It’s rainy, it’s grey, and lockdown means you can’t get far anyway - if nature is so good for our health, what do we do when we can’t get to the forest?

Have I mentioned, yet, that I think spending time in nature is good for you? If you know me by now, you’ll know that one of my life missions is to help people reconnect to nature (see, for example, my article Are you Suffering from Nature Deficit Disorder?) - and not just in the form of walking in the park a little more, but in terms of fully and deeply reawakening to the fact that we ARE nature.

There is a TON of research out there showing the benefits of spending more time in nature - better physical and mental health, creativity, attention, focus, even compassion increases when we give ourselves time to be in green-space.

But not everybody has equal access to ‘nature’. As my friend Rachel Woods from Coaching in Nature very recently pointed out in a post, 39% of people from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) background are less likely to have green-space within a 5 minute walk from home, as are households with an income of £15,000 a year or less.

And not all governments are created equal : while the Czech government reassured its citizens during lockdown with “of COURSE you can still go to your cottage in the country and go for walks”, stories have popped up from other countries in which people have been arrested and even shot by police for being outside during lockdown (yes… this actually happened).

So how does one connect to nature in their own home? Last week, I invited Forest Therapy Guide Carla Zorzanelli to deliver a workshop as part of my ongoing webinar series entitled WTF is Going On? Finding Meaning in our Chaotic World. As she’s based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Carla had to get creative when lockdown measures came in.

During the workshop, she invited us to take part in a number of activities that would help us to connect to nature from inside our own homes. Some of them may seem obvious, such as connecting with a plant or flower you may have at home, while others were more unexpected. I did feel a little envious, though, knowing that she was in the middle of sunny, lively Brazil while I was staring into the cold, dark night and thinking about hibernation and stillness.

One of the ways in which you can connect to nature at home is to think about what “nature” means, anyway. We are all nature. Every single thing in your home comes from nature - even those things synthesised in a lab had to get their ingredients from somewhere. Do you know that we can’t make electronics without sand (of which we are running out, by the way)? See which items you can find in your house, and think and learn about where they came from.

We can also learn a lot about nature from within our own homes. Use the Internet or documentaries to learn unusual and unexpected things about nature; in particular, the wildlife in your local area. What fruit and berries can you forage for in your local area? What beautiful nature spots have you missed out on (so you can plan to visit them after lockdown)? What local animals are endangered, and how can you help?

And how can you connect with the elements from your own home? I’m not talking about starting a huge fire, but we can all find a small way to observe and be with different elements without going far - the water from your tap, a lit candle, the wind coming in through the window, or perhaps the soil from a shop-bought plant.

During the previous month, I ran a challenge on Instagram called #naturenovember, where I posted a small tip every day to encourage people to connect with nature - usually including a “from home” version for those who couldn’t get out. Although we’re at the end of the month, you can visit my Instagram profile and have a look back through them for more inspiration!

How have you stayed connected to nature while at home?