World Environmental Day is coming up, giving you a chance to do your bit to help improve the wellness and wellbeing of the planet.
Often, people are very unaware of how the environment impacts on them. Think about a shopping mall, for example; you can wander around for hours at your leisure, the air conditioning keeps you as cool as a spring breeze, the walking is all good exercise, and looking at nice things helps to reduce your stress, right? Actually, this is not strictly true.
A few years ago, a charity called Mind, which is the leading UK metal health charity, did a study with the University of Essex, looking at how the environment can improve the mental health. This was called ‘Eco therapy’ and involved using green spaces to hep benefit people’s mental health through activities such as walking or gardening. It also looked at the effect on people of simply spending time outdoors, watching nature, seeing the setting sun or simply sitting in the garden and enjoying the fresh air.
The study revealed that we have a lot to thank the environment for, as when outdoor walks were compared directly to indoor walks, those who had taken the outdoor walks said that the walk had boosted their self-esteem, whereas those who took indoor walks did not feel the same.
For the sake of the study, the group was also split into two, and some took part in an indoor activity and some in an outdoor activity. Those who took part in the outdoor activity said that it had lessened their fatigue, and helped to improve their depression and tension. When the indoor group was surveyed, it was found that most participants had felt no change in mood or had even felt an increase in their depressive symptoms by the end of the walk, and many said that their feelings of tension had increased, too.
Comments are closed.