Enjoy the great outdoors and help improve your Mental Health and Wellbeing
Wildlife Trust research shows that employees who can view or access natural spaces are more productive than those people who can’t. Stress levels have also been shown to fall after spending five minutes in a natural green space.
Businesses who offer their teams outdoor space and wildlife havens in their work grounds can inspire, refresh and engage employees during their breaks and bolster wellbeing. It’s important for all of us to promote good working practices such as taking hourly 5-minute breaks from screens.
Here’s just some of the ways that short times in nature can aid your wellbeing:
- Improves work and educational performance
- Helps regulates sleep
- Boosts mood and eases depression and anxiety
- Lowers stress
The mental health charity Mind has a series of articles on wellbeing and green spaces and recommends:
- Finding things you can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. For example, grass under your feet or the feeling of wind and sunlight.
- Keeping a record of what you notice.
- Setting yourself challenges. For example, you could try to notice three things in nature each day.
- Listening to recordings of mindfulness exercises or having a mindful moment to listen to nature.
- Thinking about what you are grateful for and remembering not to take nature for granted.
You can find out more about how you can enjoy outdoor space to improve your mental health here:
