Our Psychot herapist Jane Sanders writes:
Let's get sane - go for a walk this week
I came across this definition of insanity recently. It's from the Okanagan tribe from the Northwest USA.
They had a word for insanity. It had four syllables and each syllable had a different meaning.
- The first meant "talking, talking inside your head;"
the second meant "scattered and having no community;"
the third syllable meant "disconnected from the land;"
and the fourth syllable meant "cut off from your whole earth part."
It really got me thinking about how insane what we generally accept as 'sane and normal' is in our culture! It's so easy to be overcome by the 'weapons of mass distraction' that bombard us every day- those emails that have to be answered, spending time on social networking sites or watching very boring telly, the billions of text messages that seem so important to send, and just getting ever so busy ever so often. Somehow in all that we can lose our connection to nature, to community and to feelings of being part of something bigger than ourselves.
It also reminded me of a research project than MIND did a few years ago about eco-therapy where they compared people's experience of a walk in nature to walking through a shopping centre.
Surprise surprise they found that access to nature was 'effective in addressing mental health issues' like depression/lack of self esteem etc.
• 71 per cent reported decreased levels of depression after the green walk
• 22 per cent felt their depression increased after walking through an indoor shopping centre and only 45 per cent experienced a decrease in depression
• 71 per cent said they felt less tense after the green walk
• 50 per cent said their feelings of tension had increased after the shopping centre walk
• 90 per cent had increased self-esteem after the country walk
• 44 per cent said their self-esteem decreased after window shopping in the shopping centre.
So at this time of year which is often said to be the time of year when we are the most miserable - my recomendation is - never mind if its grey and cold, lets get sane - put on our wellies, dress up warm and go for a walk !
Read more about Jane's work...
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