Nature is our best medicine. If you are feeling low or stressed, just go for a walk in nature. Always works. But the more that the natural world is destroyed, the worse it is for humans, dogs and wildlife. These books are far more important reading than some policy paper from government. These books are written from the soul: muses on why protecting Nature is the no.1 policy for public health. Newts over new offices!
The benefits of the great outdoors are that it’s not indoors! There is a funny poster in some shops of a dog who is saying ‘Have you been outdoors? You should go. It’s fab – let’s go! Outdoors. Come on – it’s outdoors!’ Dogs instinctively know that outdoors is a fun place to be. Yet millions of people just sit indoors most of the time (not always through choice). But if you can, discover the great outdoors, even if it’s only just a walk through a local park or forest, or a stroll by the beach.
- Nature Tonic: A Year in My Mindful Life is a beautiful workbook by a Dutch artist, who invites us to a daily dose of ecotherapy, to soothe our souls. Practical prompts entwine with meditative notes on the zen of forest bathing, the simple pleasures of botanical drawing and ways to reconnect our souls with the soil. Watch a fern unroll, sleep in a hammock on a summer evening, or greet the morning sun.
- The Wild Journal is a beautifully illustrated guide by nature writer Willow Crossley. Guiding you through creative practical projects and seasonal reflections, it shows the potential of nature to mend, heal and transform our mood. Listen to birdsong, identify wildflowers, take beach walks and gaze at the stars.
- Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need The Wild is a beautifully written book for anyone feeling disconnected from the natural world. Many people live indoors (often not through choice), yet nature remains a deep part of our language, culture and consciousness. We know intuitively that we need communion with the wild, to feel well. So what happens as we lose our bond with the natural world. Might we also lose part of ourselves?
- Staying Alive in Toxic Times is a seasonal guide to lifelong health. Dr Jenny sets out exactly what to eat to live a healthy life, and how to adapt our lifestyle, according to the season we are in. She safely deals with diet, vitamins and minerals, offers sensible ways to detox without healthy eating fads, and uses her knowledge to bust myths. She also looks at how to avoid seasonal health hazards like indoor pollution, hay fever and SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Dr Jenny Goodman is a medical doctor who did did post-graduate training in nutritional and environmental medicine that radically transformed her approach to helping patients.
- Sklylarks with Rosie is the story of Stephen Moss’ Somerset garden that is awash with birdsong: chiffchaffs, wrens and robins. Overhead, buzzards soar, ravens tumble and the season gathers pace. But this equinox is unlike any other. As the nation goes into lock, Stephen records the wildlife around his home, with his fox-red lab Rosie at his side. When old routines fall away and blue skies are no longer crisscrossed by contrails, they discover the bees, butterflies and birdsong on their local patch. This book underlines how a global crisis changed the way we relate to the natural world.
- Soulful Nature is a spiritual field guide. Brian Draper and Howard Green encourage you to get outside, and make deeper connections with creation, and its Creator. In our busy world, the natural world can be a powerful counter-balance. They chart walking journeys through rural landscape, and town streets over the course of a year. Showing how the natural cycle of the changing seasons can awaken us. Each chapter explores a different landscape, zooming in on small details.
The Consolation of Nature is a book by three writers, who all documented how daily walks helped them during the pandemic, during lockdown. Nature took on a new importance, especially as the pandemic hit the western world at the beginning of spring – the season of light, growth, rebirth and renewal. These close friends all recorded their experienced, to share the delights of what the natural world can offer.
The Wild Remedy is a hand-illustrated diary on how Emma healed her depression, by moving from the city to the Cambridgeshire Fens, taking daily walks that proved as medicinal as any talking therapy or pharmaceutical. Join Emma as she shares her nature finds of local flora and fauna, over the course of a year. See make your garden safe for pets, regarding suggested garden projects.
Nature Tonic: A Year in My Mindful Life is a beautiful workbook by a Dutch artist, who invites us to a daily dose of ecotherapy, to soothe our souls. See how to make your garden safe for pets, to know toxic plants and others items to avoid. Practical prompts entwine with meditative notes on:
- The zen of forest bathing
- The pleasures of botanical drawing
- Ways to reconnect our souls with soil
- Watch a fern unroll
- Sleep in a hammock on a summer evening
- Greeting the morning sun
About the Author
Jocelyn De Kwant is a journalist and editor who writes about simple living. This book has also been published in France, Finland, Norway and Netherlands (where Jocelyn is from!)
Landlines is a powerful account of our country’s land, and the people that make it. Raynor Winn knows that her husband’s health is declining, and knows of only one cure. It worked before – so they set out on another healing walk.
The Cape Wrath Trail is over 200 miles of gruelling terrain through Scotland’s remotest mountains and lochs. But the lure of the wilderness and the beguiling beauty of the awaiting glens, draws them north. Being one with nature saved them in their darkest hour, and their hope is that it can work again.
So the couple embark on an incredible 1000-mile journey from Scotland back to the familiar shores of the South West Coast Path. From Northumberland to the Yorkshire Moors (and from Wales to the South West), Raynor and Moth map with each step, the landscape of an island nation, facing an uncertain path ahead.
Alongside beautiful nature writing, there are thought-provoking observations on our countryside, and the threat it is under. Good Housekeeping
About the Author
Raynor Winn grew up loving books about nature, and became a long-distance walker, and then a best-selling author. Her book The Salt Path is a moving and inspiring account of how she and her husband (when he was diagnosed with a serious illness and they lost their jobs and home) decided to walk the South West Coastal Path, with just their backpacks). Far from depressing, the book showed the healing power of nature.
