Walking Our Way to Wellbeing: Edge Hill University’s Dose of Nature

In a world where screens dominate our attention and concrete fills our landscapes, a simple yet profound movement is taking root at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, Lancashire. Their “Dose of Nature” walks represent more than just a pleasant stroll around campus—they’re a prescription for wellbeing that costs nothing but delivers immeasurable benefits.

The Free Medicine Hidden in Plain Sight

Professor Michelle Howarth, who leads the initiative, puts it perfectly: nature connection is “free medicine.” As a Professor in Health and Social Care with expertise in social prescribing and nature-based interventions, she understands what many of us have forgotten—that our wellbeing is intrinsically linked to our connection with the natural world.

The university’s second Dose of Nature walk brought together an impressive cross-section of the community: staff, students, gardeners, and local service providers. This wasn’t just about getting exercise; it was about creating connections—with nature, with each other, and with ourselves.

When Gardening Becomes Therapy

Perhaps no one embodies this connection better than Andy Rimmer, Edge Hill’s Head Gardener, who declares he has “the best job in the world.” His personal transformation story is compelling: once suffering from mental health problems while working as a customer service manager, he found his salvation in gardening. Since transitioning to outdoor work, his mental health challenges have virtually disappeared.

Andy’s journey from corporate cubicle to campus gardens illustrates a profound truth about human nature. We weren’t designed to be confined indoors, staring at screens all day. Our mental health often improves dramatically when we reconnect with the earth, the seasons, and the simple rhythms of growing things.

The Science Behind the Serenity

The evidence supporting nature-based interventions is robust. As Professor Howarth explains, research demonstrates that these approaches are economically viable and statistically significant in improving mental health outcomes. They’re particularly effective in reaching people in areas of high deprivation—those who often have the least access to traditional mental health services.

Emma Allan-Taylor, the social prescribing team leader for the Ormskirk area, sees this impact firsthand. Working with the NHS GP Federation, she helps people who might be struggling with housing problems, loneliness, or social isolation. The transformation she witnesses isn’t captured in statistics—it’s visible in the smiles on people’s faces and the way they begin to engage with life again.

The Permission to Pause

One of the most insightful observations from the walk comes from the recognition that many people need permission to prioritize their wellbeing. We live in a culture that celebrates busyness, where taking time for a walk can feel indulgent or selfish. Social prescribing and initiatives like the Dose of Nature walks provide that crucial permission—from healthcare professionals, employers, or community leaders—to step away from the daily grind and invest in our mental health.

Breaking the Cycle of Disconnection

Lauren Gwynne from Wild Warrior Wellness Community Interest Company brings a unique perspective to this conversation. Having worked with over a thousand people in Liverpool, she’s observed how we’ve become “human doings” rather than “human beings.” Her insight about the addictive nature of our digital lives resonates deeply—the constant stimulation from screens creates a cycle where we lose the ability to simply be present.

The solution isn’t complex: close your mouth (to activate the parasympathetic nervous system), step outside, and witness the natural world around you. It’s about rediscovering the “simple art of just being.”

A Community Commitment

What makes Edge Hill’s approach particularly noteworthy is how it’s embedded in the university’s broader commitment to sustainability and community wellbeing. The campus has won the Green Flag award—an internationally recognized standard for green spaces—and has developed a comprehensive biodiversity action plan.

Grounds manager Neil Toner speaks passionately about creating areas specifically designed for mental health benefits. The university is developing a nature trail with QR codes that will allow visitors to learn about different areas and their purposes, making the campus a living classroom for wellbeing.

The Ripple Effect

The impact of these initiatives extends far beyond the individual participants. As Chris Kirkland, the university’s ambassador for Sport and Mental Health, notes, getting people together from different departments creates connections that wouldn’t otherwise exist. The walks become a catalyst for community building, breaking down silos and fostering relationships.

Simple Solutions for Complex Problems

The beauty of nature-based interventions lies in their simplicity. As several participants noted, the solutions seem almost too easy to be effective. Walking is free, accessible, and requires no special equipment or training. Yet this simplicity can be a barrier—we’re conditioned to believe that effective treatments must be complicated or expensive.

Looking Forward

The commitment at Edge Hill to make these walks a regular quarterly or seasonal event demonstrates understanding that wellbeing isn’t a one-time fix but an ongoing practice. Just as we need regular physical exercise, we need regular doses of nature to maintain our mental health.

Your Own Dose of Nature

You don’t need to wait for a formal program or walk to begin experiencing these benefits. The message from Edge Hill is clear: give yourself permission to step into a green space. Whether it’s a solo walk for reflection or a group activity to combat isolation, connecting with nature isn’t a luxury—it’s essential for your health and happiness.

In our increasingly digital world, the path to wellbeing might just be the path itself—winding through green spaces, connecting us not just to nature, but to each other and to ourselves. The prescription is simple: take a walk, breathe deeply, and remember that we all need nature.

Neil Hickson

Welcome to We All Need Nature, the podcast exploring the world of green social prescribing and the benefits of reconnecting with the natural world. Today, we’re taking you on a special journey to Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, Lancashire, where we joined the Dose of Nature Walk. This isn’t just any walk. It’s a part of an initiative to highlight how green spaces and social connections can act as powerful free medicine for our wellbeing. We began the walk with Michelle Howarth, a Professor in Health and Social Care at Edge Hill University, who explained the motivation behind these events.

Michelle Howarth

I’m Michelle Howarth, I’m a Professor in Health and Social Care here at Edge Hill University. Really, real passion for getting people engaged with nature. This is our second Dose of Nature Walk. We did one on International Social Prescribing Day in March, which was a brilliant success and the sun was out. And it’s great to see so many people here today from staff, students, community services, the whole shebang, our gardeners, across all the three faculties. This is a really brilliant opportunity to connect to nature and the weather was booked by Andy the gardener over there. So he booked it last time, we had full sun. This time, I don’t know what he’s done wrong, but there’s a bit of a wind. And so the walk heads off from here. It’s about 40, 45 minutes. Lindsay, stick her hand up, is going to be heading us off. So we all follow Lindsay, and then Andy the gardener is in the middle. And then me and Eve are at the end bringing up the rear. It’s about 6,000 steps for those of you who are counting your steps today. And we’re going to end up at the Wilson Centre, where Lauren, pop your hand up. From the Wilderness Warriors, we’ll be doing a mindfulness session. So if you want to go along to that, we’ll end up at the Wilson Centre. Or when we get there, you can either go home, go and get a cup of tea, go and wander around our amazing campus, do whatever you want. Or just go home, yeah. Unless you’re working. Unless you’re working, in which case you’ve got to go back to work. Sorry. Anyway, yeah, I know, I know. I’m also delighted to say that along with our new vice-chancellor, Professor Michael Young, who’s going to be saying a few words in a minute. We’ve also got Chris Kirkland, Chris Kirkland, who’s going to say a few words about nature and walking.

Chris Kirkland

First and foremost, I think we should say a massive thank you to Michelle. A lot of people, when they want to do things and they say they’re going to do this, say they’re going to do that, they want to do things for the community, they never do it. And they always talk about it, but Michelle actually does. And we’ve done a couple of bits together. And I think what she does is amazing. As a lot of you do, and I’ll be getting to know a lot of you more as we go over the time. But yeah, massive round of applause for Michelle first, I think. You know me, when she asked me, she said they’re going on a walk. As soon as she said walk, I said yes, because I love walking. I’m sure a few of you have seen me walking around Aughton and around the area. So for me, it’s one of the best things to do. It certainly helped me when I’ve had tough times as well. So listen, enjoy it today. Talk to people you might not talk to. There’s a lot of people here. I’m sure there’s people here you’ve never talked to before. So engage, mix and enjoy the walk. I’m now going to hand over to our amazing new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Young.

Professor Michael Young – Vice-Chancellor of Edge Hill University

Thank you, Michelle. And it’s such a pleasure to join you for today’s walk. I’ve only been at the University for a month. So I’ve been lost around campus two or three times, I’d say. So this for me is a kind of orientation exercise, as well as a nice walk. So thank you, Michelle. And thank you everyone who’s helped organise this. It’s so important, isn’t it, to take just a few moments or an hour out of a busy day just to pause and reflect or maybe do something and go for a walk. get into the gym. So important to do those things. Sometimes we have our best ideas, don’t we? When we’re doing something else, we’ll get away from the desk and let that inspiration flow by doing something else. So I hope you have an inspirational walk and a great cup of tea afterwards. And we’re being led by Lindsay and Andy, who are sporting Edge Hill colours. Yay!

Andy Rimmer

My name’s Andy Rimmer. I’m the Head Gardener at Edge Hill University. I also have the best job in the world. I’ve just been outside all day. I used to suffer mental health problems when I was younger. And since I’ve been working outside, it’s like, it disappeared. That’s really interesting. I used to be a customer service manager for a health insurance company. So I got into gardening through my own house. I got into sports ground maintenance doing cricket pitches on a voluntary basis, first of all. And then that became a career for me. But I enjoyed the gardening side a lot more. I went self-employed as a gardener. And then I was fortunate enough to get a job here, part-time to start with, and then went full-time. I’ve been here just over seven years now. Yeah, it’s, uh, a lot of blood, sweat and tears goes into it. But yeah, it’s, uh, we’re very proud of it. All the staff have an investment in the ground. So I think everyone takes pride. We let a few areas grow wild for biodiversity. You’ll see as we’re walking around the Trim Trail here, all the relay all go to meadow through the summer. And then on campus as well we’ve introduced that to select pockets, uh, bird boxes, the biodiversity is becoming a big thing across all universities now. So that’s something we’re trying to look at a lot more.

Neil Toner

I’m Neil Toner. I’m the grounds manager at Edge Hill University. Um, so yeah, I look after the whole of the team, which is split into two. Um, that they both, some look after the sports areas, some look after the garden areas. So I’m particularly interested in nature side of things. And I noticed that you’ve got a lot of areas that are dedicated to nature. Um, you know, what’s, what’s the policy there? So part of our ethos is on the biodiversity. We created the biodiversity action plan. Um, so we create all these areas for wildlife to come onto campus because we are a green campus. We’ve won the green flag award, which is a internationally recognised award to green and open spaces. Not many universities have got that because not many universities have got such a big green space. We’re quite proud of that. And we create all these areas as part of the biodiversity action plan that we work to, we have actions on that, and then we work with different faculties and it’s a nice balance. I’m particularly interested in mental health and the benefits that nature brings for mental health. We create all these areas around campus for mental health. I’m a big advocate for mental health. I’m an endurance runner and I know what the benefits of being in the great outdoors are all the time. So we do create areas. We are looking at creating sort of a nature trail so the, um, staff, students, visitors can go around and see different areas around the campus and we put sorts of like QR codes. You can scan a QR codes, you can scan a QR code and then it’ll tell you what that area is and how it’s created and what it’s for basically. That’s sort of in the early stages of, of, um, being constructed. But, um, we’re moving the right place. It’s free medicine, how I see it. And I think everybody should do it. Got the facilities here for the staff, staff, students, visitors to walk around at lunchtime and stuff. As I say, it’s fantastic.

Neil Hickson

So what’s, what’s prompted these ideas for these walks?

Michelle Howarth

I think we know the value of nature and I think we’ve got a beautiful campus here at Edge Hill. And why not use it for the, you know, for our benefit. It’s not often that we get away from our desks. Students get out the lecture halls, um, to actually enjoy and get that, that wonderful time in nature. So, yeah, we just thought why not get a dose of nature and, uh, why not make it a regular thing as well. And get community groups in here as well, just to kind of showcase what they do and our links with the community as well. So, so what’s your position here at the university? Um, I’m a professor in health and social care, nurse by background, but do a lot of research in social prescribing and nature-based interventions for wellbeing. Um, and I’ve been here for about three years now and loved every minute of it, particularly the campus and the community groups. So what’s, what’s, what’s, you think the current state of, um, social prescribing and nature-based prescribing is at the moment? How do you think it’s, it’s being seen by the world? Are we getting there? Um, yes we are. The evidence base is strong. We know that it’s an economically viable model. We know that, uh, statistically demonstrates, um, impact on people for mental health. And we also know that it improves, uh, it reaches out to the most, those areas of high deprivation. We know less about other impacts on other, like long-term conditions. So there’s still an evidence gap there. Um, but we need more people to be aware of it, more of our clinicians to be promoting it, and more of our link workers to be saying, actually there’s a nature-based intervention or a group down the road that I can refer you to. So yeah, it’s just raising awareness and, uh, and making sure that everyone’s aware of the potential and the impact that it has on people’s wellbeing, not just mental health, but physical as well.

Emma Allan-Taylor

So my name’s Emma Allan-Taylor, and I am the social prescribing team leader for the Ormskirk area. Employed by, um, the NHS, the GP Federation. So the referrals to us come through the GP practice. So if anybody has a, um, West Lancashire registered GP, and they want to be referred to social prescribing, they need to go to their GP practice. So it doesn’t, they don’t have to have an appointment with the GP. They can just speak to a member of a reception team and ask to be referred to us. And it can be for any issue, really. Um, housing problems, loneliness, social isolation. And we’ll speak with them, see what their priorities are, help them to set some goals, and then see if we can refer them, or signpost them to different services within the community to improve their wellbeing. I think once people get the courage up and take that step to go out, even if it’s for a simple walk around the park, like the five steps to wellbeing, they see a massive improvement in their health. And then by improving their mental wellbeing, we often find that that has a knock-on effect to their physical health as well. It can be a matter of building up some rapport with people, to kind of build up that courage to take the first step. So as a social prescriber, if we’ve got the availability, we can sometimes help people to take that first step and attend a social group for the first time by either giving them lots of encouragement and either a follow up phone call or sometimes attending with them. So it’s just trying to build up that relationship and all GPs are so busy and they’ve got limited time for appointments that social prescribers have got a little bit more time to look at the kind of the social aspects. So it’s helping people really along the way, just helping them to identify what’s going to make life better for them.

Neil Hickson

So I always feel that we’re having to try and prove ourselves all the time, the worth of what we do and the benefits of nature.

Emma Allan-Taylor

I think it’s probably not so much, you know, like figures on a page, but more the improvements that you can see in people’s wellbeing. So for instance, we’ll have got people that probably were isolated, were not going out at all. They’ve met with social prescribing, they’ve engaged with groups. And as a knock-on effect, they’ve probably started to do more for themselves. They’ve started to look at other groups, they’ve started to go out, they’ve started to connect with people. And it tends to be the smile on someone’s face that you see, rather than an actual, you know, figure on a statistical graph.

Neil Hickson

I know it works. I’ve seen it happen so many times to people and how they open up, you know, people who come to our farm. We do like a course called Reboot Your Life, which is six weeks long and they come the first week and they’ve got the headphones on and they want to engage with each other. And by the end of it, you know, they’re all good mates and friends and they say it changes their lives. So I kind of know it works, but it’s like, how do you get that across to people to recommend us? That’s the, that’s the thing that we’re…

Emma Allan-Taylor

Yeah, I think that’s always going to be the tricky challenge, isn’t it? We know it works. We can see it works because we’ve met the people that it works for. But sometimes it’s difficult maybe to explain that to the general public or to somebody that’s starting out on their journey. People don’t think like you say that…

Neil Hickson

It’s too easy. It’s important. I think people want a quick solution. And I think the other thing is I find this idea of social prescribing is people giving themselves permission to take the time out. Everybody’s busy. Busy with work. You’re busy with, with family, you know, your mum and dad’s taxi and all this kind of thing. And everybody’s busy and you can’t take time out for yourself. And I think somebody like yourself or a GP says, “Listen, this is important. Go and do this.” Then they take the time and they’ve got the permission to do it and they take their time out and then they realise. It’s almost too obvious and too easy really, to just dismiss it.

Emma Allan-Taylor

Yeah, you’re right. People are time poor, aren’t they? And they don’t prioritise the things that are going to, in turn, make them better. That’s right. Brilliant. Thanks very much for talking to me.

Lauren Gwynne

“I am Lauren, I am one of the directors of the Wild Warrior Wellness Community Interest Company, and we take women and men out in nature to connect with themselves, other people and nature.” “So we formed about six years ago, um, I, like many of people, went through life challenges and I was looking at a way to escape and to connect back with myself and I found myself in nature, on walks, up mountains, and in that moment, that was the first moment in which I felt free, I felt like I was feeling, well I was thinking, nothing. Um, so, that made me feel like everybody needs to be out in nature and I know we say this and it seems so simple and easy to do, doesn’t it? But as I was saying to many people, which I’m going to explore later on in the session is, we are human beings, but actually, all we ever do is be human doings and we don’t connect with ourselves anymore, we don’t connect with the beauty that we’ve got outside our doors, do we, so, yeah. So we went on a little journey and then, it went from there, as I was doing that, I also was going through a recovery service, um, and I was learning a lot about myself, a lot of self-awareness about, um, things that has happened in childhood that now was presenting in unhealthy patterns and coping mechanisms as I was older. So I decided that if I could combine nature and self-awareness, it would really change people’s lives. Um, now I’m five years on, um, a thousand or more people in Liverpool have coached.

Neil Hickson

Really? Wow. That’s fantastic.

Lauren Gwynne

Yeah. From pain into power, hurting to healing. Um, and yeah, we’re doing really good and yeah, this is why I’m here today, to just spread the word, words of being present and I even explore, obviously we’re walking, but the importance of walking as well, sometimes in silence in nature, because otherwise it just becomes something we do instead of something that we actually we witness and we enjoy, isn’t it?

Neil Hickson

And what are you going to be doing later on today? So I’m just going to do a little bit of a introduction. I’m just going to share with people about the importance of connecting with themselves and connecting with nature. And also I’m going to invite them to, um, when the walk and when they’re in the normal day to day life, close the mouth. And the reason for that being is so we activate the parasympathetic nervous system. So we begin to rest and we restore and do a little bit of a meditation just to get them to simply witness. Because as you know, when you’re in witness in, in nature, there’s nothing to do, is they just be, you know, so I’m just going to remind people of the beauty of that really. Yeah, I think they’re so busy these days and everything’s, you know, we’ve got a phone in our hand, we forget that actually doing nothing is an option.

Neil Hickson

Yeah, absolutely.

Lauren Gwynne

You know, I think like we’re overstimulated now, we’re overworked, we’re tired as a society. I think, you know, we don’t connect with our children anymore, we don’t connect with our partners. And I think the simple art of just being is the most beautiful art in the world, isn’t it. And we’ve forgot how to do it. Isn’t that insane?

Neil Hickson

We have. I mean, yeah, it sounds ridiculous. I mean, I remember being bored as a kid, and I don’t think people are allowed to be bored anymore, are we?

Lauren Gwynne

No. But again, you get to use your creative, innovative imagination, don’t you? You know, and like you know, you know from your own business, and you know the Burscough (Community) Farm and things like that, the beauty of being in nature and using nature to create medicine or foods, you know, what we put into ourselves and nourish everything to become a convenience now. Isn’t it? We don’t use the land anymore. It’s not, it’s not seen as sacred. And I think that’s why it’s important to having these conversations and doing these type of things, isn’t it? So people like me and you can spread the ways, and the good people of, you know, Edge Hill University, who have the same purpose and passion.

Neil Hickson

I don’t see kids having that sort of time now to do things like that, to just imagine something and create something out of some paper or some wood.

Lauren Gwynne

You know, like, I definitely noticed that in my daughter, when she was in primary school, she was very creative and innovative and she was using her imagination, and then I think like many of us, we then go into a society or a school and we’re heavily influenced, aren’t we? You know, we’ve got social media, TikTok, influencers to be on phones, and that’s the only way of connecting, like, you’ve got five people together but they’re all on the phones connecting with the outside world. It’s insane, isn’t it? But, like, I make sure that, like, when I take them on little holidays and in our day-to-day life and go into caravans, they’re like, I’m like, go out and just explore, and then you see them playing in the river, you see them playing with stones, you see them making up things in the sky, like, oh, can you see that cloud? And I think, do you know, but I can tell that their wellbeing and their nervous system is so much happier. They look lighter, they feel lighter, you see it with people in the farm, don’t you? Like, connects and just being in nature, it’s meditation, isn’t it? I think, like, the right people are coming together, aren’t they, to, like, with a passion and a purpose to bring us back to the most sacred act. So I think it’s lovely to see you here, you know, someone who’s been in the community, doing so much for so long, and other people here who have got the same vision. So, yeah, I think we’re all in the right place, saying the right message.

Neil Hickson

The problem is, and this is, to me, the problem is, it’s like, we care because we know. You know, I know that eating healthy food, food is good for me. I know that exercise through growing stuff is good for me. And I know that being creative and what have you is good for me. But so many people just, they just don’t even have any idea that this is available to them. It might sound And it’s, how do we get it to them, that’s the clue.

Lauren Gwynne

What I’m trying to say is, I think we need to understand, and this is where self-awareness comes from, is we’ve been conditioned and programmed. If you’re in a family that doesn’t go outside in nature, if you’re enough with a family who just connects with their phones and iPads and that’s, you know, they give it to you because they want to do work or whatever, that’s why we’re disconnected. We don’t know better. Our normal becomes familiar, doesn’t it? The dynamics of family are so distorts. I know that from the programmes that I run, the amount of people that are separating, the children are struggling with all kinds of mental health issues now. And I was saying before, this is one of the reasons why I’m actually thinking of coming back to university. I’m so, what is the word? I’m so interested in the correlation between emotional unavailability and these type of things and then how our behaviours are formed when they’re older. You know, I just feel like, if we were still in nature, there’s a rise, isn’t there, of disease, there’s a rise of diagnoses?

Neil Hickson

I do agree with you, and it’s nice to have science behind it and to have academia behind it and people telling you, but I think there’s a real shortage of people doing what you do, which is being on the ground, actually doing the thing, you know?

Lauren

If you teach people self-awareness, people don’t even know how they have become who they are. When I begin to show them how social media, school, mother, dad, their society, their influences have formed them. It’s like, who you are? Are you who you think you are? Do you know what I mean? So then the unbecoming begins, the unconditioning and getting them to begin to, when I say to people, put your phone down, don’t look at your phone first thing, they’re like, what? I’m like, no, you don’t pick up your phone when you first wake up and look on social media.

A lot of people I know. I’m like, can you imagine what you’re absorbing? Can you imagine what your nervous system, your eyes, your eyes taking in that fake light? Go and sit in your garden and breathe for a moment and meditate and check in with how you’re feeling. People just don’t know that that’s what they could do. You’re entirely right, but I think also, I don’t think people realise, and this is only something I’ve realised very recently, is the addictive nature of scrolling through stuff. But the thing is, what’s the difference in a child right now scrolling and going on, looking for a stimulant by going on an iPad? What makes them not, when their iPad gets put down, when they’re older, take drugs or drink? There’s no difference. They’re going to be searching for that. It’s dopamine. Yeah, And it’s there, and I didn’t realise it, and now I am doing it, and I’m having to cut it out myself. I’ve fallen into that trap, so there you go. Absolutely. Well, thank you. I’m going to have to get ready for my mind. Good.

Chris Kirkland

Hi, I’m Chris Kirkland, erm, so I’m a former professional footballer and now I’m the ambassador for Edge Hill University for Sport and Mental Health. So how did you get into that role then? Well I was very lucky, I was awarded an honorary doctorate last July for my work in Mental Health and Philosophy. Something I didn’t expect, something I was very proud of, you know, there’s a lot more people that deserve it more than me, but we live in the area, we’ve lived two minutes from here for the last 24 years, so we’ve seen how much Edge Hill’s grown. We’ve seen how important it is to the community around here and to be part of that now is amazing. You know, I’ve got to know quite a few of the staff now in my role and everybody’s all for the same course, to try and put the best facilities on and the best careers possible for students, but also to look after their staff wellbeing as well. So, walk like today, what Michelle and her staff have set up and how popular it is, I think this is the most I’ve ever had it come to want. So, for me I’ve always loved walking, I love getting out in the nature, it’s something I’ve always done when I’ve not felt great myself personally. And so, yeah, to come on this one today has been brilliant to see so many people here from different departments as well. What other work do you do now? So, I do this with Edge Hill and I’m the ambassador for the Liverpool LFC Foundation as well. So, I do a lot of stuff in the community in Merseyside in Liverpool. I’ve got my own goalkeeper academy as well, which we do with my daughter who’s just finished A-levels. So, we actually do that at Edge Hill on Monday and Wednesday evenings. So, yeah, I need to keep as busy as possible, and with the roles I’ve got at the minute, it certainly does that. But it’s so rewarding as well to be able to, if you can give back to your community and try and do things to make people’s lives just that little bit easier, then why wouldn’t you do it?

Neil Hickson

I’m particularly interested in nature and the benefits of nature. Have you found that helps you too?

Chris Kirkland

Oh, listen, it’s probably one of the only things in life now that’s free as well. Going for a walk, getting out in there. I mean, everything else you’ve got to pay for, wouldn’t you? But, I mean, I’ve always loved walking. I’ve always had dogs. You know, one of my favourite walks is going down to Formby Beach with the dogs, you know. So, yeah, walking is always something I’ve always done, even as a kid, you know, going back to mum and dad. We used to go out Saturday and Sundays to the local park, to the local commons, wherever it was, and we always used to get out in nature. It just makes you feel… it doesn’t fix everything, it doesn’t fix everything, but it just makes you feel that little bit better, particularly when the weather’s nice as well. You know, the late nights now as well, they have a big difference on people’s… how people feel. Obviously, when the winter nights come in and it’s dark earlier, that can have a massive effect as well. But, yeah, there’s nothing better than getting out and having a walk and having a talk as well. The two best things you can do for your mental health. So, have there been times that you’ve kind of turned to nature, as it were, to help yourself? Yes. Yeah. But listen, listen, sometimes nothing works and sometimes when you’re feeling bad and you’re feeling down, no matter what you normally helps you, sometimes nothing helps, but those are the days you’ve got to dig deep and you’ve got to get yourself out and force yourself to get up, force yourself to get things, to do things that you don’t necessarily want to do at those times. And nine times out of 10, when you do it, you do feel a little bit better.

Neil Hickson

Thank you.

Neil Hickson

As we wrap up this episode, the powerful message from our conversations is clear. We all need more nature in our lives and it’s about reconnecting people with nature. For places like our community farm, we’ve found that these activities are often just a vehicle, really, a means to get people outside. And then they start appreciating it. Michelle Howe has confirmed that these nature walks at Edge Hill are planned to be held quarterly or seasonally, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to fostering these vital connections. And as you get on with your life, remember the power of this free medicine that surrounds us. Give yourself permission to step out into a green space, whether it’s for a walk alone or just to reflect, or it’s to connect with others and stop isolation. This is a vital aspect of your wellbeing, and it isn’t a luxury. It’s essential to be healthier and happier