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Unmind is a mental health platform that empowers staff to proactively improve their mental wellbeing. Using scientifically backed assessments, tools and training you can measure and manage your personal mental health needs, including digital programmes designed to help with stress, sleep, coping, connection, fulfilment and nutrition.

They have now extended their free offer and are offering free access to NHS staff until the 31 December 2024.

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Unmind is a mental health platform that empowers staff to proactively improve their mental wellbeing. Using scientifically backed assessments, tools and training you can measure and manage your personal mental health needs, including digital programmes designed to help with stress, sleep, coping, connection, fulfilment and nutrition.

They have now extended their free offer and are offering free access to NHS staff until the 31 December 2022.

How NHS staff can get access

Access: Unmind

Sign up with your NHS email address

Download the Unmind app from your app store

Your organisation name is 'NHS' - if you do not see your NHS email domain please contact support@unmind.com and include your email domain.

Access: Unmind

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Unmind is a mental health platform that empowers staff to proactively improve their mental wellbeing. Using scientifically backed assessments, tools and training you can measure and manage your personal mental health needs, including digital programmes designed to help with stress, sleep, coping, connection, fulfilment and nutrition.

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Does the smell of flowers make you happy?

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Does the smell of flowers make you happy?

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Yes it does!

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Why can the smell of flowers make you happy?

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Sticking your nose in a bouquet bursting with aromas and scents can lift the spirits and the soul whilst also transporting you outside. The scent of flowers has long been an inspiration and ingredient for perfumes & beauty products, and these scents can instantly take us to other places, evoking people and memories.

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How connecting with nature benefits our mental health

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How connecting with nature benefits our mental health

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Fascinating read, full of evidence and suggestions for change

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Mindfulness is a skill or state...
Meditation is one of the ways that you can train the mind to achieve mindfulness.
You don't need to meditate to be mindful and meditation may have other goals than meditation...

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No one would blame you for not wanting your body to be infested with creatures from your garden. But maybe you should rethink your position.

Your garden has its own microbiome, and research suggests it's good for you. Our health depends on the flourishing microbiome in our guts-and on how much of the natural world's microbiome we let infiltrate.

Lately, thanks to modern life, we don't let in a lot. But in a string of pioneering studies, scientists are beginning to look at what would happen if we literally inject microbes from the soil into our bodies, reintroducing us to the ancient relationship between bacteria and human. So far, the results have been uplifting-to both the scientists and the subjects they study.

In 2004, Mary O'Brien, an oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, published a paper with unexpected results: She injected lung cancer patients with a common, harmless soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, to see if it could prolong their life. M. vaccae had some success in earlier trials where it was tested for its abilities to fight drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis and boost immune system response. O'Brien thought maybe the bacteria could help her patients' immune systems beat back the cancer in their lungs. It failed.

Only, it succeeded elsewhere: the bacteria injection "significantly improved patient quality of life," O'Brien wrote in the paper detailing the findings. Her patients were happier, expressed more vitality, and better cognitive functioning-in short, it reduced the emotional toll of advanced cancer.

A few years later, Christopher Lowry, a neuroscientist at the University of Bristol, injected M. vaccae into mice and subjected them to a series of stress tests. The ones inoculated with the bacteria showed far less stressed behavior than their untreated counterparts-in fact, they acted as if they were on antidepressants. In a 2007 paper published in the journal Neuroscience, Lowry and his team wrote that the bacteria activated groups of neurons in the mouse brains responsible for producing serotonin-a neurotransmitter that, when impaired, can cause depression. Even more intriguingly, the neurons that lit up were also known to be related to immune response, suggesting an intimate connection between the immune system and emotional health.

The world of biomedical research has already fallen in love with the promising realm of the human gut microbiome. A body of emerging evidence tells us the millions of microbes in our digestive tract influence our immune systems, our smells, our , and possibly even our attractiveness to mosquitoes-and to other people. But M. vaccae expands this thinking to the microbiome of the pile of mulch in your backyard.

There's now pretty good evidence to draw at least an outline of a conclusion: Breathing in, playing in, and digging in dirt may be good for your health. Our modern, sterilized life in sealed-off office buildings and homes are likely not. Researchers have already found clear evidence that childhood exposure to outdoor microbes is linked to a more robust immune system; for example, Bavarian farm children who spent time in family animal stables and drank farm milk had drastically lower rates of asthma and allergies throughout their lives than their neighbors who did not.

But the rest of us, not raised on farms, may be missing out on that sort of protection. Some counterbalance, like spending time in a garden, might change that.

One reason dirt is so good for us might be M. vaccae, which, after Lowry's 2007 paper, emerged on the scene as a sort of celebrity bacterium. Papers published since have described feeding mice M. vaccae-laced peanut butter sandwiches, and watching them race through challenging mazes far faster than their counterparts, suggesting the bacteria gave them a significant brain boost, in addition to apparently elevating their mood. That paper also demonstrated that eating the bacteria, instead of injecting it, could still give the mice those benefits. Which suggests eating trace amounts of it from garden vegetables, or breathing it in, may be too, for humans.

Good news: you can get the stuff anywhere. Step out to your yard, or the neighborhood park, and you're likely to encounter some M. vaccae. The bacteria lives naturally in soil, though what factors make soil more or less abundant with M. vaccae are still being investigated (a team led by Lowry is in the process of inspecting 300 soil samples from across the US and Europe for the tiny creatures). Have a garden? Even better. Grow some food: "A three to four leaf spinach plant has over 800 species of bacteria inside it," Lowry says; eating straight from the garden might be one route to more M. vaccae in your life.

Don't have a garden, and not a fan of getting dirt under your nails? M. vaccae may be in your municipal water supply, too: Lowry, together with University of Colorado-Boulder microbiologist Noah Fierer, have embarked on an endeavor they call The Showerhead Microbiome Project, which is exactly what it sounds like: They're soliciting samples of water from people's showerheads across the US and Europe, to see whether and how many mycobacterium- M. vaccae included-live there. Of course, every showerhead microbiome will be different; they hope to assess what factors (like the type of tap water supplied by your city, or what type of showerhead you use) make it more or less hospitable to different bacterial colonies.

Old as dirt

Imagine, for a moment, if the word "parasite" didn't elicit grimaces. What if "fungus" wasn't gross, and "bacteria" sounded more like, say, the word "electrolytes" does to us now?

Our ancestors lived for centuries with a host of ancient parasites, fungi, and bacteria (including M. vaccae) and didn't mind at all. "We've forgotten that these were beneficial," says Emeran Mayer, a gastroenterologist and neuroscientist at the University of California-Los Angeles and author of The Mind-Gut Connection. "They might have caused an initial infection, but could then live in symbiosis with us," Mayer says. Many of these organisms evolved alongside humans, and likely the entire line of mammals we descended from, too. "The benefit we got was that we had a much more clever immune system that didn't attack our own selves."

That's according to the "old friends" theory developed by University College London microbiologist Graham Rook in the early 2000s when the "hygiene hypothesis" didn't seem to be able to explain why autoimmune conditions like allergic asthma were on the rise even in so-called "unhygienic" cities. The hygiene hypothesis pinned skyrocketing allergic and autoimmune disease rates on just our modern obsession with cleanliness; the "old friends" hypothesis casts a wider net of blame, implicating modern medicine's aggressive antibiotic use, pasteurized food, indoor living, and anything else that is eradicating these "old friends" from our systems.

Take Helicobacter pylori, for example. Roughly half the population carries H. pylori in their guts. But after scientists found aggressive strains of the bacteria played a role in gastritis, ulcers, and stomach tumors in the 1980s, eradication became a priority. Since the 1950s, clean drinking water had already driven H. pylori rates down in richer countries, but now antibiotics were loosed on the bacteria, too, in sick patients. But as Scientific American noted, researchers began noticing children without H. pylori in their stomachs had higher rates of skin allergies, while other research found being a host for the bacteria provided some protection against gluten intolerance. H. pylori, it seems, is a very old friend; scientists are whether re-infecting mice with milder strains of the bacteria might offer any immune protection.

It's in your head, too

If you want to understand how an ancient soil bacteria might ward off anxiety and depression, then you need to take the "old friends" theory about modern immune dysfunction, and combine it with another biomedical concept researchers are just beginning to understand: The immune system and the brain are intimately connected. And in turn, scientists are finding more and more proof that depression and other mental health conditions are associated with prolonged inflammation-a sure sign of an immune system problem.

Up until relatively recently, immune responses and brain activity were considered functions of separate systems. But "at least half the brain cells are not nerve cells, but are immune-like cells," Mayer says, referring to "glial" cells, which are now understood to communicate intimately with our central nervous systems. "It's quite clear now that anything going on with the immune system can correspond with the brain."

The portion of American adults taking antidepressants nearly doubled between 1999 and 2012, rising from 6.8% of the population to 13%. Depression among teens, especially, is on the rise, by multiple measures: for example, teens in the 2010s were twice as likely to see a professional about mental health issues and significantly more likely to experience classic depression symptoms than their 1980s counterparts.

Could the trend in depression rates be related to the rise in immune conditions and the chronic inflammation that comes with them? Possibly. The science is in its infancy, but when Christopher Lowry, the neuroscientist, injected mice with M. vaccae and watched some of these immune-linked neurons light up, he knew he was on to something.

In 2016, Lowry, now at UC-Boulder, again injected mice with M. vaccae, and subjected them to a series of stressful scenarios to see just how effective bacteria was at reducing anxiety.

If you're wondering how you can tell a lab mouse is anxious, picture yourself paralyzed by fear of making a risky decision, and then perhaps not making one at all. Mice do this too; their anxiety is measured as a conflict between "approach and avoidance" when researchers place them in unpredictable situations. "We like to think of it as unpredictable situations where you have unpredictable outcomes. So if you're a teenager and you want to ask someone out to prom, you can anticipate different outcomes," Lowry says. Will your desired date say yes or no? "Those situations create these anxiety states, where there's uncertainty about outcomes." That uncertainty may cause a more anxiety-prone teenager to freeze, and not ask their crush out to prom at all.

Mice can't do the prom test, but they sure do get anxious about mazes, especially if only half the maze has protective walls. In Lowry's test, the other half, or "arm," of the maze was a sort of elevated gangplank; instead of being confined by walls, they were hemmed in by the threat of falling off on either side. "Mice naturally avoid open spaces where they're vulnerable. On the other hand, they naturally like to explore new spaces because they find new rewards," Lowry says. "Something that makes a mouse more anxious will cause them spend more time in the closed arms," forgoing the potential reward of exploring an open space. But the mice injected with M. vaccae readily explored the open parts of the maze, apparently unstressed. The bacteria also reduced the colon inflammation typically seen in stressed-out mice.

In another case, the researchers placed individual mice in the same enclosure as a dominant, alpha-male mouse, which usually triggers a classic dominant-subordinate relationship immediately. "The subordinate position is an uncomfortable place to be," Lowry says. But the mice treated with M. vaccae seemed to not notice. They showed 50% less of the typical flight-or-freeze behaviors the same scenario triggered in untreated mice. And they showed less submissive behaviors for weeks after treatment.

"These were dramatic shifts. We consider it a more proactive response to stress, rather than passive," Lowry says. That distinction is important: "We know in humans, PTSD is a passive response to stress."

Lowry wants to know if this humble soil bacteria be a key for treating PTSD, a sometimes treatment-resistant condition. Together with Lisa Brenner, the director of Veteran Affairs Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center in Denver, he has begun research with veterans suffering from PTSD and mild traumatic brain injury.

"We're using a probiotic we know has immunoregulatory properties similar to M. vaccae. We're also exploring pursuing clinical trials for PTSD and depression." It's a long way off, but these are first steps to seeing if a "vaccine" of sorts for PTSD and depression is possible.

For now, the research seems to at the very least to bolster what gardeners have been saying for centuries: Gardening is great therapy.

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Dirt has a microbiome, and it may double as an antidepressant

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No one would blame you for not wanting your body to be infested with creatures from your garden. But maybe you should rethink your position.

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Mindfulness. It's a pretty straightforward word. It suggests that the mind is fully attending to what's happening, to what you're doing, to the space you're moving through. That might seem trivial, except for the annoying fact that we so often veer from the matter at hand. Our mind takes flight, we lose touch with our body, and pretty soon we're engrossed in obsessive thoughts about something that just happened or fretting about the future. And that makes us anxious.

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we're doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on around us.

Yet no matter how far we drift away, mindfulness is right there to snap us back to where we are and what we're doing and feeling. If you want to know what mindfulness is, it's best to try it for a while. Since it's hard to nail down in words, you will find slight variations in the meaning in books, websites, audio, and video.

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we're doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on around us.

Mindfulness is a quality that every human being already possesses, it's not something you have to conjure up, you just have to learn how to access it.

The Types of Mindfulness Practice

While mindfulness is innate, it can be cultivated through proven techniques. Here are some examples:

1. Seated, walking, standing, and moving meditation (it's also possible lying down but often leads to sleep);

2. Short pauses we insert into everyday life;

3. Merging meditation practice with other activities, such as yoga or sports.

The Benefits of Mindfulness Practice:

When we meditate it doesn't help to fixate on the benefits, but rather to just do the practice, and yet there are benefits or no one would do it.

When we're mindful, we reduce stress, enhance performance, gain insight and awareness through observing our own mind, and increase our attention to others' well-being.

Mindfulness meditation gives us a time in our lives when we can suspend judgment and unleash our natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching our experience with warmth and kindness -to ourselves and others.

8 Facts About Mindfulness:

1. Mindfulness is not obscure or exotic. It's familiar to us because it's what we already do, how we already are. It takes many shapes and goes by many names.

2. Mindfulness is not a special added thing we do. We already have the capacity to be present, and it doesn't require us to change who we are. But we can cultivate these innate qualities with simple practices that are scientifically demonstrated to benefit ourselves, our loved ones, our friends and neighbors, the people we work with, and the institutions and organizations we take part in

3. You don't need to change. Solutions that ask us to change who we are or become something we're not have failed us over and over again. Mindfulness recognizes and cultivates the best of who we are as human beings.

4. Mindfulness has the potential to become a transformative social phenomenon. Here's why:

5. Anyone can do it. Mindfulness practice cultivates universal human qualities and does not require anyone to change their beliefs. Everyone can benefit and it's easy to learn.

6. It's a way of living. Mindfulness is more than just a practice. It brings awareness and caring into everything we do-and it cuts down needless stress. Even a little makes our lives better.

7. It's evidence-based. We don't have to take mindfulness on faith. Both science and experience demonstrate its positive benefits for our health, happiness, work, and relationships.

8. It sparks innovation. As we deal with our world's increasing complexity and uncertainty, mindfulness can lead us to effective, resilient, low-cost responses to seemingly intransigent problems.

Mindfulness Is Not All in Your Head

When we think about mindfulness and meditating (with a capital M), we can get hung up on thinking about our thoughts: we're going to do something about what's happening in our heads. It's as if these bodies we have are just inconvenient sacks for our brains to lug around.

Having it all remain in your head, though, lacks a feeling of good old gravity.

Meditation begins and ends in the body. It involves taking the time to pay attention to where we are and what's going on, and that starts with being aware of our body

That approach can make it seem like floating-as though we don't have to walk. We can just waft.

But meditation begins and ends in the body. It involves taking the time to pay attention to where we are and what's going on, and that starts with being aware of our body. That very act can be calming, since our body has internal rhythms that help it relax if we give it a chance.

How to Sit for Meditation Practice

Here's a posture practice that can be used as the beginning stage of a period of meditation practice or simply as something to do for a minute, maybe to stabilize yourself and find a moment of relaxation before going back into the fray. If you have injuries or other physical difficulties, you can modify this to suit your situation.

1. Take your seat. Whatever you're sitting on-a chair, a meditation cushion, a park bench-find a spot that gives you a stable, solid seat, not perching or hanging back.

2. Notice what your legs are doing. If on a cushion on the floor, cross your legs comfortably in front of you. (If you already do some kind of seated yoga posture, go ahead.) If on a chair, it's good if the bottoms of your feet are touching the floor.

3. Straighten-but don't stiffen- your upper body. The spine has natural curvature. Let it be there. Your head and shoulders can comfortably rest on top of your vertebrae.

4. Situate your upper arms parallel to your upper body. Then let your hands drop onto the tops of your legs. With your upper arms at your sides, your hands will land in the right spot. Too far forward will make you hunch. Too far back will make you stiff. You're tuning the strings of your body-not too tight and not too loose.

5. Drop your chin a little and let your gaze fall gently downward. You may let your eyelids lower. If you feel the need, you may lower them completely, but it's not necessary to close your eyes when meditating. You can simply let what appears before your eyes be there without focusing on it.

6. Be there for a few moments. Relax. Pay attention to your breath or the sensations in your body.

7. Begin again. When your posture is established, feel your breath-or some say "follow" it-as it goes out and as it goes in. (Some versions of the practice put more emphasis on the outbreath, and for the inbreath you simply leave a spacious pause.) Inevitably, your attention will leave the breath and wander to other places. When you get around to noticing this-in a few seconds, a minute, five minutes-return your attention to the breath. Don't bother judging yourself or obsessing over the content of the thoughts. Come back. You go away, you come back.

8. That's it. That's the practice. It's often been said that it's very simple, but it's not necessarily easy. The work is to just keep doing it. Results will accrue.

Try This Beginner's Mindfulness Meditation:

A 5-Minute Breathing Meditation To Cultivate Mindfulness. This practice is designed to reduce stress, anxiety, and negative emotions, cool yourself down when your temper flares, and sharpen your concentration skills.

Learn more About Mindfulness:

Explore the science of mindfulness, learn how to meditate, and how to practice mindful movement, plus dispel some of the myths of mindfulness with Mindful's Getting Started Guide.

Becoming more aware of where you are and what you're doing, without becoming overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on around you. Read More

As more and more of us seek mindfulness guidance and instruction, where should we turn to find teachers and programs we can trust and recommend? Read More

Your day-to-day activities offer ample opportunities to call up mindfulness in any moment. These simple practices will breathe space into your daily routines. Read More

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What is mindfulness? Are you supposed to clear your mind, or focus on one thing? Here's the Mindful definition of Mindfulness.

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"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks" - John Muir
As well as the conservation work Froglife does for amphibians and reptiles across the UK, we also run projects that promote education amenities and research activities for the benefit of the public. We run wildlife projects for disadvantaged young people and those with dementia, such as our Green Pathways, Green Pathways for Life and Leaping forward for Dementia projects. A common issue amongst our participants is mental health, especially coming out the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Eco therapy style project is based on scientific research that suggests being outdoors and connecting with nature, have hugely positive effects on individuals.

As countries become increasingly urbanised, the world's population is spending increasingly less time exposed to natural environments (Cox et al, 2018). It has been reported that 55% of the world's population live in urban areas and this is expected to increase to 68% by 2050 (United Nations, 2018). Unfortunately, urbanisation not only means spending less time in natural environments but more time destroying them and reducing the number of green spaces around the globe (Collins, 2014). Aside from the detrimental environmental effects of this, loss of these green spaces and time spent in them could have hugely negative effects on people's mental health and well-being.
Positive Physiological effects
There is growing evidence to suggest that being in nature has positive effects on people's mental health. Studies have shown that green spaces can lower levels of stress (Wells et al, 2003) and reduce rates of depression and anxiety, reduce cortisol levels (Park et al, 2010) and improve general well-being. Not only can a simple walk in nature boost your mood but also improve your cognitive function and memory (Berman et al, 2012). Green spaces can provide a buffer against the negative health impacts of stressful life events. A Dutch study showed that residents with a higher area of green spaces within a 3km radius had a better relationship with stressful life events (Van den Berg et al, 2010) which was soon to be increasingly important in recent years with the effects of COVID-19.

So what is it about natural environments that are good for mental health and wellbeing?

Something as simple as exposure to natural environments can be physiologically restorative (Conniff et al, 2014). This means that being in a natural outdoor environment can have positive mental health effects due to the physical processes elicited in the body. A Japanese study showed that viewing and walking in forest environments can promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rates and blood pressure when compared to city environments (Park et al, 2010). These physiological effects are all a counter to the physical effects stress causes in the body and are what happens when you relax. A recent study found that those who had access to natural spaces during the COVID-19 lockdowns had lower levels of stress and those that could view nature from home had reduced psychological distress (Ribeiro et al, 2021).

There are multiple psychological theories as to how nature helps our mental well-being. The two common prevailing theories on how nature brings about these positive effects are the Stress Reduction Theory (SRT) coined by Ulrich (1981) and Kaplan et al's (1989) Attention Restoration Theory (ART). SRT suggests that nature promotes recovery from stress and that urban environments have the opposite effect. Ulrich proposes that being in unthreatening natural environments (a green space you would consider safe) activates a positive emotional response. That being in nature produces this as a universal innate connection, promoting the physiological effects of lower blood pressure, heart rate and increases attention which in turn blocks negative thoughts and emotions (Ulrich et al, 1991). Kaplan et al's ART works around the idea that we have different types of attention: voluntary or involuntary, and that the latter requires no effort. After using voluntary attention we experience 'attention fatigue', reducing our cognitive abilities and increasing mental fatigue. According to Kaplan et al, when we use our involuntary attention it gives us time to restore our voluntary attention. From this, Kaplan et al have suggested that what nature provides acts as a restorative power by providing four processes:

Being away - an opportunity to distance from routine activities and thoughts.

Soft fascination - nature holds attention effortlessly: think about the sunsets, sound of water, leaves blowing in the wind all-natural phenomena allowing your voluntary attention to rest.

Extent - nature provides an immersion experience, engaging the mind and rest from concerns.

Compatibility - a setting that is well matched to human needs and desires, providing a feeling of being in harmony with a greater whole.

Mental Health and Nature Policy
These two theories have much in common: they focus on cognitive vs autonomic processes and both support a change in attention and stress load when an individual interacts with the natural environment (Gregory N. Bratman, 2012). However, they differ in how they suggest the primary mechanisms work. The effects the theories suggest are blurred in the sense of cause and effect: does a reduction in stress levels allow someone to concentrate better or does replenished direct attention help reduce stress?

Both these assertions are controversial in the field of environmental psychology, yet much research falls under either both or one of these theories.

To what degree these theories influence policy is debated but it is clear that in recent years, especially after the recent pandemic, that nature spaces are becoming an increasing priority for mental health provision. Research has evidenced that we need to shift our attention from focusing on people visiting green spaces to how we interact and connect with nature close to home through simple activities (Mental Health Foundation, 2021). The Mental Health Foundation suggests from their research findings that we need to focus on six main areas in policy:
Promotion of Physical activity

1. Facilitating connection with nature

2. Protecting the natural environment and restoring biodiversity

3. Improving access to nature

4. Making green spaces safe for all

5. Using the planning system and urban design to improve the visibility of nature in every local area

6. Developing a life - long relationship with nature.

Through our projects at Froglife we provide ways for people to interact with the environment instead of simply just being in it.

Green spaces such as nature reserves, wilderness environments and urban parks also promote certain behaviours, such as encouraging physical activity within the space, which is a pro-mental health behaviour. Experimental studies have shown that not only do green spaces promote experience but they may be better for mental health than activity in other environments. Those that perform exercise in natural environments once a week are at about half the risk of poor mental health as those that don't (Mitchell, 2013). Participation and involvement in nature is often tied to physical activities such as gardening or farming, trekking or running: the evidence of the benefits of this promotes the idea that green spaces should be seen as an essential health resource (Pretty, 2004).
References
There are many more benefits associated with natural green spaces. However, in terms of mental well-being, greener areas have been associated with a sustained improvement in mental health, highlighting the significance of green spaces, especially in urban areas. They provide not only a habitat for wildlife but also sustainable public health benefits (Alcock et al, 2014). Many studies have shown that more time spent in nature is associated with better mental health, independent of culture and climatic contexts, as well as the promotion of physical activity.

In addition to the wildlife and environmental benefits of conserving nature spaces, especially in urban areas, we also benefit in many ways from these natural spaces. This gives us even more reason to continue to protect our wildlife and conserve our natural areas and green space.

Alcock, I, et al., 2014. Longitudinal Effects on Mental Health of Moving to Greener and Less Green Urban Areas. Environmental Science & Technology , 48, 1247-1255.

Berman, M.G, et al., 2012. Interacting with nature improves cognition and affect for individuals with depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 140, 300-305.

Bratman, M.G, et al., 2012. The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (Issue: The Year in Ecology and Conservation Biology), 1249, 118-136.

Collins, A.M., 2014. Destruction of urban green spaces: A problem beyond urbanization in Kumasi city (Ghana). American Joural of Environmental Protection, 3, 1-9.

Conniff, A, et al., 2016. A methodological approach to understanding the wellbeing and restorative benefits associated with greenspace. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 19, 103-109

Cox, D.T.C, et al., 2018. The impact of urbanisation on nature dose and the implications for human health. Landscape and Urban Planning, 179, 72-82.

Kaplan, R, et al., 1989. The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mental Health Foundation, 2021. Nature- How Connecting with nature benefits our mental health. Published on-line.

Mitchell, R., 2013. Is physical activity in natural environments better for mental health than physical activity in other environments? Social Science & Medicine, 91, 130-134.

Park, B.J, et al., 2010. The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing): evidence from field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine, 15, 18-26.

Pretty, P. J., 2004. How nature contributes to mental and physical health. Spirituality and Health International, 5, 68-78.

Ribeiro, A.I, et al., 2021. Exposure to nature and mental health outcomes during COVID-19 lockdown. A comparison between Portugal and Spain. Environment International, 154 article 106664.

Ulrich, R. S., 1981. Natural Versus Urban Scenes: Some Psychophysiological Effects. Environment and Behavior 13, 523-556.

Ulrich, R. S., et al., 1991. Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 11, 201-230.

Van den Berg, A. E, et al., 2010. Green space as a buffer between stressful life events and health. Social Science & Medicine, 70, 1203-1210.

Wells, N.M. & Evans, G.W., 2003. Nearby Nature: A Buffer of Life Stress among Rural Children. Environment and Behavior, 35, 311-330.

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Croaking Science: The benefits of green spaces and nature on mental health

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"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks" - John Muir As well as the conservation work Froglife does for amphibians and reptiles across the UK, we also run projects that promote education amenities and research activities for the benefit of the public.

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While London is a busy urban city, there are a surprising number of green spaces and 'green opportunities'. The report suggests prescribing people to community activities (gardening, walking, conservation and more, could prevent or improve mental and physical health problems, reducing strain on overstretched NHS services.

The report highlights some wonderful examples, including the Ital Community Garden run by Coco Collective. Since 2020 they have secured funding from Lewisham Council to deliver gardening on social prescription for people with mild to moderate mental health needs for two days each week. They also have regular community programming, which is open to all.

Another example includes our collaboration with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust to run the Blue Prescribing Project, which invites participants to attend a six-week course at the London Wetland Centre, which helps build connections with nature.

Dr Ben Plimpton, author of the report and Project Manager at the Mental Health Foundation, said:

"The expansion of green social prescribing in London offers a unique opportunity to improve the mental health of all residents and has the potential to make the biggest difference for Londoners at greatest risk of poor mental health.

Not all of us live near a forest, but most have access to a park, river, stream or a shared or friend's garden. In cities and urban areas, there are often community gardens, initiatives for growing or gardening, social groups and more. There's often lots going on nearby that could benefit you."

Dr Tom Coffey OBE, Mayoral Health Advisor, said:

"Londoners face huge challenges and pressures, and the Mayor and I are doing all we can to support those who are at risk of poor mental health as we build a fairer and better London for all.

Green social prescribing can make a significant difference to help improve mental and physical health, and this study shows the potential of our capital's nature and green spaces to support Londoners, tackle inequalities and reduce the pressure on our NHS."

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Nearby nature and green spaces could benefit the mental health of Londoners

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This research, with support from the Mayor of London's office, explains how activities such as community gardening, growing, walking and social groups can help Londoners and reduce the strain on busy NHS services.

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https://www.minded.org.uk/Component/Details/513054

This NHSE eLfH training session aims to give an overview and define what mindfulness is. It will look at the evidence base for it and provide information on further resources and support.

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With the rise of managed health care, which emphasizes cost-efficiency and brevity, mental health professionals have had to confront this burning question: How can they help clients derive the greatest possible benefit from treatment in the shortest amount of time?

Recent evidence suggests that a promising approach is to complement psychological counseling with additional activities that are not too taxing for clients but yield high results. In our own research, we have zeroed in on one such activity: the practice of gratitude. Indeed, many studies over the past decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed.

The problem is that most research studies on gratitude have been conducted with well-functioning people. Is gratitude beneficial for people who struggle with mental health concerns? And, if so, how?

We set out to address these questions in a recent research study involving nearly 300 adults, mostly college students who were seeking mental health counseling at a university. We recruited these participants just before they began their first session of counseling, and, on average, they reported clinically low levels of mental health at the time. The majority of people seeking counseling services at this university in general struggled with issues related to depression and anxiety.

We randomly assigned our study participants into three groups. Although all three groups received counseling services, the first group was also instructed to write one letter of gratitude to another person each week for three weeks, whereas the second group was asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences. The third group did not do any writing activity.

What did we find? Compared with the participants who wrote about negative experiences or only received counseling, those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended. This suggests that gratitude writing can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns. In fact, it seems, practicing gratitude on top of receiving psychological counseling carries greater benefits than counseling alone, even when that gratitude practice is brief.

And that's not all. When we dug deeper into our results, we found indications of how gratitude might actually work on our minds and bodies. While not definitive, here are four insights from our research suggesting what might be behind gratitude's psychological benefits.

1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions

First, by analyzing the words used by participants in each of the two writing groups, we were able to understand the mechanisms behind the mental health benefits of gratitude letter writing. We compared the percentage of positive emotion words, negative emotion words, and "we" words (first-person plural words) that participants used in their writing. Not surprisingly, those in the gratitude writing group used a higher percentage of positive emotion words and "we" words, and a lower proportion of negative emotion words, than those in the other writing group.

However, people who used more positive emotion words and more "we" words in their gratitude letters didn't necessarily have better mental health later. It was only when people used fewer negative emotion words in their letters that they were significantly more likely to report better mental health. In fact, it was the lack of negative emotion words-not the abundance of positive words-that explained the mental health gap between the gratitude writing group and the other writing group.

Perhaps this suggests that gratitude letter writing produces better mental health by shifting one's attention away from toxic emotions, such as resentment and envy. When you write about how grateful you are to others and how much other people have blessed your life, it might become considerably harder for you to ruminate on your negative experiences.

2. Gratitude helps even if you don't share it

We told participants who were assigned to write gratitude letters that they weren't required to send their letters to their intended recipient. In fact, only 23 percent of participants who wrote gratitude letters sent them. But those who didn't send their letters enjoyed the benefits of experiencing gratitude nonetheless. (Because the number of people who sent their letters was so small, it was hard for us to determine whether this group's mental health was better than those who didn't send their letter.)

This suggests that the mental health benefits of writing gratitude letters are not entirely dependent on actually communicating that gratitude to another person.

So if you're thinking of writing a letter of gratitude to someone, but you're unsure whether you want that person to read the letter, we encourage you to write it anyway. You can decide later whether to send it (and we think it's often a good idea to do so). But the mere act of writing the letter can help you appreciate the people in your life and shift your focus away from negative feelings and thoughts.

3. Gratitude's benefits take time

It's important to note that the mental health benefits of gratitude writing in our study did not emerge immediately, but gradually accrued over time. Although the different groups in our study did not differ in mental health levels one week after the end of the writing activities, individuals in the gratitude group reported better mental health than the others four weeks after the writing activities, and this difference in mental health became even larger 12 weeks after the writing activities.

These results are encouraging because many other studies suggest that the mental health benefits of positive activities often decrease rather than increase over time afterward. We don't really know why this positive snowball effect occurred in our study. Perhaps the gratitude letter writers discussed what they wrote in their letters with their counselors or with others. These conversations may have reinforced the psychological benefits derived from the gratitude writing itself.

For now, the bottom line is this: If you participate in a gratitude writing activity, don't be too surprised if you don't feel dramatically better immediately after the writing. Be patient and remember that the benefits of gratitude might take time to kick in.

4. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain

About three months after the psychotherapy sessions began, we took some of the people who wrote gratitude letters and compared them with those who didn't do any writing. We wanted to know if their brains were processing information differently.

We used an fMRI scanner to measure brain activity while people from each group did a "pay it forward" task. In that task, the individuals were regularly given a small amount of money by a nice person, called the "benefactor." This benefactor only asked that they pass the money on to someone if they felt grateful. Our participants then decided how much of the money, if any, to pass on to a worthy cause (and we did in fact donate that money to a local charity).

We wanted to distinguish donations motivated by gratitude from donations driven by other motivations, like feelings of guilt or obligation. So we asked the participants to rate how grateful they felt toward the benefactor, and how much they wanted to help each charitable cause, as well as how guilty they would feel if they didn't help. We also gave them questionnaires to measure how grateful they are in their lives in general.

We found that across the participants, when people felt more grateful, their brain activity was distinct from brain activity related to guilt and the desire to help a cause. More specifically, we found that when people who are generally more grateful gave more money to a cause, they showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. This suggests that people who are more grateful are also more attentive to how they express gratitude.

Most interestingly, when we compared those who wrote the gratitude letters with those who didn't, the gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.

Though these are just the first steps in what should be a longer research journey, our research so far not only suggests that writing gratitude letters may be helpful for people seeking counseling services but also explains what's behind gratitude's psychological benefits. At a time when many mental health professionals are feeling crunched, we hope that this research can point them-and their clients-toward an effective and beneficial tool.

Regardless of whether you're facing serious psychological challenges, if you have never written a gratitude letter before, we encourage you to try it. Much of our time and energy is spent pursuing things we currently don't have. Gratitude reverses our priorities to help us appreciate the people and things we do.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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