Image by Alain Audet
InnerSelf's Daily Inspiration
June 14-15-16, 2024
The focus for today, and the weekend, is:
I choose to experience daily contact with nature and its biodiversity.
Today's inspiration was written by Andrea Mechelli:
Studies have demonstrated that contact with nature benefits mental wellbeing, especially for those who live in cities. For example, the risk of developing the two most prevalent mental disorders in the world, depression and anxiety, is 71% lower in urban dwellers who live near green spaces. Furthermore, green spaces with high natural diversity have more mental health benefits than those with low natural diversity.
The benefits of nature for mental wellbeing can be maximised by protecting and promoting biodiversity in our natural environments. This means less landscaped gardens and parks of mown grass, which are typically associated with low biodiversity, and instead, more spaces such as wild meadows and waterways which provide a more attractive habitat for a range of plants and animals.
However, to experience the mental health benefits of biodiversity, we do not have to live near a diverse green space over a long period of time. In fact, benefits can be experienced through daily brief incidental encounters with biodiverse nature.
CONTINUE READING:
Today's inspiration was adapted from the InnerSelf.com article:
How Nature's Diversity Can Boost Your Mental Wellbeing
Written by Andrea Mechelli, King's College London.
Read the complete article here.
About the author: Andrea Mechelli is a Professor of Early Intervention in Mental Health at King's College London.
This is Marie T. Russell, co-publisher of InnerSelf.com, wishing you a day of connecting with the healing power of Nature (today and every day)
Comment from Marie: Being in nature and communing with Nature is such a healing experience. Simply being in the silence and letting the peace of the surroundings fill you is an extremely healing, rejuvenating, and reenergizing experience. You don't have to spend hours... The quality of the time spent is more important than the quantity or length of the experience.
Our focus for today: I choose to experience daily contact with nature and its biodiversity.
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RELATED BOOK: Hiking Your Feelings
Hiking Your Feelings: Blazing a Trail to Self-Love
by Sydney Williams.
Join wellness advocate and wilderness guide Sydney Williams as she shares her healing journey from eating and drinking her feelings to hiking her feelings. When Sydney unexpectedly found herself diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, while grappling with grief and unresolved trauma built up over a decade, she set out on a quest to turn her pain into power.
Two hikes across Catalina Island and eighty miles later, she learned to disconnect from distractions and reconnect with herself, all through the power of nature. Now, she’s encouraging others to get outside and blaze their own trail to self-love, turning buried traumas into healthy coping mechanisms. With affirmations, prompts, and reflection exercises throughout—all presented from Sydney’s supportive and self-effacing perspective—Hiking Your Feelings offers a toolkit to unpack your “trauma pack” and step into the best version of yourself.
For more info and/or to order this book, click here. Also available as a Kindle edition.
