This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is focused on how much nature can help with mental health problems.
This kind of thing can sound almost too good to be true. The negative voice in the head says something like, ‘I’ve got severe anxiety; are some stupid trees really going to help?’ The amazing answer is: yes.
There are a growing number of studies which show that getting out into nature, connecting with the natural world, and even communing with trees really can help a variety of mental health symptoms. From our own anecdotal HorseBack evidence, we see that the open Scottish spaces, the hills and the forests, really help our veterans.
All of them, no matter how severe their post-traumatic stress, comment on the beauty of this place and all of them say that beauty has played a part in their recovery.
So it’s not just some old hippy-dippy, tree-huggy, la-di-da; it’s got data to go with it.
The lovely thing about connecting with nature is that you’ve got nothing to lose. There’s no cost. It requires no special equipment. Even inner cities have trees and green spaces. Find your own green space and stop and breathe and gaze and smile. We’re not ashamed to say that some of us at HorseBack have a little of the old hippy in us, and we really do marvel at the miracle of the seasons and the growing things and the sheer magic of this planet. We never take our Scottish valley for granted, and we are grateful for it every day.