A look at how even brief interactions with nature – like listening birdsong or watching sunsets – have cumulative positive effects on mood, life satisfaction and mental clarity.
This post was published in honour of Mental Health Awareness Week (12-18 May 2025).
Introduction
For many of us, spending time in nature helps us relax and restabilise after a difficult day. When we’re under a lot of pressure, we might naturally seek out green spaces, sometimes without realising it. It can be a thought as simple as ‘I need to get out of the house because I’ve been looking at the same four walls all day’, or ‘I need some peace and quiet away from the house’. Even a small slice of nature, like feeling sunshine on our skin, can bring us a greater peace of mind.
This is the idea behind ‘everyday nature’; it’s an understanding that nature doesn’t need to be impressive or grand for it to have a positive impact on us. It can be small, familiar or right on our doorstep.
Finding places of everyday nature near you can be a great and accessible resource for those days that feel a little harder than usual. Although they are free-to-use and local to your area, they may be harder to reach for people with restricted mobility or other access needs, and it can be a challenge to find time in a busy schedule to make the most of them. However, there are examples, like The Conservation Volunteers Manchester and Community Integrated Care’s collaboration with WWF, The National Trust, and RSPB, of initiatives in nature spaces to help minimise these barriers and make sure that green spaces are accessible to everyone.
Defining ‘everyday nature’
Everyday nature can be anything around us that helps us tune into the natural world. It can be birdsong that you hear through an open window. Watching the clouds change shape in the sky is another example. Everyday nature can also be in our homes, through houseplants or cut flowers. Their green leaves, bright colours and sweet perfumes can help reorient your focus from your regular routine, and slow down your thinking. Even something as simple as a local tree in your neighbourhood can be an impactful type of everyday nature. Watching how the wind makes its branches dance, or running your hands along its bark, can help settle an anxious mind. Believe it or not, watching nature documentaries are also shown to improve our sense of connection to the natural world.
Tiny moments, tangible effects
In 2021, The Mental Health Foundation published a report titled ‘Nature: How connecting with nature benefits our mental health’. The report discusses the idea of ‘connectedness’, which looks at the quality of our relationship with nature. This quality is described as ‘the way we relate to and experience nature’. When we have a strong feeling of nature-connectedness, ‘we are often happier in life, feel our lives are more worthwhile and have lower levels of depression and anxiety.’
The report also shares findings from a YouGov poll conducted by The Mental Health Foundation for Mental Health Awareness Week. This poll focused on the relationship between nature and improved mental health. 73% of surveyed UK adults said that connecting with nature had been important in terms of managing their mental health during the pandemic, with 45% reporting visiting green spaces such as parks as a top coping strategy. 49% of surveyed adults also said that being close to nature helped them cope with stress. The study found that, actually, an increase in noticing nature had more positive effects on mental health than an increase in time spent in nature. These changes in a person’s relationship with nature were shown to contribute to improvements in their wellbeing, ‘particularly in feelings of life being worthwhile’.
‘Contact with nature generates an increase in positive emotions and feelings of vitality, and a decrease in negative emotions; it also provides relief from mental tiredness, and an improvement in our attention span.’
The Mental Health Foundation (2021) Nature: How connecting with nature benefits our mental health, p12
The study identified five different types of activity that can increase people’s connection with nature. These are called ‘pathways to nature connectedness’, and can be seen in the image below taken from the report.
The Mental Health Foundation (2021), Mental Health and Nature: How connecting with nature benefits your mental health, [diagram] ‘The five pathways to a new relationship with nature’, p15.
What we’ve observed in our work
These positive benefits have also been reflected in our findings in The Abundance Project. We have seen this primarily through Work Package 1, led by Dr Meg Jensen. An aspect of this work package involved our Community Voice Champions going out in their communities to collect stories from their community members. The questions they asked were:
- What has been your experience of using green and cultural assets available in your area/community? These include things like local parks, churches, museums, theatres, garden centres, community centres etc.
- How does that experience affect your personal life and working life?
Here are two stories we’d like to highlight, gathered by two Community Voice Champions from members of their community responding to the two questions above.
Story 1
Every day, I walk through [local park], where a peaceful river flows through. Birds nest in the trees, ducks swim along the water and sometimes, I see fish jumping. I stand on a little bridge, listening to the gentle sound of the water as it flows over rocks and under the bridge. It’s so calming, like the water is washing my worries away. Here, I can breathe and feel at peace. I found this comfort in nature after a very hard time in my life. […] I felt lost and empty, unsure of what to do. Slowly, I started to feel better by spending time in nature. Walking through the parks, caring for my garden and working in my allotment gave me something positive to focus on. My garden is now filled with colourful flowers and small lights that make it glow in the evening. These green spaces make me feel connected, calm and strong again. Nature has become my refuge. [The park] and my allotment are where I feel peace and strength, reminding me that life goes on. These places have given me hope and a chance to start again.
Story 2
My most favourite part of the day and what I look forward to every morning is my daily ritual of going to the park each morning to watch the sunrise. It is so therapeutic. Initially, I was looking for a way to start my day outside but this daily event has become such an important part of my routine that I try not to miss it. Its easier in the winter than in the summer. In the summer I try and catch the sunset. Witnessing this phenomenon each day is a huge part of my life each. The fresh air, the calmness and seeing the park transform its colours is something that cannot be described. I watch the world around me waking up or getting ready for the night. My sunrise and sunset routine has been life changing. I used to be on certain medication but this has made a huge difference in my mental health. Starting my day with such peace or ending it with such a beautiful sight has really helped me focus and stay positive throughout the day. Being able to see nature in its true beauty has been invaluable in managing my stress. It really has improved my overall mood and I feel so much more energetic than I used to.
These stories show the big impact that noticing everyday nature — like a sunrise or ducks swimming in a river — can have on your mental wellbeing over time. For the community members our Community Voice Champions spoke to, it helped them feel connected to the people around them, clear their minds from distractions or worries, and feel their lives were more purposeful.
Simple ways to bring nature into your life
If you’d like to bring everyday nature into your life, but you’re not sure where to start, here are a list of some simple ways to begin. You can:
- Listen to some nature soundscapes — tune into Earth.fm, a growing library of over 1000 nature soundscapes from around the world.
- Keep a ‘noticing nature’ journal — On your phone, in a notebook, or as an audio recording, make a note of bits of everyday nature you find. What did you notice? How did it make you feel? It can be as simple as ‘I passed the tree outside the bus stop today, and noticed the leaves beginning to grow. I was surprised. Seeing them made me happy, because I feel like spring is coming.’
- Observe one type of everyday nature over time — Focus on one thing, like the tree from your window or even the sky, and watch it over several days. Pay attention to how it changes, and how it makes you feel.
Conclusion
Taking care of our wellbeing and sense of happiness is important, but it can sometimes feel impossible. In this article, we’ve learned about the ideas of ‘everyday nature’ and nature ‘connectedness’. These show, through evidence and research, that taking care of ourselves doesn’t have to always be through grand gestures; it can be through small acts of noticing, watching, listening, or smelling. Building a habit of noticing the everyday nature around us can help us concentrate better, manage stress and even feel more fulfilled in our lives. We’ve seen this in our own research in The Abundance Project too, as seen from the stories gathered by Community Voice Champions from members of their community.
Starting a new habit can be daunting, which is why we’ve given you some resources and examples for how you can start. We hope this helps you feel empowered to give connecting to a nature a try, and to see the big benefit of making a small change.
Reference
The Mental Health Foundation (2021), Mental Health and Nature: How connecting with nature benefits your mental health. Available from: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/MHAW21-Nature-research-report.pdf [Accessed 21 May 2025].
As The Abundance Project progresses, we will be sharing more of our findings, reflections and updates on this blog. Please keep coming back and checking what we have posted. Thank you!