It’s been two weeks since Mental Health Awareness week began in the UK, encouraging us not only to develop better habits for our well-being but to do so specifically through connecting with nature. Now I’m all for these weeks of awareness; information crosses the threshold of our lives at such speed and abundance that bringing our attention to issues that are of actual importance, such as the health of your brain and mind, cannot be underestimated. However, what happens when our attention is then being sought for the next ‘Awareness’ day, week and month? For instance, this month is Zombie Awareness Month in the USA. Yes indeed, preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse is of equal import apparently. Clearly to protect our brains from becoming a starving Zombie, it is vital that we now quickly incorporate the new and/or better habits we learnt last week into our daily lives, but where do we start?
Unfortunately, snapping our fingers and wishing for our better and new habits to be instantly part of our daily lives isn’t a proven route to success – it takes time, planning and fundamentally understanding why we are changing our habits in the first place, otherwise, they fall by the wayside.
The condition of our mental health manifests itself in how we think, feel and behave. Influenced too readily by the speed of the world we live in; we can easily fall into the trap of repeating thoughts and behaviours that can result in causing us harm. Thankfully for less serious mental health conditions there are many solutions, and what’s even better, sometimes it’s the most obvious and simple steps we can take that help.
Why nature?
We evolved in the global landscapes of the savannah, the rainforest and the majesty of the mountains amongst many others. Our physical being is engineered to live and thrive in these landscapes – our eyes process more shades of green than any other colour. We are drawn to the complex shape of the fractal – think snowflakes, fern fronds and even a network of neurons. The bounty of nature feeds us way beyond food and water, it nurtures our brain and feeds our evolution. To say we should ‘connect’ with nature suggests it is distinct from our being, where, in fact, the truth is we have DISconnected and should be REconnecting with nature.
What can we do?
Reconnecting with nature does not mean finding one of the few areas left in the world untouched by human hand. Connecting with nature is simply connecting with ourselves and returning to a state of beneficial stress – yes, stress can be good for us. Excessive stress diminishes our ability to think and function effectively, so spending time in a restorative environment will restore us to our ‘factory settings’. This can be anywhere, such as a public park, woodland or if you’re lucky enough to have one – your garden. Now we are coming out of lockdown and summer is coming, we can also exercise in green spaces or join community schemes that grow and sell vegetables. These activities have all shown to improve well-being and self-esteem, with the added benefits of feeling more socially included and gaining new skills and healthier lifestyles – all through an increased connection with nature.
How does nature help?
Research on how environments help us to recover from ‘attentional fatigue’ revealed that effective landscapes were those that fulfilled four qualities:
- a place that stimulated our senses;
- being away from the demands of regular life;
- the extent to which the environment is removed from what you are used to – that is, you can still find peace in a park in the middle of a city providing the park is designed to block out as much of the surrounding city as possible; and
- the landscape is an environment where we can take part in activities that challenge us and improve our skills, such as rock climbing, swimming or gardening, alongside walking the dog or reading a book on a bench.
How do we change our habits?
Once we find our places of restoration how do we bring them into our lives? Introducing new habits or changing bad ones in our lives can be tricky. Intention to do better is sadly not enough. However, where breaking bad habits takes patience, replacing or developing new habits builds willpower, which creates a foundation for more success in many other areas of our lives.
Changing habits, building willpower – your five-point plan
- Decide who you want to be – healthier, kinder, or more reliable, for instance. Practice observing your own behaviour – ask yourself whether your habits bring you closer to who that person is;
- You may be familiar with the aphorism ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’. Planning is crucial to the success of habit forming. Decide ahead of time when and where your new habits will be ‘performed’. For example, if you want to take up gardening instead of binge-watching box sets, have your gardening gear perhaps sitting beside the front or back door ready to go. The fewer excuses we can give ourselves the easier we start to develop and look forward to our new habits;
- Choose a reward for after you’ve ‘performed’ your new habit. Our brains respond readily to rewards and while you form your new habits, you’re duping your brain into believing it really wants the new habit rather than the old one;
- Make small incremental steps – real change takes time. Taking your time to build up your new habit will also help you see the changes happening in real time; and
- Be patient, be consistent and be kind to yourself – change takes courage.
It’s a beautiful world out there, we may have lost our way but we’re making our way back one step at a time. Our well-being depends upon it.
If you and or your team would like to work with us to create new habits and routines, contact us at info@spatialawareness.org Let’s walk this path together.
