Health / mental wellbeing
Using nature to create, connect and adapt to change
Helping people stay well and boost their mental health, a series of free woodland workshops will be launched in April 2021.
Aiming to “to strengthen our emotional connection with the more-than-human world”, The Human Nature Project is open to anyone aged 16 and over and will take place at Blaise Castle Estate and Leigh Woods.
Run by Lightbox Leadership, a resilience and leadership development provider based in Finzels Reach that reinvests its profits into promoting positive mental health.
is needed now More than ever
The Human Nature Project builds on the Happiness Project, which Lightbox Leadership ran over a three-year period in Bristol and focused on using arts-based workshops to help more than 3,200 boost their mental wellbeing.
The new project will be led by qualified psychotherapists and forest therapy guides and will explore seven themes: creativity, choice, connection, centredness, character, curiosity and confidence.
“This project was in the planning stages before Covid-19, but it is an opportunity for people to discover new ways to improve their own mental health and resilience during this sustained period of change and uncertainty,” says Lightbox Leadership director Lucy Duggan.
“We know that people have used a wide range of strategies to cope during the pandemic, including walking, spending time in green spaces, and staying connected with others.
“These new sessions aim to help people further strengthen their connection with both the natural world and each other and we hope many, many people will benefit from taking part.”
Workshops will be available on a first come, first served basis. Photo: Sam Hobson
Each workshop will have two parts to it. The first will be an introduction to forest therapy, a form of mindfulness which boosts immunity and the mood by being among trees, and the second will focus on group discussion, working in pairs and exercises on psychological wellbeing.
“Forest therapy, or ‘forest bathing’, is now quite widely known in the UK, having been adapted from the Japanese practise of Shinrin-Yoku,” Lucy, who will be running one of the workshops, adds.
“We believe this is the first time it has been combined with psycho-education in this way – giving people the immediate benefits of time spent mindfully in a woodland setting, as well as planning active steps to improve their wellbeing in the longer term too.”
The rolling programme of two-hour, outdoor workshops will take place from April 20 to October 27, 2021.
Main photo: Sam Hobson
Read more: Staying well during England’s third lockdown
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