WITH regular reports of doctors recommending gardening to help support people experiencing mental health problems and health-sapping conditions such as chronic loneliness, it’s clear that more people are becoming aware of the personal benefits of outdoor activity.
Even just being outside in natural light can be helpful to those who experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a condition common in countries with long winters and skies often thick with cloud.
Studies have indicated an association between putting plants in classrooms and workplaces, higher rates of attendance and lower incidence of absence due to illness, and it appears that even simply looking at green plants and trees can lift a person’s mood.
Gardening can offer the gentle exercise helpful to recovering health and wellbeing, as well as the opportunity to meet new friends.
The simple act of nurturing a plant or even growing your own food can reconnect a person with a sense of purpose and achievement.
Similarly, being around plants and animals can be calming and therapeutic, as well as reminding us to put things in perspective when we’re feeling down or overwhelmed.
To mark Mental Health Awareness week, groups around Scotland are hosting free wellbeing walks to help us reconnect with nature, ourselves and each other.
Though these particular events are part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, many groups run other, similar events throughout the year.
Ness Islands
Bught Road, Inverness
Situated on the River Ness, opposite Bught Park, the Ness Islands are home to bats, otters and the odd deer.
Meet at 8pm on May 12 behind the skate park at Bught Road for a 90-minute, all-ages tour of the islands including hot chocolate and stories around a campfire fire. Listen for the likes of the sparrow, swift and starlings and the once-common nightingale in the evening’s dawn chorus.
Researchers at the University of Surrey recently found that, of all the natural sounds, bird song was most often cited as helping people recover from stress.
STAR Project
Wallace Street, Paisley
Artist in residence Jim Buchanan explores the mental health benefits of labyrinths, and how they can encourage gentle exercise and the fostering of a sense of contemplation, even meditation. For more information on this free workshop from 10.30am to 12.30pm on May 15, call 0141 889 5850.
New Craigs Hospital
Dunain Road, Inverness
Meet for a 1.30pm start for this gently-paced two-hour free nature walk from New Craigs to Dunain Community Woodland on May 16.
Hot drinks around a campfire is included, as are the talents and insight of Lar MacGregor, an artist who will demonstrate how to weave your mental health stories into handmade ropes and rescue knots.
For more info, call 07801 686 046.
Fountain Gardens
Love Street, Paisley
Renfrewshire Anti-Stigma Alliance (RASA) host a flat, one-mile walk in Paisely’s oldest public gardens from 12.30pm to 1.30pm on May 15.
Suitable for all ages and abilities and open to everyone, the idea is to have a chat about mental health and wellbeing with other walkers as you enjoy the stroll. Register at rasawalkamile.eventbrite.co.uk
Old Curling Rink and Mill Pond
Backies, Golspie
Meet at the old curling rink/mill pond at Backies near Golspie for a 1.30pm start on this free, leisurely wellbeing nature walk suitable for all age on May 23.
Email trish.matthews@highlifehighland.com for info.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here