Wilder Wellbeing

Spending time in nature improves our physical and mental health. The Wildlife Trust BCN offers all kinds of ways to connect with nature from outdoor events and volunteer opportunities to national campaigns you can get involved in. Why not get inspired by learning all about your local wildlife and wild places.

Work between the Wildlife Trusts and the University of Essex has shown how the health and wellbeing benefits from nature include improvements to physical health (through increased physical activity) and improvements to psychological and social wellbeing including: reductions in stress and anxiety, increased positive mood, self-esteem and resilience, and improvements in social functioning and social inclusion.

The Wildlife Trust Great Fen has been working hard to develop ‘Nature Connections’ sessions to bring the beauty and fascination of the natural to the fingertips of those who may not be able to easily access the outdoors. The sessions have been well received by care homes, dementia café’s, stroke recovery groups and the blind association, all giving positive feedback and seeing the benefit to the participants of making those natural connections. Sessions include discussing memories of being in natural spaces, looking at images and objects to spark these discussions, followed by an activity such as planting seeds for indoor pots or some sort of creative work using natural materials. We have lots of resources available and can adapt our sessions to the needs of the group. For more information please contact Rebekah.odriscoll@wildlifebcn.org.