Green Care

Ecotherapy

It really is a wonderful opportunity for our whole being fully to experience, explore and discover the all-embracing benefits of nature at a pace that suits us, and helps us with essential growth and restoration of our mind and body – of our whole being.

This way we can begin on the pathway to rebuild our confidence, self-esteem, resilience, life purpose, spiritual harmony and overall wellbeing, especially after traumatic experiences, whatever their causes.

We may be feeling very low or flat, be anxious or experiencing a form of post-traumatic stress. This green care path could help provide a practical, meaningful and sensitive way to begin our healing and build a renewed sense of safety and empowerment.

The green care path could guide you on your path to building a deep connection and a wonder for nature all around you. Through your whole body and mind you may begin to feel totally at one with nature, and doing so in safety.

Let’s look at some ways we could begin to achieve this deep connection and how green care may help us heal from our trauma:

• Let’s take our time to relax and take in the green all around us, the lavender on the slopes, the purple and white foxgloves, the bluebells.
• We see the wildlife all around as we take a few steps. Look out for a fox, a pheasant or perhaps the red squirrel.
• To feel the breeze on our face, the soft earth below your feet.
• We can smell the fragrance from the scots pine, the “coconut” aroma from the gorse, the scent of lavender floating in the breeze.
• Let’s reach out and touch a branch of an oak or beech; compare the bark with the texture of the bud or leaf.
• Now we listen; is that the buzzard we hear crowing as it glides on the thermals above us in the cloudless blue sky? Do we hear the small birds busy in the hedgerows? Perhaps a robin? A finch? A swallow?
• And we watch as the butterflies weave random yet beautiful patterns among the carpet of wild flowers. How many can we spot? Can we identify and record them? And can we spot the shiny blue dragonflies hovering over the meadow?
• Let’s take out a small sketchbook and draw a young oak tree, or a bluebell swaying in the breeze or the butterfly which has just landed on a foxglove.
• We could sketch a Korean Pine tree cone or the leaf of a large leaved Lime tree.
• Is that the bumblebee we can hear flying by just above the ground? Can we follow it as it inspects the many beautiful flowers in the glade?
• Let’s plant a blueberry tree or cherry tree or an oak tree.
• We could build a bird nest box or help with building a woodland path.

---