Green Prescriptions For Mental Health
The science behind prescribing outdoor activities for mental health - and how The Green Prescription Club is here to change lives on Substack.
Welcome to The Feel Good Life! A newsletter about health, prevention, empathy, and hope. Join me, Dr. Mariana, as I explore all sides of good health and a good life. New here? Get started.
Back in June, while brainstorming and researching on the next topics for the newsletter, I was reminded of a very special movement that has been going around for approximately two decades. Some healthcare systems have been introducing it to their practices (when time allows) helping improve people’s health and lives. I just knew then that I needed to bring this to my readers.
I’m talking about Green Prescriptions.
If you’re new to this concept, here I explain all about it. To give you a quick overview, this is it:
In essence, it’s an invitation and series of prompts to get more involved in Nature-based activities, as prescribed by a healthcare provider.
These activities can go from exercise and healthy eating to engaging in hobbies, group activities and other forms of socialisation as an enhancer of physical, mental, emotional and immune health, just to mention a few benefits.
There is strong evidence showing the effectiveness of green prescriptions across public healthcare systems worldwide.
I decided to create The Green Prescription Club right away and make it part of my newsletter. It’s been 4 months since and the club continues to grow. I see new people joining, being interested, curious to know more, both online and offline.
Just in the last month I got approached by two different people who showed deep interest in my work. One of them asked if I could do a personalised green prescription for their audience. I was delighted! After a month of talking back and forth, this became a reality. Thanks to
from The Editing Spectrum for seeing the beauty and potential of the green prescriptions, and for wanting to bring it to her readers. I loved creating this personalised green prescription for her audience.On another random day, as I was leaving the gym after an evening session, I got talking with one of the attendees. Turns out she works in healthcare, specifically in mental health. We both felt super interested in each other’s work so we connected to share more and maybe even do a collaboration together. This was two months ago.
Last week, after some talks and brainstorming, we finally came together to offer the first-ever in-person Green Prescription for the students at RAMH North Ayrshire Wellbeing & Recovery College in Scotland. Thanks to
for an inspiring collaboration work. I loved every second of it. ❤️Huge steps forward in the Feel-Good universe, my people!
As a doctor, I have always felt like I didn’t belong in hospitals.
It took me a long while to accept it, and now all I want is to embrace the uniqueness in me. Back in 2019, convinced that health could also be done outdoors rather than inside four walls, I started doing open-air health talks at the park in Barcelona. It was a hit! I ran them for 5 months…then pandemic came. Even though we were forced to stop, my creative bug wouldn’t stay put.
After getting my mojo back, and after having recovered from the post-pandemic havoc we suffered in healthcare, I knew I needed to continue the outdoors work. Prevention was now needed more than ever.
That’s how I decided to leave my job and bet everything on this work which is larger than me and larger than life. I just knew I needed to show up differently in the world in order to bring all this knowledge for everyone to learn from. That’s how this newsletter began, exactly a year ago. And with it, new ideas and ventures as I build this mission. That’s how the Green Prescription Club was born. That’s also how my stress-management course, these health guides and this massively resourceful page were also born.
This past month has brought exciting moves on many fronts around this newsletter and I couldn’t be happier about it.
To prescribe outdoors and nature rather than medication (as possible) it’s like a dream come true. Plus the science backing up every single activity we can prescribe is fascinating. It’s a fact: connection to nature has a biological impact in our brains, enhancing its activity, boosting better mood, improving sleep, stimulating creativity, balancing a person’s emotional state, and above all, teaching how it is to feel our bodies, thoughts and emotions in healthy ways.
Change is possible. And it begins here.
Being in nature is a catalyst for mental health.
With a balanced sense of self, we are more prone to enjoy calmer, happier lives and better relationships. This topic has attracted scientists' attention for a long time, making them research the brain in reaction to nature, and guess what? They keep finding encouraging results:
“Research using EEG and other measures to study brain activities during nature exposure find that rhythmic brain activity indicates better attention, higher functional connectivity and altered sensory processing. These findings correspond with increased focus, cognitive flexibility and creativity.”
The Max Planck Institute in Berlin has also carried out studies showing how just a 60-minute walk in nature can have a positive impact on the brain, especially when comparing people who live in cities vs. rural areas:
“A central brain region involved in stress processing, the amygdala, has been shown to be less activated during stress in people who live in rural areas, compared to those who live in cities, hinting at the potential benefits of nature.”
The full scientific study is here. Despite its technical language, it’s quite fascinating, in case you want to have a read.
It’s no secret that stress is a common ingredient in modern living (here’s a really clear example). More people everywhere are trying to find ways to decompress and ground themselves from the daily rush. It is proven that whether at home or at work, a small time spent outside—be it a garden, terrace, park, or simply walking, bird-watching, or enjoying the movement of clouds in the sky (cloud-watching is a thing!)—will allow you to balance difficult emotions into a calmer state of mind almost instantly.
Spending time in nature is an absolute health enhancer. Mind (an amazing site I love to use as reference) puts it clearly:
“Spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing. For example, doing things like growing food or flowers, exercising outdoors or being around animals can have lots of positive effects. It can:
improve your mood
reduce feelings of stress or anger
help you take time out and feel more relaxed
improve your physical health
improve your confidence and self-esteem
help you be more active
help you meet and get to know new people
connect you to your local community
reduce loneliness
help you feel more connected to nature
provide peer support.” (Source)
As you can see, there’s a lot of great science showing us how spending time outdoors is extremely good for our mental health. It’s not something new but it seems like society is finding all this new awareness in relation to how we live in modern times, especially when it comes to city living and office/corporate working style.
Hence why I am so invested in making Green Prescriptions visible and available to people online, everywhere in the world. What better example than what we lived through Covid pandemic: being confined to our homes, with little access to the outdoors, feeling the tension of lacking sunshine and greenery on daily basis. May we never forget, and may we use this as the biggest example and proof on how we need nature for mental health.
The Green Prescription Club has already been exploring regular activities for 5 months, and I intend to keep it going, inviting you to change your relationship to nature and your health.
Take note because our next green prescription is coming in 5 days!
Also? Next week we’re officially celebrating The Feel Good Life’s first anniversary!
Stay tuned because so much goodness is coming your way, both for free and paid subscribers. Plus big updates on where I plan to take us all as we hit it off in year #2 of the Feel Good Life. 😉
I’m sharing this exciting update from Barcelona, where the sun is shining and an avalanche of ideas, hope, and inspiration are flooding my creative brain. As I walk through my old neighbourhood and former job, I feel lucky to ponder on the last 12 months, with all its changes and this meaningful work I’ve been able to create. This city brings out the best in me every single time. May it long continue.
Above all, thank you all for being here! Without you, none of this would possible. 😃 Onwards!
Until next time, when we put our birthday hats on,
Dr. Mariana
A fascinating post and great work, Mariana! As part of my day job, I recently interviewed a scientist in Hong Kong who's researching this area. Interestingly, they have even found that a virtual exposure to nature can have a beneficial impact on well-being.
This is so amazing Mariana! A couple of years ago, I went back to uni to study for a Master of Environment. As part of that, I studied therapeutic horticulture and the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening - using nature in hospitals and schools and as a prescription to improve mental health. The research on this is so interesting and goes back decades. So much more research was done during Covid lockdowns, showing how much better off people were who had access to gardens and nature. Anyway, it's so great to see you moving into this space!