Nature exposure

A couple of years ago, I presented at the International Mental Health Conference about self-care in the midst of uncertainty. We were all stuck indoors at the time, with rolling lock downs all over the country. Like many people, I found myself desperately missing all of the ways I would usually engage in self-care, especially time in nature.

I titled my talk ‘living on shifting sands’ because that’s what it feels like sometimes to live in an unpredictable body, in unpredictable times. I submitted the abstract just after I was diagnosed with cancer in early 2020, but before COVID-19 really hit. The topic was a little more of the zeitgeist than I thought it would be!

Because of the pandemic, the conference was delivered online instead of on the Gold Coast.

I find that when I am stuck online at a computer in meetings and presentations, I find it hard to concentrate. My mind wanders. I get fidgety. The urge to play with my phone or move can become overpowering. And of course, conference talks are often quite brief, so presenters need to get right down to business, which doesn’t always leave much time for engagement.

But I was posting about self-care. How could I not inject a little bit of it into my 20 minute time slot?

I wrote a short script and made a little mindfulness video, using some photos I took on the stunning Knyvet Falls Walk at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. I added some sounds from the rainforest as well. I’m not much of a video editor, so it probably took me longer to put together this short video than it did to prepare the entire rest of my conference talk!

I hope you enjoy taking a couple of brief minutes to travel to the Tasmanian world heritage wilderness with me.

There is evidence that exposure to nature is generally pretty good for us. For me, I find that spending time with nature helps me to feel as though I can breathe a little more clearly. Exposure to nature isn’t a cure, and if it made all our stuggles disappear, we therapists would all be out of a job. I would be happy with that, but alas, it’s not quite enough. Still, time in nature for many of us is part of the picture of what it means to have a good life.