Image credit: Evie and Tom photography
Five ways to wild wellbeing
Nature helps us feel healthier and happier!
Daily contact with nature is linked with better health, less stress and improved concentration, whether it’s stretching your legs in your local park, listening to birds in your garden, or visiting a nature reserve.
Explore our five ways to wild wellbeing
These practical ideas and inspiration will help you be more active, take notice, connect, learn and give.
Be active outdoors
Being active outdoors is a great way to keep both body and mind fit and healthy. You don’t need to run a marathon or hike up a mountain to feel the benefits!
Exercising outdoors has been shown to have a greater impact on our mental and physical wellbeing than exercising indoors... and it's free!
Going for a stroll in the park, taking a ramble around a nature reserve, gardening or conservation volunteering, are all great ways to keep your body active and let your mind unwind.
Ideas for activities
If you have one hour, you could...
- Join a friend for a sociable jog around your local green space
- Walk to work or school, finding a route away from busy roads
- Play in the park after school with the kids
- See if your local park has outdoor yoga or tai-chi classes
If you have half a day, you could...
- Join a health walking group
- Take a bracing cliff walk along the Cleveland Way
- Visit a Tees Valley Wildlife Trust nature reserve
- Discover your locality by cycling
- Fly a kite on the beach with your family
If you have more time...
- Create a vegetable and herb garden and grow your own food
- Become a volunteer for a community garden, park or nature reserve
- Join a local walking group and enjoy a different walk every week
Take notice
Taking notice means being present in the moment; observing what’s beautiful or unusual in the world. It’s being aware of our thoughts and feelings as they arise and savouring the moment- whether you’re being active, connecting with a friend, learning a new skill, or giving to others.
Photography, creating artwork or writing about an experience, are all great ways to help you observe nature. You don’t need to be an artist because it’s the act not the result that matters.
When we stop and take notice of what’s going on around us, we can better appreciate the things that we feel are important. Knowing what’s important to us make positive decisions to improve our wellbeing. This may be as simple as putting up a hanging basket with flowers for the bees, it’s all a step in the right direction.
Ideas for activities
If you have one hour, you could...
- Observe the changes of the seasons on your daily walk to work or school
- Take a photograph of a tree in your park each week and see how it changes through the year
- Look out into the sky each night and notice how the moon goes through its phases
- Read some nature poetry and have a go yourself
If you have half a day, you could...
- Visit a nature reserve with a pad and pencil and sketch some trees or wild flowers
- Use a magnifying lens to take a close up look at nature on a local walk, you will be amazed!
If you have more time...
- Develop your art skills by joining an art, poetry or photography group or class.
Connect with nature
Finding simple everyday ways to connect more deeply with the nature around us can really help us to feel more grounded and a part of something bigger.
Connecting with nature means putting aside some time to fully experience nature with all your senses. It can be as simple as pausing on your way to work to listen to birdsong, smell a flower, feel a warm breeze on your face or hear it in the trees. These simple daily experiences that can enrich our lives and help us to realise our part in caring for wildlife.
Sharing nature with family and friends is a great way to nurture these relationships by making the time to do something together.
Ideas for activities
If you have ten minutes, you could...
- Have your coffee break outside without your phone, be in the moment feeling the sun or wind on your face
- Stand in your garden, close your eyes – listen to the sounds of what’s going on outside. This is especially good at dawn and dusk
- Take a photograph of something in nature each day and share on social media with likeminded people
If you have an hour, you could...
- Spend time with a housebound friend or relative watching and talking about birds that visit their bird table
- Go beachcombing. Visit the seaside and search the shoreline for pebbles and shells that appeal to you
- Connect with nature through foraging. Keep it safe with nettle soup, elder flower cordial, blackberry smoothies
If you have more time, you could...
- Build a mud and sand pit in your garden for young children
- Get up early and experience nature, watch the sunrise and listen to the dawn chorus
Keep learning
You can experience the thrill of discovering something new about the wildlife that lives around us. The natural world- whether it’s a window box or a wildflower meadow – has so much to discover and offers many fascinating opportunities to learn.
Continued learning throughout our lives helps build self-esteem and confidence. It also encourages us to interact with other people and lead a more active life – both physically and mentally.
Ideas for activities
If you have one hour, you could...
- Download some apps on your phone to help you identify trees, flowers and birds whilst you're out and about
- Print out a wildlife spotter sheet for a family nature ramble
- Sit in your garden or doorstep on a clear night and learn to name the star constellations
If you have half a day, you could...
- Take part in a national nature survey such as the Big Garden Birdwatch or the Big Butterfly Count. These are opportunities to learn whilst contributing wildlife records to conservation scientists.
- Go rock pooling and learn more about the plants and animals that live between the tides
- Visit a bird hide on a nature reserve and learn to identify the different species you see
If you have more time...
- Learn a countryside craft such as willow weaving, wood turning or hurdle making
- Keep a nature journal and through the year keep records of the plants and animals that you see on your walks
- Join a local history group and discover how your locality has changed over the centuries
- Focus on a group of species as bumblebees, trees, butterflies or beetles and spend time learning about them
Give nature a helping hand
Giving back to nature is something we can all do, and it will make a big difference to your local area, the wildlife and the people who live there. This could be small acts of giving, like feeding garden birds, to larger ones such as volunteering to create wildlife habitats in your local community greenspace.
Our natural environment provides us with the air we breathe, the food we eat and the clothes we wear, as well as being a source of wonderful experiences. Hearing about the destruction of habitats, extinction of species and global warming is distressing, but you can turn your concern into something positive by taking action!
Acts of giving, compassion and kindness to people and wildlife can help improve your mental wellbeing. It creates positive feelings and a sense of purpose and self-worth, as well as helping you to connect with people and the natural world.
Ideas for activities
If you have one hour, you could...
- Build a hedgehog house
- Plant flowers for bees and butterflies in your garden
- Put up a nesting box for song birds
- Pick up litter on your daily walk
- Write to your MP about an environmental concern
- Become a member of Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and look forward to receiving your new membership pack!
If you have half a day, you could...
- Fight against single-use plastics. Join a community beach clean or litter pick
- Help plant trees at a community event
- Help survey wildlife
- Create a garden pond
If you have more time...
- Join a community group and volunteer your time
- Help care for wildlife reserves by volunteering with a charity
- Join with friends and neighbours to improve your local park or greenspace for wildlife