Health & Wellbeing

Being outdoors is good for us in so many ways. Ideally, a connection to nature established at a young age will develop healthy, lifelong behaviours. Evidence shows that being outside and connecting with nature can provide many health and well-being benefits including:

• opportunities to increase physical activity
• guarding against obesity and type 2 diabetes
• preventing Vitamin D deficiency
• reducing the symptoms of stress and ADHD
• contributing to dementia treatment
• promoting academic attainment
• developing employability skills
• helping to prevent the loss of environmental knowledge and understanding

These activities can be done by adults or can be adapted for children.

Do activities outdoors:

• Take a walk in a green space, such as a local park.
• Get creative. Draw or paint animals or nature scenes, or let them inspire a poem or song lyrics. If you enjoy writing in a journal, try doing this outside.
• Eat meals outdoors. Have a picnic in a local park, or simply sit in a garden. This might be something you could enjoy doing with other people.
• Watch the stars. Use a stargazing website, app or book to help you recognise different stars, or simply enjoy looking at the night sky. Give your eyes time to adjust, as it can take about 20 minutes before you can fully see stars in the dark.
• Try exercising outside. Run or jog through a local park, or do yoga outdoors. You could try it by yourself, or look for classes in your local area.