walking

Sitting

GREEN PRESCRIPTION FOR HENLEY

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR DAILY DOSE OF VITAMIN N (NATURE) LATELY?

Here are 10 suggestions you might like to try:

1. ​Seek out a green space, making your relationship with nature personal to you. Keeping your window open to enjoy the fresh air and natural sunlight is a great start!
2. Make the decision to relax and be mindful, noticing what you can hear, see, smell, touch all around you.
3. Interact with wildlife, actively listening to birdsong, having a nesting box built and installed by the Bisham Nest Box group if you wish. They ask for a donation covering material and travel expenses: www.bnbg.org.uk
4. Be creative, painting, drawing, writing, crafting, taking photos (not forgetting to put your phone on airplane mode!) highlighting the beauty of nature. Check out Rewilding Harpsden
5. Walk, exploring your local area, taking part in a nature mindfulness walk or other walk as part of the Chilterns walking festival, which is held twice a year (in May and October) or joining the Ramblers exploring the Warburg nature reserve at your own pace. You might want to focus on three things: noticing your breath, connecting with the environment, enjoying each step.
6. Have a go at gardening, watching your own herbs, fruit or vegetables grow on your windowsill, in your garden or allotment, perhaps joining the Sonning Common Green Gym or Greenshoots if you have a learning or physical disability: 
7. Volunteer in a conservation project: Contact Greener Henley and plant trees, pick litter or help hedgehogs or swifts or toads! 
8. Read nature-inspired books available at your library - Vitamin N : the essential guide to a nature-rich life by Richard Louv and Losing Eden : why our minds need the wild by Lucy Jones and listen to nature-themed music: Rising Appalachia, The Silent Watcher, Laura Inserra, Xavier Rudd and many more.
9. Think natural movement, improving how we move in nature can work wonders for our health: visit nutritious movement for inspiration, try out ASICS movement for mind or book a private session with local movement coach.
10. Find online inspiration, perhaps trying out Seven Days of Nature Connection:

• DAY 1: Get to know your local (early spring) wild flower
• DAY 2: Look up at the sky multiple times a day
• ​DAY 3: Get to know your neighbour (of the bird variety)
• DAY 4: Find something soft to touch
• DAY 5: Find something textured to touch
• DAY 6: Smell a flower
• DAY 7:  Fall in love with nature

     Or taking the University of Derby’s Nature Connectedness free course.

1. Downloadable and editable version on the Bell Surgery website.
2. A dose of nature - Addressing Chronic Health conditions by using the environment: Dose of nature evidence report 
   
   

More help in the virtual treatment room