Five Ways to Wilder Wellbeing

A scientific study by The New Economics Foundation in 2008 concluded that there are five steps that can be incorporated into your everyday life, which will improve your mental health and wellbeing – they are now known as the “Five Ways to Wellbeing – Take Notice, Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, and Give”. These are well documented, evidence based, and supported by organisations such as Mind, the NHS, and Mental Health First Aid England.

It is also well documented how connection or closeness to nature can have significant positive benefits to our mental and physical health and wellbeing too. From reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, enhancing relaxation, reducing stress, and encouraging increased physical activity (which in turn positively benefits many physical health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure).

If we combine these two concepts, five steps and closeness to nature, we can begin to receive an added level of benefit – five ways to a WILDER wellbeing! Let’s take a look to see how we can adapt each of the five ways into a natural setting…

1. Take Notice

Have you ever travelled from A to B, but couldn't recall any specific details of anything between those two points? Life can get busy, we rush around, and sometimes we are so focused on getting from one place to another, that we forgot to pay attention to what’s around us. Taking a more mindful approach to travel can help us to take notice of our environment and there are many ways to do this.

You can start by simply slowing your pace down which will open up opportunity to stop and appreciate what we encounter. Is there a lovely view? How many different kinds of insect can you see? What is that bird doing up in the tree? How many different natural sounds can you hear? Can you feel the sun or the breeze on your skin? How many different red/yellow/green objects can you see? Can you set yourself a target to find five different textures?

By using a range of different senses, and not just our primary sense (depending on what that is for you), it opens up an opportunity to experience much more. This can be done in a range of different locations too – your garden, your local park or nature reserve, even the walk from your car or mode of transport to your office building or the supermarket – there will be nature in some form, somewhere…you just have to take notice to find it!

2. Connect

This can be multifaceted. By taking notice, you will feel more connected to the space you are in, and you can really get to know your local outdoor areas too. You can even connect with your garden bird community by sitting with a cuppa and watching out the window, or get familiar with the other wildlife that visits your garden if you have one.

Not only can you connect with nature, you can take part in social connections in an outdoor environment. You may choose to join your local Kent Wildlife Trust volunteer group, as many of our volunteers say that they make friends and build social connections by joining. You could also attend a group event, or you may find that there are walking groups in your area, if walking in nature is something you enjoy. Even something as simple as saying hello and smiling at a passing stranger whilst out on your nature walk can form a momentary connection and make a difference.

3. Be Active

It is reported that we are three times more likely to be active when we live closer to a green space. The World Health Organisation recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week and moderate is individual to each of us - as long as it brings our heart rate up. We should be slightly more breathless but able to maintain a conversation. For some of us, this can be achieved simply through walking.

To make it a more enjoyable experience, you can mix and match your walk between brisker periods and the slower mindful periods. Use the slower moments to recover whilst achieving our “Take Notice” and “Connect” steps to wellbeing.

Setting yourself the task of going out for a small walk each day (at whatever distance is achievable for you) can be a great way to get into the habit of being active. As you already know, by stepping out the door, you’re already being more active than you would have been staying indoors. You can even choose to try this around your garden.

Speaking of which, gardening is another great way of being active outdoors. Not only does gardening bring us physical benefits, but also mental benefits, and if we take part in wildlife friendly gardening, it is great for nature too.

4. Keep Learning

Learning new skills and information helps keep our minds active. And when it comes to nature, there is NEVER a shortage of things to learn! Just by “Taking Notice” we can learn something from our observations. For example, how a particular species of bird flies, or the sound it makes. We can also learn information from the large variety of identification books available to us. These can be simple fold out ID sheets (like the FSC guides around £3 each), or a more in depth and comprehensive book on a particular group of species (for example the Collins Bird Guide).

Sitting with an identification guide to ID something we've spotted can be a very mindful time spent, not to mention the sense of achievement when you successfully pick out the species you have seen. This also enables us to retain information more readily for next time. Kent Wildlife Trust also offer Wildlife Study Days where an expert in the field can help you hone your IDing skills around a particular subject – take a browse to see what you can learn! 

5. Give

You may think this is one of the trickier steps to achieve, but there are many ways we can give back. This can be done by volunteering, giving your time to charity to help a worthy cause, or giving back to nature by helping Kent Wildlife Trust take steps towards a Wilder Kent.

Wildlife gardening, as previously mentioned, isn’t just a great way to be active, but also gives back to wildlife by giving them a suitable habitat to thrive in.

When it comes to giving, it is very important to remember yourself in this too. By giving yourself the opportunity to spent time in nature you’re allowing yourself access to the mental and physical health benefits of nature. In short, you-time counts!

Here in Kent, we also have a Sixth way to Wellbeing: Care for the Planet

You can fully immerse yourself into sustainable living if you wish, or you can choose a select few manageable actions to care for our planet. All actions count, as long as we are making conscious choices and understand the impact our choices can have. For example, you may want to consciously choose more sustainable or organic foods (or grow your own), or reduce the amount of waste you create. You could swap to more environmentally friendly cosmetics or choose to walk/cycle a short journey rather than use a car. There are smaller actions that can be taken too, if the aforementioned aren’t available to you. For example, you could practice recycling or taking a bag to pick up litter when you are out and about. Everyone can do something positive for our planet.

It is always helpful to reflect on the “Five Ways to Wellbeing” after being outside in nature. We can achieve many of the steps subconsciously, and it’s not until we stop and reflect that we realise we have incorporated these steps into our adventure. It doesn’t have to be complicated or elaborate, the simplest of exercises or activities can mean we work towards our Five Ways to Wellbeing for the day.

Wilder Wellbeing Programmes

At Kent Wildlife Trust, we also offer our Wilder Wellbeing programmes – these are our six-week Green Social Prescribing programmes, based around the Five Ways to Wellbeing and nature connection.

These are designed for anyone with a wellbeing need (a mental or physical health condition on any level, experiencing loneliness and isolation, lowered overall wellbeing), and are the perfect way to start learning how to bring the Five ways to Wilder Wellbeing into your life. We have a range of Wilder Wellbeing programmes starting in June, to find out more about the Green Social Prescribing and the Wilder Wellbeing programmes, please visit the Wilder Wellbeing webpage

References

• New Economics Foundation – 5 Ways to Wellbeing
• Wildlife Trusts - benefits of nature to wellbeing
• World Health Organisation - physical exercise recommendations
• NHS England - Green Social Prescribing