Ideas to help us connect with the natural world

Research has shown that Nature calms, helps us get in touch with our emotions, lowers blood pressure, boosts our immune system, helps anxiety, and has a happiness effect.

Here are some ideas to slow ourselves down and appreciate the natural world around us:

• Walk among trees and appreciate the quiet beauty of nature

• Put out feed and watch the birds

• Breathe gently in the fresh air - outside or by an open window

• Visit a park and sit quietly

• Eat a meal outside

• Go barefoot and feel the ground beneath

• Listen for birdsong

• Get a plant identifying book and learn new names

• Look at the sky at night

• Take a walk. Look at, and listen to, and smell your surroundings

• Notice plants in crevices on buildings and walls

• Take a notebook or use your phone and record what you see and how that makes you feel