Shared from a mossy log near you…
Remember the last time you took a walk with a friend – maybe through a shady forest with raindrops on the leaves, observing toadstools scattered around trees, strolling along a windswept beach, beside a lazy river, or crunching through snow up a hill?
I bet you felt great. Alive. Awake and free.
So, what makes you feel ‘alive’ when close to nature and away from the concrete jungle?
It’s difficult to explain, because it’s so simple, so primitive and so heartfelt. It’s sensory and it’s emotional and made up of all the lovely stuff that’s so difficult to explain.
Like trying to explain love. You just know it when you feel it.
The University of Derby ‘Nature Connectedness Research Group’ are uncovering some of the secrets! Finding pathways to ‘nature connectedness’. Ways for all of us to form new relationships with the natural world. This stuff is important for your physical health and mental wellbeing, the wellbeing of your family and friends and the outdoor places you live close to.
Nature is so important, yet so very vulnerable. If we learn to love the plants, insects, birds and other creatures close to us, we all thrive together.
The Derby research team have found that closer, healthier and more sustainable relationships with nature come through 5 different ways. They are all ‘sensory and emotional’, so help us explain why we feel so good, so alive when being outdoors.
It’s not stuff you can do at home, or on your phone! These are outdoor pathways that don’t need apps, gym gear, or a subscription.
It’s usually free, close to you and available seven days a week! Simply find a park or an outdoor space close to home. Open your senses and experience the outdoor world together with a friend.
Here’s our favourite recipe for feeling more alive, by being outdoors:
1. Tune in with your senses
Look. Listen. Touch. Smell. Taste. Get up close — notice the patterns on a leaf, the feel of bark, the scrunch of leaves underfoot, the scent of earth after rain. Hear the birds, the rustle of the trees, appreciate the quiet. Dip your toes in a stream or simply breathe in the briny sea air. I go for a 10-minute walk with my dog ‘Mowgli’ every day and focus on just listening and looking. The same place, the same route, but every day is different!
2. Find your emotional connection
Take a moment to pause for a few minutes and simply ‘feel alive’. Not to ‘do’ anything, just to be. A moment to quietly ask yourself – how does this feel to just do nothing. Simply being yourself, at one with nature? I confess to not doing this enough!
3. Notice the beauty around you.
Nature is different to a busy street, a shopping mall, a café or the inside of your home. Nature shows off when we slow down. Watch the way sunlight hits a spider’s web or how wildflowers scatter like confetti on the grass. Maybe take a photo to keep or share with friends, create a sketch, float a stick down a stream like you once did as a child, or fully engage by painting or writing the first lines of a poem. Soak up the beauty. I’m quite good at this!
4. Find some meaning
We all live ‘messy’, complicated and mainly indoor lives. Nature helps us find perspective. What could a new friendship with the wild bring into your life? Not a new relationship with another human being, but a new relationship with nature close to you. I’m a bit like a child. I still bring home shells and pinecones — little tokens of good days and favourite places I hope to go back to. An outdoor experience is a great way to clear your thoughts and generate new ideas.
5. Make a wee promise!
Keep that connection going. Make a promise to yourself, to someone else, or to the creatures living in your park — to come back. To walk, to wonder, to explore and to help. Maybe build a bird box or beastie hoose, join a local trail group, or just promise to take a slow walk every evening or on the weekend. Nature’s good alone — but even better with a friend, or a four-legged companion.
A Few Gentle Myths to Consider:
Sport is great… but it’s not the same.
Kicking a ball in the park is brilliant for fitness and friendship. But if you’re sprinting, shouting and competing, you might miss the slower, quieter stuff that connects us to nature. Nature connections come through slow and lazy activities, so please walk slowly, stop every now and then, sit down and simply be.
Learning the facts about nature… isn’t quite the same as feeling it.
Knowing plant names is wonderful and fascinating! But real connections come when we feel something — wonder, love, or even just calmness — as you sit under a tree, watching a bird, or feel a cool breeze on your face.
Ready to give it a go…..?
Why not start with a Toadstool Trail at the Dundee Botanic Gardens or the Maxwell Community Centre and garden in Coldside, Dundee?
The Trails are perfect for young explorers and older ones like me. I’m grey, arthritic and slightly clumsy! We’ve made the trails accessible to wheelchairs. They are playful, sensory, and open to all. We provide maps with little ‘treasure hunts’ and playful activities for young and old to enjoy and take part in.
We’ve even added a 6th way to connect with nature – ‘Dynamic Play’. Simply being playful outdoors, jumping over logs, hopping & skipping, dancing, playing hide and seek, pretending to be a creature, or simply finding ways to have a laugh together. Trails provide a good dose of fun for all.
We believe the best adventures in life, are the ones we take together — across generations, across seasons, in local spaces you will come to love. So go on. Find your muddy boots. Find your local space. Invite a friend, your parents and your grandparents to join you.
Hopefully we will see you out there!
Yours outdoors,
Grandpa Brumble 🍄🌿
Hope you’ve enjoyed this guest post all about nature connectivity and how it fits in with our Toadstool Trails. Now I’m off to wander in the woods with my little four legged companion and enjoy the sound of the birds in the trees. Where will you explore next?
Have a lovely day,
Suzanne x (aka Bramble of the wilds in the little green world of WhimSicAL LusH)
WhimSicAL LusH 