448- #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek2021 : Nature

image credits: 

Usual MH awareness ribbon found online, edited for 2021 and montage with 3 of my own nature photos. 

Hereafter, 1,615 words long entry, so grab a cuppa and thank you in advance for reading. 

Followed internationally, Mental Health Awareness Week's 2021 edition is all about nature and its impact on our mental health.  It runs May 10-16 this year. 

The earliest recollections I have of contact with nature date from my childhood, during the toughest and most traumatic years of my life. From many blog entries, you'll know that I grew up in the  religious cult that my father created and led. I was forbidden from many activities normal to any other child around me, so my nature trips were an escapism from my difficult conditions, brought solace and were acts of rebellion and deceit - as even these activities were generally prohibited during my cult life. 

I had managed to please my father well enough just a couple times when he rewarded me with rare authorization to go hike, but that's all - twice in 15 years. 

Indeed, I had to actually lie about my whereabouts in order to go hike in the mountainous area we lived in, by saying that classes had been prolonged and that I had missed my buses, when in truth, I had finished on time, taken said bus and gotten off farter from home, to walk down the slopes, breathe fresh air, away from people and the troubles awaiting me upon my return "home". 

I loved sitting either on top of rocks or straight on the ground, in various stages I created in these hikes, to best conserve my energy. After all, I was hiking with my school backpack, filled with books, after long class hours! 

While strolling or sitting, I'd listen and observe nature all around : birds of many kinds, insects, even gazelles marching by and munching. 

Trees and birds were my favorites : I'd literally hug the trees there, from the medium height olive trees to taller almond, carob and, tallest ones, cypress and pine trees scatted at some places, and denser as I got to the woods towards the halfway point in my hike. They were a sort of comfort, rooted deeply into the soil ; they offered shelter (though the olive trees weren't wide enough, usually), a sense of tranquil grandiosity and a calm protection.

Some of them also offered food : olives and almonds are great, but, straight of the tree, they are bitter, so I found a way around this issue : I'd keep some of my lunch food, and also harvest edible leaves from some local shrubs, and add them, thus cutting the bitterness. 

I loved harvesting carob pods, open them up and eat them as well, and they needed no additions! The same went for pine nuts, actually. 

Birds can be super pretty, they sing, they entertain with cute dances and hops. I still remember the time I saw an owl curiously looking back at me and tilting its head. 

I also recall all the birds of pray and other migrating birds flying above, majestically soaring high up and staying on air currents. After having won some cash in a scratch-card lottery game, I had bought binoculars and they became my best friend at that time, allowing me to observe the birds with an 8x magnification, and I could thus see them better despite the distance separating us.

I absolutely loved doing that, escaping from class recess games with other pupils, to bird watch. I'd start counting them - there were so many birds of prey, and one day also  a huge flock of storks hovered above school. There were over 800 of them, for an hour and a half! (no, I didn't ditch classes for them, I could see them from the window whilst in class!). Once or twice after school, I actually made a call to the bird observation center to report my sightings. 

Hikes, birdwatching, breathing fresh air : all these were contacts with nature that gave me escapism, a reprieve in duties in the cult, even though I knew that sometimes, I wouldn't be believed and I'd be severely punished. That's how important nature became to me in those tough years. 

All these hikes marked me and gave me lasting, positive memories, through the storm that my childhood had been. 

Aside for escapism, they also gave me a sense of control and rebellion ; hikes kept me in shape ; I ate a few things that were healthy, and helped counter-balance the many occasions in which I had been deprived of meals as punishments, which had caused some nutritional deficiencies and malnourishment. 

Looking forward to my hikes and nature communes gave me some hope and psychological energy to endure my harsh realities one more day, one more moment. They reinforced me and sustained me. 

Over the past few decades, science has proved the numerous benefits of nature, viewing it, or being in it - even for the short time that we must make in order to go to it in our modern and busy lifestyle. For example, research showed hospital patients with views of nature, like trees in the windows, helped sooth and improve their healing process, as opposed to those who had only walls to look at. 

Evidence actually supports the associated benefits between common types of nature experiences, and the reduction in risk and possible burden of some types of mental illness - thus, the direct correlation to be made is that exposure to nature improves our mental health, whilst making struggles with mental illness a lower difficulty. 

Nature is all around us, even in the middle of the city. Some people are lucky enough to have access to a private garden. I have one such access, but not in my building. I help my mother in hers. We had planted veggies and herbs, and she already had flowers, adding beauty to the surroundings, and used to have fruit trees as well. 

We'd work the soil, plant, water and maintain, and harvest food we had chosen and helped grow. It has an immense beneficial  effect of knowing what you're eating and rewarding after all the work!  Not to mention the fact you're outside doing this, possibly breathing fresher air than the streets next to your home, inhaling fragrances from the soil, flowers, veggies and fruits, whichever you've got there. 

At home, I have a pretend garden : I grow sprouts! For this, I rinse seeds or beans, for example chickpeas, soak overnight, and then change water 2-3 times a day (in summer 3-4), and after a certain number of days, take off the paper towel or the towel (used to cover to keep the seed away from light), and then let them grow in indirect light till they're ready - still changing water as necessary. The same as gardening, I love this low-key effort, where I get to harvest and eat my own crops. 

Even if you have no garden, you could potentially grow your own sprouts.  If you have a decent lighting at home, you could have house plants, much in the same way. But, sprouts and home plants are a minimal form of nature, I think. 

So, off you and I can go to any of our respective city's public botanical gardens, parks or even animal refuge - most of us enjoy contact with them, either with pets or with wilder animals, from birds to insects to mammals and reptiles. Petting animals, photographing animals or plants, collecting leaves and other plant pieces (cones, bark, whatnot) for art projects or simply as a volunteer/employee cleaning up are all contacts with nature. 

I think that science's proving of all kinds of benefits was bound to happen. After all, as humans, we are also animals, just of a different kind. All of us, with no exception, is a creature born on a planet filled with nature - even if many people have to travel to meet it in full force, full bloom and representation. We are part of nature and nature is part of us. (how treehugger of me). 

In relation to my social phobia, then quite unbearable, and my hobbies (entry 15 from 26 Feb 2016) : 

Trips are limited geographically and in time, for fear of panic attacks that occur in unknown lands and populated, while a nature walk resources me emotionally, psychologically and physically, and do not cause too many social problems despite the few people I meet - even on weekends, because I go further than the majority of walkers and strollers. 

Thus, as an adult, my contacts with nature had a dual aspect : on the one hand, an avoidance of people, so was serving as a maladaptive coping mechanism, but still had, on the other hand, positive effects on my mind, emotions, and was a physical exercise to help my body. 

I stated in my a-z self-care routines (entry 253 from 22 June 2017) : 

Nature helps recharge me with fresh air; I love hiking in the mountains, and the woods around us, for physical exercise and practicing digital photography (macro’s my favorite). 

As you saw above, and in a few other entries, peppered on this blog, and possibly from my photography blog, I love nature, hiking in it and taking photos, to avoid people - especially in my worst days of social phobia, but even once I made progress with it, thanks to CBT, I still love going to nature, close and farther, to replenish and refuel. As an aside, photography as an artistic endeavor, has its own benefits. 

In short, nature is all around you (like Dolby Surround). It's filled with flora and fauna, small and big, in multitudes of colors, sizes and shapes. Science proves both the benefits to one's overall mental health, and as a healing tool to reduce or make struggles with mental illness more bearable. Go be in it and let it bring solace to your mind and body.