Mental Health Awareness Week

Blog - 11 May 2021

The theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (10-16 May) is to reconnect with nature and using the 'five ways to wellbeing'.

Being connected to nature has been shown to have health benefits, in fact, some research has shown that patients in hospital who have a view of nature recover quicker. Some care homes have used animals to help residents feel less isolated, more connected and even benefit their physical and mental health. It’s also one of the reasons that many cities and towns are designed to have green open spaces following the Industrial Revolution when conditions were terrible and peoples health was not a priority.

Reconnect with nature

We know being connected to nature has a range of physical and mental health benefits, so here are some tips to help you connect with nature:

Find nature where you are: Spend time in your garden, local park, allotment or community garden. If you have had a busy day, watch the stars and the moon at night for a moment and listen to the sounds of the night. Try and notice nature that is around you
Use your senses: Watch the movement of the clouds, listen to the sound of the rain or birdsong. Take some time to quietly watch and listen to nature, it will help you feel a sense of calm and joy
Go out into nature: If you can, spend some time visulising green spaces such as parks or woodland or even the local zoo. This can help to improve your mood
Bring nature to you: Being around nature can be a challenge for some, not all of us have gardens for example or we are simply to busy. Why not bring nature into your home with plants and herbs. It’s a great way of having something to see, touch and smell. If planting isn’t for you, connect with nature through art or nature documentaries
Exercises in nature: If you are able to, try exercising in nature. Go for a run, walk or bike ride around your local park. Leave your headphones at home and listen to the sounds of nature while you exercise. This can help with feeling tired, low mood or even anger
Creativity and nature: If you like being creative why not combine this with nature and draw, paint or create art about the natural world.
Protect nature: Helping to protect nature and our natural spaces can be rewarding. Take simple steps such as recycling or walking instead of driving. You could even volunteer for your local animal shelter or community garden

Five ways to wellbeing

The '5 ways to wellbeing' are a set of pillars that are essential to our mental health and focus on social connectedness, physical activity, awareness, learning and giving.

Social connectedness: This is all about connecting with people and feeling understood. Speak to people in your life such as friends, family members, colleagues or neighbours. Grow your social circle, this could be at work or in the community.
Physical activity: Being active is known to improve our mental health, this doesn’t mean you have to spend every day down the gym trying to get incredibly fit. You could go for a walk, a run, dance in your living room to your favourite songs, you could even dance to our playlist on Spotify. Find an activity that you enjoy, being active releases feel-good hormones.
Awareness: This is about being in the moment and taking stock of your surroundings. Being in a state of mindfulness has been shown to improve mental health. Being in the moment and being mindful allows us to take pleasure from simple things.
Learning: Learning new things is great for your brain and can release those feel-good hormones from the satisfaction of learning something new. Try learning about something new or rediscover an old interest, it will help grow your confidence as well as widen your skill set.
Giving: This includes a range of things from donating money or showing goodwill to donating our time. Giving is proven to make us feel good. Giving can also help to build those connections in the community as well as social circles. Do something nice for a friend or a stranger, or volunteer to support a course close to your heart.

As this year’s theme is reconnecting with nature, think about how you can follow these steps while connecting with the amazing world around you. Why not join a walking group for example, this will expand your connections in the community, give you some physical activity that is not strenuous and explore the lovely parks we have. You could even volunteer to support the walking group.

You could become a volunteer with us at Healthwatch, with access to training, new opportunities, meeting new people and we hold the occasional social activity with our volunteers such as coffee mornings and quizzes.

Volunteer with us