So – it is Mental Health Awareness Week, with the theme of ‘moving more for your mental health’. Exercise that raises your heart rate and gets your body moving is of course, good for you. But for many people, the idea of exercise conjures up images of Lycra, and thoughts of expensive trainers or gym memberships; not everyone’s cup of tea! But – there’s a much easier, and more effective way of moving – and one which improves people’s mental well-being alongside their physical health. There’s tonnes of evidence that demonstrates the benefits to our physical and mental health of spending time in nature.
Getting out into nature is not only good for mental health but can also help address the social issues that come with having a mental health problem. Access to nature-based activities improves mental wellbeing, helps people to become more physically active, can give people the skills and confidence to get back into work or training, and helps those who are lonely or socially isolated to connect with others.
Activities organised by The Wildlife Trusts have been shown to improve participants’ physical and mental health. After joining in, people tell us:
- they feel less lonely or depressed
- they have become more active
- they’ve learnt new skills.
Reading these amazing testimonies that we have received, it makes it more important than ever to let our hard-working GPs and allied health professionals just what an amazing impact nature has on people’s health and happiness. The good news is that it also saves the NHS money too (A Natural Health Service: improving lives and saving money)
We’ve created some fantastic postcards that will be posted for free, to your own GP surgery. We have even found out all the addresses, so it really couldn’t be easier to let them read first-hand about the positive impact their ‘prescription’ has had.
We’re hoping these will be displayed in health centre waiting rooms and noticeboards so everyone can get the message – nature helps!
