[Open House!] The Green Prescription Club: December 2024
A green, juicy update...In 2025 we are EXPANDING!
Welcome to The Feel Good Life! A special announcement today before getting started:
This month’s Green Prescription newsletter is open for everyone. I’m sharing big news and updates for 2025. 👀 Here’s everything I’m bringing to the newsletter on 2025. Check it out and don’t miss out!
Hello dear Green Prescriptioners!
I hope you’re doing well, maybe resting after the whole Christmas cheer, or simply embracing the calmness and quiet that can also come with this season wherever you are in the world.
I’m writing to you today from Costa Rica! Two weeks ago I left my Scottish home to spend a few months with family in the tropics—and fleet the winter! We’ve been planning this move for a while and we had been certainly looking forward to it. As much as we love our Scotland life, spending time together with my family has been a dream. Expect some sunny, tropical, beach updates in the next few months. 😎
Now, as you might’ve noticed, I didn’t send out a Green Prescription this month—totally on purpose!
I want us to take a moment to look back…
Since June 2024, we have completed six months of Green Prescriptions. It has been an amazing journey to say the least! I have personally enjoyed and learned so much while creating this project every single time. Not to mention the collaboration opportunities that have been sprouting from this, ranging from mental health organisations to companies advocating for their employees’ health, and it’s only getting started. The interest shown by so many, highlighting the Green Prescription’s potential, is fuelling my work to scale up this initiative. The work continues!
Now, Let’s Recap
This is what we have covered in our first semester of Green Prescriptions:
Month 1 - June 2024: Walking or Hiking
Month 2 - July 2024: Breathing
Month 3 - August 2024: Discovering New Green Spaces
Month 4 - September 2024: Stargazing
Month 5 - October 2024: Cloud-Gazing
Month 6 - November 2024: Gardening
Through each of these months, you have been able to learn new skills that have allowed you connect to your home, your garden, your town, and even yourself. Quite an eye-opener…I bet it has been a pleasant surprise to learn about health in this way!
I want us to take a rest, a space to recap, to pause, to slow down and look back. It’s common to use this time to think about all the things we experienced this year as it comes to an end. There’s also this hype to plan for the year ahead, to make new lists and create massive goals.
I don’t want you to do any of this, no.
Instead, I want you to simply stop, pull the breaks. Pause. In January, I want you to go through the Green Prescriptions. Maybe you resonated with one or two of them more than the others? What was your favourite one? What has been your greatest lesson through these months of Green Prescriptions?
Think back, relax, and recharge. Because in 2025 we are Expanding!
What’s Next?
We just enjoyed our first semester of Green Prescriptions in the way of a gentle dive through six different activities, motivating you to embrace more of the outdoors, go into nature, connect within, and spend quality time with yourself. In a way, this has been a (great quality) taster!
The Green Prescription journey has been, for the most part, a solo journey. We’ve had the calmness and the time to explore interesting topics and have fun with them on our own.
In 2025 we are aiming bigger. We are going for EXPANSION.
We will be taking more action as we grow this powerful green movement, expanding yourself, your awareness, your joy, your ability to play, your physical and mental strength, your connectedness to nature, and even your social activities—including us, the Green Prescription Tribe! We will take the Green Prescription and its amazing challenges to the next level.
During Season Two of the Green Prescriptions:
We will go on deeper dives into the topics that have (and will) continue to inspire us.
We will expand on the latest science, neuroscience, and updates behind the nature-mind-health connection.
We will discover new ideas to challenge ourselves as we head out to explore. Get ready for some Micro-adventures!
We will practice a new exercise as we invite others to join us.
You will create your own Green Prescription Movement (Yes yes! More on this soon.)
If you’ve been following these past six months, you are now one of the few people in the world who knows about Green Prescriptions—through my professional guidance. You’ve seen and felt the benefits on yourself. You know it’s been GOOD. And what happens with the good stuff that we love? We want to share it with the world.
And this is exactly what we are going to do!
The Green Prescriptions will continue to be a resource for paid subscribers.
As you know, I want to keep making health education accessible to all, and make health an exciting journey to embrace rather than a constant worry in people’s lives. This is why I’m expanding the Green Prescriptions into Season Two for people who are ready to be proactive about their health in 2025!
As a special occasion, and to get new readers inspired and well informed about what Green Prescriptions are and what they can do for you, I’m opening up two of the previous Green Prescriptions for temporary free viewing. (You can access them here and here.)
Hopefully, this little teaser will interest many of you to join the fun here at The Green Prescription Club!
Here’s what other readers have said about my Green Prescriptions so far:
“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.” | Comment
“I love this whole approach. It’s very similar to the findings of how people in the Blue Zones live.” | Comment
“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. So much more research was done during Covid lockdowns, showing how much better off people were who had access to gardens and nature. It's so great to see you moving into this space!” | Comment
“You’ve just reminded me of forest bathing - aka, spending some time in the woods. There’s scientific proof that the air is actually different in the forest and helps with different ailments. For example, white pine treats high blood pressure. Forest bathing kept me sane during the pandemic!” | Comment
How Will It Work?
We will continue to work on a monthly basis - one Green Prescription email per month (on the first week of every month), along with some extra activities that we will enjoy on the way.
In this new season, I will be creating a detailed and well-curated outdoors activity for you to enjoy once during the month. It will be a bit more structured than the previous ones, yet nothing complex. This activity will challenge us (in a gentle way) to leave our comfort zone for a fun while—maybe on your own, maybe with your family, with the kids, with friends, or with a small group of like-minded people from your community.
As you know, I have been encouraging us to connect once a month on a group call to discuss each month’s activity. We’ve enjoyed good talks on petit comité about the Green Prescriptions and life. It’s been a luxury to have such quality time with those of you who have joined me on the calls—thank you!
Going forward, I will make some changes on the way we communicate so that everyone can find the time and motivation to follow the conversation. To do this, I’m creating a new group (platform to be announced) where I will be sharing live videos, new info, interesting reads, and more to keep everyone motivated and up to date. You will also be able to interact, know your peers, and share in the group as we go.
As you can see, in 2025 we are indeed EXPANDING.
Expanding your health, your awareness, and the way we can do things for the better. I want you to grow. To find the little joys in every day life. To change the way you feel in your body and in your mind. Life is short and it’s time we cut through the noise to enjoy and live in the present.
And this is what the Green Prescriptions are for!
They are here to help you find new ways to move, to think, to enjoy life, your home, and your body. They are not just a medical indication but a whole movement to help you live a better, healthier life. No big changes required! Just willingness and desire to connect with the world outside, nature, and the wonders of the Earth.
Join me on this next season of The Green Prescription Club and start actively changing your health—I’ll be with you every step of the way. 😉
To Summarise
In 2025, the second season of The Green Prescription Club will take place and with it, an amazing exploration of the science and neuroscience behind the human body-Nature connection.
We will enjoy a monthly Green Prescription along with deep dives and science-based explanations to help you understand how being in contact with nature impacts your mind and body, positively changing your overall health.
We will engage (myself included!) in a well-crafted outdoors activity to be enjoyed once a month—to challenge us in new, exciting ways as we embrace the outdoors more closely.
You will be highly encouraged to take a step further, break out of your comfort zone for an enjoyable while, and create a community around you to encourage others discover the amazing benefits of being out in the green.
As always, you won’t be doing any of this on your own. My professional guidance and carefully curated plans for you will always be the guiding torch. I will be with you every step of the way as we walk together through this new adventure.
Lastly, to stay updated and motivated, you will be able to see my live updates, share your own, and follow the conversation from anywhere in the world, through our upcoming new social group.
It’s all looking super exciting! As I said, in 2025 we’re going on a wild ride.
Hope you had a lovely Christmas and wishing you a great New Year ahead. May it come filled with calmness, inner peace, quiet, love, joy and all the fun.
Life is one…make it count, starting today! ❤️
Much love,
Dr. Mariana
PS. See you in 2025 at The Green Prescription Club! We start on February. 🎉
Image Credits: Cover, Green Community
Good luck with your exciting plans for 2025, Mariana! (and thanks for the kind mention)