Nature for mental health
While I’m not a wellbeing expert, I am passionate about collaborating with Nature in my coaching and leadership development work and it has proven time after time to have a positive wellbeing effect. I believe that Nature offers perspective, enjoyment, relaxation and stimulus. Here are a couple of simple exercises for you, your team and family, pick the one for the season you are in.
Lesley
Exercise 1 - Dawn Chorus
In spring, before the sun rises, male birds declare their presence in a bid to attract passing females. Their music concert grows as the sun comes up.
Get up early one day, before the sun, and bathe in the sound of the day coming alive as the sun comes up and a new day dawns. Early May is a good time, any later and you’ll be up in the middle of the night and some birds sing less once they have a mate!
“The psychological effect of being in the dark before dawn and then hearing the chorus swell as the sun comes up is just incomparable.” (McGeeney, 2016).
Exercise 2 - autumn exploration
Take a relaxed meander / sit down in nature and connect fully with all your senses.
What are you seeing/hearing/smelling/tasting/feeling? Work through each one.
In autumn you may smell woodsmoke, see the warm autumn colours, notice squirrels scurrying to collect nuts, hear the crunch of leaves and the crack of twigs underfoot, feel peaceful as leaves drift down around you or awe at the colour transformation, taste the blackberries.
Just take it all in. Immerse yourself in it. Allow yourself to be fully present. Listen with your heart & soul and your body.
Direct sensory contact with natural elements can be a powerful stimulus to deeper thoughts and feelings. A sharpening of the senses and subsequent enlivening of the body provides a stirring on the unconscious and a rest for the overactive conscious mind.
Reflection
An invite to consider how you feel after having spent some time in nature.
How did you find that?
What came up for you?
When can you be in nature again?
I hope you enjoyed your time connecting with Nature.
Click the links if you’d like to find out a bit more about Brave Conversations latest Line Management and Team Development programmes. or perhaps you’d like to explore Coaching.
Regards Lesley