Nature Therapy for Mental Peace: The Benefits of Spending Time in the Great Outdoors

Nature therapy, also known as ecotherapy, is a form of therapy that involves spending time in natural environments for the purpose of improving mental health and well-being. In this guide, we will explore the benefits of nature therapy and how you can incorporate it into your life for greater mental peace.

Nature therapy has a number of benefits for mental health and well-being, such as:

Reduced stress and anxiety: Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety levels by promoting a sense of calm and relaxation.
Improved mood: Exposure to natural environments has been linked to improved mood and increased feelings of happiness and well-being.
Increased focus and creativity: Spending time in nature can help improve focus and increase creativity by providing a break from the distractions of modern life.
Better sleep: Spending time in nature can help improve sleep quality by promoting a sense of relaxation and reducing stress levels.

Incorporating nature therapy into your life is easy and can be done in a number of ways, including:

Take a walk: One of the simplest and most effective ways to experience nature therapy is to simply go for a walk in a natural environment. Whether it’s a park, a forest, or a beach, take some time to immerse yourself in the environment and take in all the sights, sounds, and sensations.
Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment and focusing on your thoughts and sensations. When you are in a natural environment, try to focus your attention on your surroundings, and practice mindfulness to increase your sense of calm and relaxation.
Volunteer in nature: Volunteering in a natural environment, such as at a park or nature reserve, can help you connect with nature while also doing something good for the environment.
Participate in outdoor activities: Activities such as hiking, camping, and fishing can provide opportunities to spend extended periods of time in nature, further promoting a sense of calm and relaxation.

Tips for making nature therapy a habit

Make it a priority: Set aside time each week to spend in a natural environment, and make it a priority.
Get outside: Even if it’s just for a few minutes, make an effort to get outside and spend time in nature on a daily basis.
Find a natural environment that works for you: Some people prefer the calm and serenity of a forest, while others prefer the energy of a beach. Find the natural environment that works best for you and make it a regular part of your routine.
Share with others: Spending time in nature with friends and family can be a powerful way to increase your sense of well-being. Make it a point to spend time in nature with others, and share your experiences and observations.

Nature therapy is a powerful tool for improving mental health and well-being. By spending time in natural environments, you can reduce stress and anxiety levels, improve mood, and increase focus and creativity.

Get started today and experience the many benefits of nature therapy for yourself!

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Nature Therapy for Mental Peace,

Benefits of Spending Time in the Great Outdoors

Nature Therapy for Mental Peace: The Benefits of Spending Time in the Great Outdoors

(GP:)How to Make A ‘Self Care’ Kit

Will Mental Health Care Improve?

(GP:)How to Make A ‘Self Care’ Kit

The most common question you lovely people ask me is “I’m worried about a friend who’s struggling – what can I do to help?”. As much as we may want to, we can’t make the storm clouds disappear; but what we can do is hold their hand and walk with with them through the rain. It can also be extremely difficult to encourage your friend to open up to you about what’s going on; just let them know that you’re there for them whenever they are ready, if not through words then through a gesture. A ‘self care kit’ is a thoughtful and inexpensive way to help a friend through a rocky patch. Equally, it’s a wonderful kit to create for your self! Here are some of my suggestions for what to include, but it can of course be tailored to the recipient:

Colouring: the current ‘adult colouring’ craze means we have an almost overwhelming selection of beautiful colouring books to choose from in any stationery shop we set foot in. It is also just as easy (and a great deal cheaper) to print out some blank mandala patterns or online colouring pages. I find that colouring is immensely calming when I’m feeling anxious, so I now carry a colouring book and pack of colourful pens with me almost everywhere I go!
Bath bombs/ bubble bath: we all need to pamper ourselves sometimes, “almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you”
A Candle: I love watching candles, I can quite literally sit and stare at them for hours! They’re a great distraction AND they make your room smell lovely!
Nail varnish: a fun colour or something sparkly – it will give you something relatively productive to concentrate on (and for quite a while if your hands are as shaky as mine!)
Photos: be it a group photo from a friend’s birthday or a hilariously unflattering snapchat that you couldn’t not save – pictures really do speak a thousand words in that they can sometimes make us smile at a time when no amount of words can
An Uplifting Playlist: make a list of songs that make you feel better: disney, some cheesy S-Club-7, that song you overplayed on your girls’ holiday, or perhaps some from my recovery playlist
Films/ Videos: put in your favourite childhood DVD, or as we live in the high-tech world we do, you could write down some Netflix recommendations. You could even include a list of youtube URLs (funny cat videos make everything better)
Quotes: (I really do love quotes!) Write out a couple of your favourites on little pieces of paper. If you’re lost for inspiration here is the link to my Recovery Board on Pinterest
Tea: throw in a bundle of your favourite tea-bags: green tea, fruit tea, camomile or english breakfast – whatever floats your boat! (if you really don’t like tea then hot chocolate is always an option – supermarkets stock little sachets in all sorts of groovy flavours!)
Support network ( + contact numbers): write the recipient’s name in the middle of the paper (this can be yourself!) and mind-map all the people that make up their ‘support system’. You can get as creative as you like with this; perhaps have one branch for friends, one for family, one for professionals and so on. Don’t forget to include contact numbers/ emails – let the person know that there will always be someone available if they want to reach out, no matter what time it is!
Face paints / Henna: this one is particularly targeted, though not exclusive, to self harm. Drawing an intricate henna pattern or covering your arms in beautifully painted flowers is a creative alternative that really worked for me
A Letter: write down all those things you’ve been trying to put into words but couldn’t quite get across – how far they have come and all the reasons why they should keep going. And yes, it is perfectly acceptable (and extremely healing) to write a letter to yourself!

Olivia In Wonderland
Olivia Rose
www.oliviainwonderland.wordpress.com

Nami Self Care

nami.org/your-journey/family-mmembers-and-caregivers/taking-care-of-yourself

Very Well Mind Self Care

Active Minds Self Care

CHECK OUT “FILL YOUR LIFE WITH SIMPLE JOYS”

Will Mental Health Care Improve?

Mental health care is an important aspect of overall health and well-being, and it is important to consider whether it will improve in the future.No one can predict the future with certainty, but mental health It is hoped that care will continue to evolve and improve.

One reason for hope is that mental health is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of public health .This perception is reflected in the growing interest in mental health in both the public and private sectors. Governments and health organizations are investing more resources in mental health research, treatment and education. This increased focus on mental health can lead to improved care for those who need it . Another reason for optimism about the future of mental health care is the development of new and effective treatments.

Our understanding of mental illness and its treatments has advanced significantly in recent years. For example, advances in psychotherapy have led to the development of evidence-based treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that have been shown to be effective in treating various mental illnesses. Additionally, advances in pharmacology have led to the development of new, more effective drugs for mental illness.

The rise of telemedicine and virtual mental health care has made mental health care easier for people to access.

The pandemic has made telemedicine an increasingly important tool in providing mental health care.This is especially important for those who live in rural areas or are unable to leave their homes due to physical or mental illness, as telemedicine is more convenient and less expensive than face-to-face care. , easy access to the care you need. Another factor that can contribute to improved mental health care is reducing stigma around mental illness. People with mental illness have faced stigma and discrimination for too long. This stigma makes it difficult for people to seek help and makes it difficult for mental health professionals to provide the care people need.

As we become more accepting, this stigma is likely to continue to decrease, making it easier for people to seek help and for mental health professionals to provide effective care.

While the future cannot be predicted with certainty, there is reason to be hopeful that mental health care will continue to improve in the years to come. The growing recognition of mental health as an essential aspect of overall health, the development of new effective treatments, the rise of telemedicine, the reduction of stigma around Mental illness and increased focus on health both have the potential to help improve mental health future care.

Tags: will mental health care improve?, telehealth, mental health care,telehealth

Nature Therapy for Mental Peace: The Benefits of Spending Time in the Great Outdoors

(GP:)How to Make A ‘Self Care’ Kit

Will Mental Health Care Improve?

Nature Therapy for Mental Peace: The Benefits of Spending Time in the Great Outdoors

(GP:)How to Make A ‘Self Care’ Kit

Will Mental Health Care Improve?

Feeling Unwanted, Unloved? Do this…

Feeling Unloved,Feeling Unwanted... Do This

Journaling is one of the best types of calming methods/coping mechanisms that i’ve seen. Therapists that I’ve worked with highly recommended to every single one of their patients. Many people swear by it, myself i’m not the best at it.My journaling usually just becomes short notes and but we’ll get into that. The point is today we’re going to talk about this incredible method of calming your mind and easing those emotions, it’s journaling. The great thing about journaling that I really want to touch on is just taking whatever is up in your mind box and putting it out there into the real world on the paper.

Now some of you may know, when you talk out a problem it sometimes makes more sense when you verbalize it. It’s almost the same thing, you can actually just start writing out what is going wrong and it can you detach from what’s happening to you when putting it right on paper. Once it’s on that paper now you can work with it, now it’s information that is out there for you to try to view it subjectively.

That is a beautiful point where you can actually make some change or realize that you know something that you’re dwelling on, i’m not saying it is not a big of a deal or maybe you actually realize that it doesn’t have as much importance. Or you realize the problem is manageable whatever it is you’re going to come to your own conclusion while writing things out but you’ll realize that writing it out does have the potential to help.

If you don’t want to write out what’s going on, then you can actually journal about positive things. I mean why not
journal about positive things, that’s unheard of. (sarcasm) You can actually journal about things that you’re grateful for. I usually start my day with a 5 to 10 list of things I’m grateful for. I try to go from tangible to intangible things Obviously i’m going to be grateful that I have a roof over my head but then I want to be grateful for the positive relationships that I have with my significant other.

I try to focus on something that I have an emotional tie to, so the more specific we get, the more makes you feel better because you’re going into those emotions instead of staying stuck in the kind of crappy emotion you’re in right now.Not only can you journal about positive things and the negative things that are going on, you can also just write stories.

I love writing stories. As kids we may have loved hearing ridiculous stories that our parents have told us, some of you may not, some of you may love listening to your parents read your textbooks or something. The point is, make a story make a story of something funny, something scary, a romance novel do whatever just start

writing.

Knowing that you have something that you can go to whenever you’re feeling stressed out you can remember “oh I can go and work on my story” and then you can get immersed in that world that you’re creating yourself. You get to have the control over everything and having control in one aspect it may be just a small little world that you created but having that control really is beneficial to your emotions, it does help out a lot.

The last two wonderful things I want to touch on for journaling is really just write down things you like, it could be the color blue, it could be flowers, it could be lamp, it could be anything just just write down something that you like.That can make you feel better. Don’t write one thing don’t just write two things, make a list of lots of lists of things that you like. That’s gonna point out that there are things in this world that make you happy because sometimes when you’re feeling depressed, anxious, like you hate the world…sometimes the greatest thing to do is point out the things that you like even if it’s a few.

The other thing that is fantastic to journal about is things that you look forward to so it could be something that you’re going to do that you’re excited about. It may be even going to just your niece’s basketball game, but it’s something that you are looking forward to. You can also include your goals as the things you look forward to.Write down your goals every single day, so you have something to go to and you can say look this is what I want. Then you can make a plan say okay, now this is what i’m going for.

When you’re feeling bad and you’re focusing on where you want to be or what you want to do, sometimes it helps you get through it.

Especially if you’re in school right now, you got four years, six years, eight years, having that reminder can help you feel closer to that end goal and give hope. Feeling better can be a huge mountain to look at but when we add these coping skills to our tool belt, each day has the possibility of getting easier.

Tags: Feeling Unloved, Feeling Unwanted, Do This, The Great Thing About Journaling, Positive Things, Negative Things, Things I'm Grateful For

Bottling It Up Works Super Well

Bottling It Up Doesn't Work

We’re going to focus on one of those negative coping skills that is honestly one of the worst things that you can do. I know that sounds dramatic but it honestly is, besides using drugs or alcohol to cope with your emotions. Ignoring your emotions altogether honestly that is one of the worst things you can do to yourself. Ignoring, pretend like it’s not happening and just bottling it up is not helpful.

Emotions aren’t those things that can just go away if you stop focusing on them, they don’t just disappear.They may subside or lessen for the time being but unless you deal with what’s going on, they’ll just keep coming back and coming back and the next time it comes back it could be worse.

If you ignore it, it’s still there, the problem does not just magically get handed off to the problem fairy who takes care of it and then tomorrow you wake up and there’s no more issue. A problem gets solved when you deal with it. Dealing with your emotions is a more difficult battle because usually it involves getting to the root of that emotion, initially what the is cause, what is the trigger and then finding ways to cope with it.

Getting assistance outside of yourself works well because you don’t have to do it alone, there are people that you can talk to whether that be a professional, a friend or whether that just be a peer who understands what you’re going through. No matter what is you need to find the proper way to deal with your emotions

It’s like if you were a kid first time driving mom’s car and you just so happened to dent it and it looks dreadful. Instead of letting her know and dealing with it, you’re gonna try and hide it by parking the car in a strategic spot so your mom doesn’t see it . Then when she finally sees it, you say “oh my, what happened, what happened somebody hit your car mom.” The problem wasn’t dealt with, she knows you lying and you still feel like crap for denting your mom’s car.When a problem is not dealt with, it persists until there is an explosion. I know that was just a terrible example sorry but you get my point.

If you take anything away from what I said today, do not bury it down do not bottle it up. Open up talk to somebody look for help. Looking for help does not mean always going to the hospital and finding a therapist. Getting help means finding somebody to talk to or finding youtube videos and figuring out also what calms you what makes you happy and what helps.

Tags:Bottling It Up, Negative Coping,Finding Somebody To Talk To,Finding Ways To Cope

Why Am I Like This?

We’re really going to address how family can be the most toxic thing in your life. Now when I say that i’m not saying that all families are toxic, that is obviously a very bold statement. What i’m trying to say is that the family dynamic can have a lot of influence on anybody involved. There are different aspects of this dynamic that can lead to many mental illnesses that are emotional based and some psychosis based as well.

When you look at your family, they are technically the closest human beings to you. Closest in proximity, in your relationships, and closest based off of time. For the most part, the family is who you’ve been with since day one, not only that, the’ve been responsible for your upbringing. Many of you may know the first five to seven years your life, your brain’s like a sponge, soaking up everything from your surroundings. For the beginning years of your life, your family is it, that is your life, your way of survival is your family. They are also your school.

Teaching your social skills and how they treat you for many years of your life may be the way you perceive as normal. Think about that.

The horrible fact about this is this is where you truly get your self-worth from. If you were treated poorly, you may see this is the norm and you also identify that as the treatment you expect to receive. When you go out into the real world, that’s what you look for. People don’t look for abusive relationships but they find the people that are most like their family members. The subconscious and conscious mind correlate the negative behavior with the norm of how they’re supposed to be treated, no matter how wrong it is.

A family truly has the ability to make someone’s life easier or extremely difficult so be conscious because your words in your family carry more weight than you’ll ever know. If i’m speaking to a parent right now, be conscious of the way you talk to your children. That is the most important thing in the world. You are defining their value of themselves and their understanding of how the world is.

If you have a child, you are taking care of a young person, or if you’re taking care of anybody, you treat them with love and respect. That will ensure the type of individual you will put out into the world, shows love and respect and looks for that in their relationships.If not, a toxic parent or toxic family members can make or break someone’s perceptions, making life more difficult for them. It is not guaranteed to ruin anyones life, but takes more time for them to change their perceptions on the world and they need to have better people come around.

If you take anything from what I said today, show your family love. You never know how much your words mean to your family members and to your young ones make sure that they see the best that they see the right way to treat others. Teach them that they are valuable that they matter because later on in their life it will make a big difference

Tags:Why Am I Like This, Toxic, Love and Respect,Toxic Parent

How About We Stop Saying

Stop Saying

You know those things that people say that you’re just like, “why do you think that is socially acceptable to say that?”
We’re gonna address those. People sometimes make just the wrong comments when it comes to our personalities, our bodies, our
appearance. They may think they’re being nice or helpful when really they’re just being kind of an ass.

“you should eat more”
“looking a little thin”
“maybe you shouldn’t eat so much”
“maybe you should watch your portion size”
“oh my gosh you’re wasting away”
“you know I got this wonderful remedy for facial acne it will clear that right up in a week”
“did you know charcoal is super good for cleaning out the yellow teeth and all the plaque and whatnot?”
By now I think you get the point, all of these comments are coming from a well-intentioned place but these are pretty hurtful comments especially if you’re dealing with self-image issues. These comments are really just unnecessary.

If someone doesn’t ask, don’t make the comment. There’s a rule, it’s if you cannot fix the issue within 30 seconds then don’t make a comment about it.That means if it is about someone’s body weight, about a skin condition, about a stutter anything that cannot be fixed in 30 seconds then there is no need for the comment. It’s absolutely okay to say hey you got a little something hanging right there in your teeth, or you got something on your shirt or your zipper’s undone, depending.

If you take anything away from today, there is no reason to be making comments about things that people cannot fix immediately.

Tags: Stop Saying, Cannot Fix, Think They're Being Nice

Alcohol And Mental Health

Alcohol, So many people seem to love it. It seems like where I grew up everybody loved alcohol there was maybe two or three people that I knew that I can count that actually didn’t drink, believe it or not I actually didn’t have my first sip of alcohol until right before 21 years old, it was like two months before my birthday and actually the reason why I did it was because my one of my teammates that I was close to had passed away, my grandmother passed away and my aunt passed away within two months of each other.
It was a lot and I thought maybe a little bit of alcohol could help.

I never used it before, never drank the stuff never cared for it. I have alcoholism in my family so I see what it does to people, but I was like you know what I can try it for myself and see what it’s like. I was thinking I deserve a little bit during this rough time right?

The problem is, how easy it can get out of hand. Some of you may know the times when you are emotionally drinking it gets out of hand, but then it is usually ever better afterwards right? No it’s usually a lot worse, usually if you’re having a crappy day or you’re having a crappy month or a crappy year and you add alcohol to it, it definitely doesn’t not make things better. Maybe for
a moment you feel a little bit better but i’m pretty sure the decisions you make and how you physically feel afterwards, do not make it worth it.

When you feel like alcohol is something you need to go to especially when you’re upset, you need to be conscious of that, start removing it from the house, remove the temptation, stop yourself from going out to drink. We have to make the plan to stop ourself from doing something that’s counter productive to your emotions. When your body thinks,” oh yeah I can deal with this stress because i’m about to go have a drink anyways.’ You are not developing any type of coping mechanisms beside pushing it off to the side and pushing it down and guess what, you know the answer, it does not help.

Alcohol is never a good coping mechanism. I’m sorry to say this but a lot of my co-workers from the medical field used to drink after work. It can be very emotionally draining if you’re in the mental health field, or any type of first responder, and you’ve had a rough day after 8, 16 hours, 20 hours of working with people who are experiencing the worst times of their life, their emotions are all time high, they’re feeling terrible.

All of that ends up on us, and then we go home and think” okay i’m gonna have my beers to help me calm down and settle in for the night,” that is you coping with what you happen in your day and that is not healthy because you’re not dealing with what you experienced in the work day.

You’re not dealing with it up front, whatever you’re feeling and you’re just choosing to throw the bottle in push it down call it a day we’re good, go to sleep, wake up to do it all over again. You’re going to resent your job your family life’s going to fall apart and you’re going to either do something drastic or your health is literally just going to decline until you give up on everything.

I’ve watched people let their emotions control them and then they give up and it’s because they used alcohol as a coping skill. I know some of you out there say” hey i’m a talented drinker I have those skills I can do it,” no you can’t, it’s bad for you. If you’re using it to drown out your emotions it needs to stop. If you need somebody to talk to you have me, you have my team, you have your peers around you, and there are therapists as well.

We need to change the culture of using alcohol as the go-to for making us feel better. How about be a kind caring person to your friends and create a positive community. I know I sound like this utopian believing, mr.head-up-in-the-clouds but guess what I’ll tell you one thing that I realized from living here in Hawaii, that there are a lot of people who are kind, supportive and they actually care about your emotions and your feelings. You don’t need to be here to experience that, just find those people talk to them. When you feel like you need a drink give them a call.

We can’t take the easy route to deal with our emotions, because it just makes the road that much harder in the long run.

Nature Therapy for Mental Peace: The Benefits of Spending Time in the Great Outdoors

Nature therapy has a number of benefits for mental health and well-being, such as:

Incorporating nature therapy into your life is easy and can be done in a number of ways, including:

Tips for making nature therapy a habit

Will Mental Health Care Improve?

Tags: will mental health care improve?, telehealth, mental health care,telehealth

Top 10 Self-Care Solutions

Exercise

Sleep

Healthy Eating

Mindfulness

Self-Reflection

Social Support

Hobbies

Nature

Gratitude

Give Back

Feeling Unloved,Feeling Unwanted... Do This

Tags: Feeling Unloved, Feeling Unwanted, Do This, The Great Thing About Journaling, Positive Things, Negative Things, Things I'm Grateful For

Bottling It Up Doesn't Work

Tags:Bottling It Up, Negative Coping,Finding Somebody To Talk To,Finding Ways To Cope

Why Am I Like This?

Tags:Why Am I Like This, Toxic, Love and Respect,Toxic Parent

Stop Saying

Tags: Stop Saying, Cannot Fix, Think They're Being Nice

Alcohol And Mental Health

Tags: Alcohol And Mental Health, Need A Drink, Drown Out Your Emotions, Emotionally Drinking, Alcoholism