Head for the water
Hundreds of people experiencing poor mental health will be introduced to the natural beauty of wetlands under a “blue prescribing” scheme.
In London, this is.
There is increasing evidence of the benefits of nature for mental health and wellbeing. A recent pilot wetlands project showed that people diagnosed with anxiety or depression moved up a clinical mental health grade, from below average to average.
I swear by this. I’m not afflicted with anxiety or depression but I can testify that getting outside always elevates my mood. (Well…one exception – when the air is in the red zone.) A clear bright breezy day elevates it into the stratosphere, as does going to the Lake or the Sound or a distant viewpoint or the like.
Now a scheme will start this summer at the WWT London Wetland Centre in the UK with six-week wetlands courses co-designed by the WWT, the Mental Health Foundation and participants themselves. Activities could include birdwatching, pond dipping, nature walks and habitat protection work. Participants’ travel costs are to be funded and their progress assessed using standard medical questionnaires.
Very good plan.
Previous schemes involving activities such as wildlife volunteering noted clear improvements in mental health. YouGov polling for the Mental Health Foundation found that being near lakes, rivers and the sea – ahead of time spent in gardens, parks and the countryside – was rated the highest by people in terms of having a positive impact on their mental health.
Heh. What I just said – Lake or Sound. Seattle is really exceptional in having not one but two large bodies of water promoting our mental health.
I contend with both and wholeheartedly concur. Being out in the woods kind of wipes away everything that messes with my head. Something as simple as sitting under a flowering redbud on a hill to read Journey to the West does more for my mental state than anything pharmacological.
The woods, the meadows, the fields, the beaches, the parks, the gardens…all those do it for me. Even a city block particularly well endowed with trees and front gardens does it for me. These days I keep stopping to look down a block that has transformed into a green tunnel over the spring.
Wordsworth understood this. Wordsworth may have invented it, or rather the awareness of it.
My work has been promoting Mental Health week and has a list of places to visit. I certainly feel the beneficial effects of the natural world. Edinburgh is very well off in having hills, a river and a harbour, as well as plenty of parks. Also there are many leafy streets – plenty near me have pretty front gardens. Viewing the wild fowl on the Water of Leith always lifts my spirits- they are in their own world, feeding, scratching, mating. Also there’s a continuity about them – the swans, the mallards, the goosanders come around every year. I also have a tiny garden where I feed the birds – last summer I got enormous pleasure at seeing sparrows raising their young and hearing jackdaws chak chak chakking.
Sometimes it feels nice to get outside. If the weather is decent and reasonably bug-free, and I know where I’m going, it can be pleasant. A recent experience, getting slightly lost in a lovely park and having a big argument about the best way to find our way back, was not preferable to simply staying home. I enjoy nature through the window pretty well.
I will agree with the consensus here. As a wetland scientist, I find my mental health is at its best when I am tromping around in wetlands, dodging water moccasins, planting a restoration site, etc. Since being in Nebraska, where I am teaching indoors most of the time, my mental health, always precarious, has declined. Since my Ecology class was cancelled for lack of enrollment, it has deteriorated further. Since the pandemic, it has been in freefall.
I hope to be able to get out more this summer….with vaccination, masks, and social distancing, of course. But social distancing isn’t difficult. I rarely see anyone outdoors here.
Sackbut, yes, the mood-elevation thing depends heavily on climate for me. A climate that’s hot and humid for half the year or more (or for that matter a quarter of the year) would not elevate my mood.
Concur.
I am on meds for depression, have been for around 20 years. But being outside, even for a few minutes in poor weather is balm for my pain.
I am fortunate that I live opposite a small park and stormwater pond, and will sit outside enjoying the view several times a day. In rainy weather I simply pull my chair under the porch and enjoy both the view and the rain. In warmer weather, I may still be there approaching midnight, red wine in one hand, book in the other.
I am also fortunate that I am retired now and can indulge my passion for vineyards and landscape photography. Or riparian views and magnificent Pelicans to photograph.
I am not “spiritual”, but in nature I do feel blessed.
See I don’t think of rainy weather as bad weather. It may be uncomfortable weather if you’re not wearing a hoody, but bad, no. I think of very hot weather as bad, but rain can be highly enjoyable.
Living opposite a park and pond sounds glorious!
I actually love rainy weather. It’s a shame living in a place where we don’t get a lot of rain.
I’m lucky enough to be able to live in a small village in a house with a well-established garden and a nature reserve running past it, all in the shadow of the North Yorkshire Moors. Just listening to the birds outside (there are two families of Blue Tits nesting in the garden, one in a hole in the wall right next to my window) is a welcome distraction and being able to get out under the trees under my own power or to the ponds where the Great Crested Newts live is definitely worth making time for. In fact, now that it takes me considerably more effort to get there, I’ve found the effort even more worth making.
I’ve loved living in cities too and there’s joy in coming across small patches of nature fighting back. But these days I prefer the embarrassment of abundance I have now. More is more.
I’m with Ophelia and iknklast on the rain and heat issues, which is just as well considering where I live. Every direction is up so we get a lot of rain and it’s the North East so we get very little heat. Suits me.
I like all weather – snow, rain, drizzle. I’ve been on holiday in countries with perpetually blue skies and got absolutely sick of it – after a couple of weeks I’d exclaim – oh look, a cloud! I love the grey skies and the soft light. At present the red leaves of maples/copper beeches and the giant horse chestnut with its candles look wonderful against the pale grey. Though I live quite close to the city centre I’m lucky that my place backs on to a big old garden so I do have fine trees to look at and I get quite a lot of birds in my tiny garden. The weather I dislike is wind – we get a lot of it here. It’s uncomfortable on a bicycle and it means that the occasional sunny day, which is a treat here, has its pleasure reduced by a sharp breeze.