Nature time doesn’t have to mean driving a long way to hang out in a national park or to swim at the beach. There’s a lot of things we can do to connect with nature from our backyards and neighbourhoods. All you need is 20 minutes and the ability to physically touch the earth.
Nature time can also be incorporated into our daily routines. Here’s some ideas to get your daily nature time:
Start your day by drinking your coffee/tea or having your breakfast outdoors with your shoes off.
Do some of your daily exercise routine on a grass patch with your shoes off, rather than in a gym. For example, sit-ups, push-ups, squats, running, skipping.
(Don’t be afraid to have your shoes off in nature. It’s what they’re designed for and they are well equipped to keep out pathogens and other nasties!)
Spend some of your dog walking time without shoes on while you’re traversing a natural ground surface.
Play with your kids in your yard or at a park with your shoes off. Of course, encourage them to do it too.
Start watching your children’s sporting games on the grass, rather than on a chair.
Take just a few of your work phone calls outside while sitting or standing in the yard.
Check your emails at a local park.
Take your lunch breaks in the city at the Botanical Gardens.
Stargaze while lying on the earth.
Sit around a fire in your yard.
You can also connect with nature by being an active participant in the ecosystems that surround you. Start consciously supporting the ecosystems you live in by:
Create a backyard that is habitat diverse with leave litter, rocks, many different plants and water.
Install habitat boxes.
Hang a bee hotel.
Leave water out for the birds and bees.
Gift an area of your yard back to nature by not poisoning or manicuring it. Let whatever wants to live there, live there.
Compost your food waste and give the nutrients to the earth.
Plant native trees that will support the local native fauna. The more bugs they attract, the better!
Install an wildlife friendly fence that animals can traverse without getting eaten by dogs/cats.
Be kind to the wildlife that visit your yard – don’t shoo them away.
Spend the time getting to know the plants and animals that live in your space. The more you know about them, the more you can help support them.
For more tips like these, check out this post from Porch.com or my book ‘Earth Healing’. You can purchase it here.