{"id":253,"date":"2021-05-11T17:10:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T17:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/?p=253"},"modified":"2022-02-23T17:15:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T17:15:59","slug":"green-care-how-being-with-nature-benefits-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/2021\/05\/11\/green-care-how-being-with-nature-benefits-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Green care: how being with nature benefits mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/lec\/about-us\/blogs\/green-care-how-being-with-nature-benefits-mental-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blog for the Lancaster Environment Centre,<\/a> which was posted during Mental Health Awareness Week, I discussed how connecting with nature through outdoor group activities benefits our mental health, sharing both my research and my personal experiences. In the blog I explored the mental health benefits participants mentioned during interviews, as well as a sense of belonging to the outdoor group activities, both socially and to the nature present. I also recognised that a PhD is testing and reflected on my struggles and how I support myself through my own relationship with nature. The blog was dedicated to my cat Charley (2008-2021), who died whilst I was writing it. She was a beautiful companion, who always enhanced my mental wellbeing and was a brilliant co-interviewer, popping up in many of my interviews with facilitators and participants! To read the blog please go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/lec\/about-us\/blogs\/green-care-how-being-with-nature-benefits-mental-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Green care: how being with nature benefits mental health<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">In my blog for the Lancaster Environment Centre, which was posted during Mental Health Awareness Week, I discussed how connecting with nature through outdoor group activities benefits our mental health, sharing both my research and my personal experiences. In the blog I explored the mental health benefits participants mentioned during interviews, as well as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1313,"featured_media":254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/files\/2022\/02\/LEC_Blog_-Nature-Mental-Health-Image_Andy-Harrod.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/greencareandwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}