Why is Nature Good for Mental Health?

How do you feel when you go outside in nature?

I believe that nature, health and wellbeing connect with how we feel and show up in the world. As humans are part of nature we're consciously and subconsciously impacted by our surroundings. This can relate to absorbing other people's feelings and emotions or by feeling a sense of calm flow over you when outdoors in nature.

In this blog post I explore ways that nature and mindfulness can help support your mental health when neurodivergent parenting or caregiving. As well as the importance of being able to access wellness practices that can best fit into your life.

Photo credit: Natasha Iregbu

How does nature help reduce stress? 

A recent study found that being in nature can alter the activity in your brain, specifically in the prefrontal cortex, which plays a significant role in supporting emotional regulation.

As a parent or caregiver, your daily life will have ups and downs relating to regulating your emotions and co-regulating with your child(ren). 

I invite you to think about the following:

When was the last time you felt overwhelmed in a situation?

How did you react?

There are many ways to bring yourself back to feeling calm when faced with a stressful situation. One of these ways is by stepping outside or by opening a window and letting fresh air in.

When you’re outside, even in a busy city, nature can bring an almost instant feeling of calm.

If you were outside in the experience you were thinking about, was there something in your environment that helped you feel grounded? 

Being able to recognise when you're feeling stressed, and taking a few moments to pause, can make a difference to your emotional regulation as a neurodivergent parent or parent with a neurodivergent child.

How to be mindful in nature

I used to go for a walk and then spend most of the time scrolling on my phone.

It wasn't until I discovered mindfulness that I started noticing how little time I spent paying attention to my surroundings.

This is what helped me bring my attention to the present instead of mindlessly scrolling and ending up in comparison mode…5 years ago, I started going for more walks in nature.

When I was walking, I would make a conscious effort to spend at least the first half of my walk looking and listening to what was around me.

If I had the urge to scroll through Instagram, I would open the camera on my phone to take photos and videos of nature instead.

This helped me to stay present and capture the beauty of nature around me.

Over a short amount of time, I realised how much of a difference it made to my mental health.

Not only was I feeling more relaxed, but I also had more energy.

I didn't realise how much time and energy I gave to thinking about the past or trying to predict the future.

Nature helped me remember to have more moments of living in the present.

This was before I became a parent. However, now that I’m a mum I appreciate even more how going outside in naturecan help calm my own nervous system and my child’s during overstimulating times.

Support when parenting a neurodivergent child or as a neurodivergent parent

When looking for support when neurodivergent parenting, you might have found support for your children, such as tips and resources to help look after their mental health and wellbeing, but struggled to find something for your own needs.

During my time supporting parents and carers with neurodivergent children, in the community education field, they were often seeking emotional support and practical support. They felt tired, unheard, or believed when they shared their experience of raising their undiagnosed or diagnosed neurodivergent child (as often their child would display different behaviours and emotions at home compared to school). This led to them feeling at a loss about where to go for support. They often felt a sense of loneliness and wanted a safe space to talk and access support to best meet their child’s needs as well as strategies to look after their own wellbeing.

I think that access to resources to support parents and carers mental health and wellbeing is essential, especially when raising neurodivergent children and/or being a neurodivergent parent. When parents and carers have ways to find and benefit from these resources, without feeling like they need to sacrifice more of their energy or time, it can help relieve stress and bring a positive effect not only for themselves but for their whole family.

Creating wellbeing services that have diversity, inclusion, and accessibility as the foundation is what I value and prioritise in my work. You deserve to have access to spaces to look after yourself and practice self-love and self-care. You give so much of your time and energy to your child(ren) and family and you shouldn’t be guilty about making your own needs a priority.

Nature and Mental Health: Next Steps

If you're someone who wants more guidance on how to start connecting more to nature and building a better relationship with yourself, my 7-day audio Mindfulness in Nature mini-course can help you with this.

Whether you’re neurodivergent parenting, or someone who feels overwhelmed or overlooked in traditional wellbeing spaces, these short practices can support you to release stress and ground your energy.

Discover mindfulness techniques to help you slow down and reduce stress in 7 minutes or less each day. You can start today by tapping here.

And if you would like to have longer support with reducing stress when neurodivergent parenting, I offer this inside my 8-week online self-paced mindfulness course, The Mindful Reconnect.