill friend, and I have felt these for the wider human and more-than-human world as it too shows signs of great illness. I was compelled to share to this small group of compassionate, grief-ready would-be facilitators that this world-related grief is on the rise. Some of them, I think, were willing or ready to consider the idea. Some were not ready to hear it.
I re-posted this article recently on facebook: Australians are 3 times more worried about climate change than COVID. A mental health crisis is looming (by Rhonda Garad, Joannne Enticott & Rebecca Patrick via The Conversation, also posted on Women’s Agenda and ABC news). What compounded my own eco-anxiety and grief was the act of voicing my concerns to multiple psychologists who didn’t (want to) understand, leaving me in an even scarier place.
While I still feel it, I’ve found people, resources and spaces where I am not alone in feeling it and to grow some courage to not look away. Nature therapy is one of these spaces. I’ll start to build a list of resources (related modalities) on this site for those looking for them, because I have personally found them very useful. Please let me know if you have recommendations, and get in touch if you’d like to share your thoughts.
Getting to know a street tree
July 2021
The Greater Good Magazine is really a website, and they publish easy-reading, useful applications of psychology and behavioural science research for everyday people. In this episode of their The Science of Happiness podcast, they focus in on street trees.
The first 15 minute chapter is an interview with Casper ter Kuile (wrote a book, The Power of Ritual) who tried spending time with his street tree and discusses developing his own little ritual. Then in chapter two (10 mins), Melissa Marselle from The University of Surrey describes her research into street trees and frequency of anti-depressant prescriptions.
Seeing a new McMansion being built to take up every inch of space on a block of land hurts my heart, but it feels even worse when it’s an estate full of brick, tile, cement and bitumen, rammed up against high fences in a cheaper area, without a bush between them. Building regulations must urgently become human-friendly.
Noting nature noticings
July 2021
I’ve heard, you’ve probably heard, that keeping a gratitude journal is good for mental wellbeing. Still, I don’t do it every day, do you?
What about noting the good things you see in everyday nature? Researchers at the University of Sheffield made an app to prompt people to do list those things each day for a week, and it improved particpants' wellbeing. They also wrote about how things they saw made them feel.
A journal or a sticky note, a calendar entry or an app, or perhaps pointing at it with a finger, or messaging a friend, there's something to learn here. The article A Smartphone App for Improving Mental Health through Connecting with Urban Nature was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The researchers are actually in the landscape architecture department, so they also discuss ways it can inform design of urban spaces and programs in The good things in urban nature: A thematic framework for optimising urban planning for nature connectedness in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.
Treasuring the moment of being fluttered by
July 2021
Remember that marvel that is when the very hungry caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly? Imagine the feeling you'll get when you next see a butterfly flutter by.
Even more so, after reading about the danger they're in and the incredible partnerships with ants still being discovered in this The Conversation article by seven butterfly scientists.
Nature prescriptions
June 2021
Have you heard about nature prescriptions? To make it seem like 'real' treatment, that doctors and their patients will take seriously, some doctors who are also guides created ParkRx. It is a website that facilitates doctors to write official prescriptions for their patients to spend time in nature.
Indoor plants
June 2021
Why apartment dwellers need indoor plants, bacteria, mental health, Shinrin Yoku and a few pot plant recommendations. This article by Danica-Lea Larcombe and Pierre Horwitz (both Edith Cowan University) on The Conversation a few years ago is a great reminder to water our green friends and spend some time with them.
How do you feel after tending to plants? Whether they’re inside or out. Sometimes folks over-water their indoor plants, because there’s a need to want to give something to them regularly, and they can only take so much water! I wonder if you can take some time today to visit your indoor plants, see how they’re going and tend to them? Physically if they need it, by way of a dust, a drink or a shuffle or emotionally by really noticing them, saying hello, seeing what things look like from their point of view.
Even virtual nature therapy can help
June 2021
After becoming aware of the ideas of nature therapy and deep ecology a few years back, I seem to read and hear about it wherever I look. This short talk on ABC podcast Ockham’s Razor includes mention of the mental health benefits of time spent in nature, research into the positive impact of using virtual reality of nature to get those effects for those who can't go outside, defining nature connection, eco-anxiety and the impact of the 2019/20 bushfires.
On one hand, it’s kind of sad that our society and culture (me included) have forgotten this wisdom, won’t listen to those who have held it (such as indigenous people) and require Science and Research to take it seriously. But, if that’s what it takes, it’s great to hear that there are pockets of researchers, even here in Australia, getting the funding and looking into this too.
The podcast is a speech from Dr Navjot Bhullar from the University of New England.
Pathways to nature connection
May 2021
This is a postcard summary of ways to deepen your nature connection by the University of Derby (UK) that I found on Prof. Miles Richardson’s blog, Finding Nature. They’ve been looking into the positive outcomes of nature on human health and finding that time-spent-in-nature doesn’t correlate as well as relationship-with-nature to reap those benefits.
So, perhaps being good friends with a particular tree can be more beneficial than seeing trees daily. Either way it’s not hard to visit nature regularly and make friends with other-than-human beings, we just need to make the time to go and do it.
Hello!
May 2021
Hi friends, after completing training last year, I'm coming out this month as a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and this is my website and Facebook page to share upcoming guided nature therapy walks as well as ideas to help you connect more often with nature, wherever you are in the world.
I'm not fully operational yet, but am planting the seeds to grow my confidence and explore how I can offer regular walks. Whether I like it or not, the internet and social media has become the fungal mycelium of forests to our society and word-of-mouth advertising, so many thanks for the 'likes'.
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Feel held, outside.
© 2021 Held Outside
Buderim, Qld.
I acknowledge that this area of the Sunshine Coast (Australia) is the unceded lands of the Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi people and that a sentence on a website is not enough. I do my best to respect country and the elders and teachers past, present and emerging through how I live, speak and work.
May we all tread gently.
