The earth is our home. Unless we preserve the rest of life, as a sacred duty, we will be endangering ourselves by destroying the home in which we evolved, and on which we completely depend. — E.O. Wilson
Green Social Prescribing: Restoring Wellbeing
for People and Nature
Green Social Prescribing —is the practice of supporting people to engage in nature-based interventions and activities to improve their mental and physical health.
—offers immense potential to address both human and Nature's health simultaneously. This approach acknowledges the interdependence of people and Nature and provides a pathway for individuals to nurture a reciprocal partnership with the natural environment.
A landmark UK study connecting more than 8,000 people to Nature through activities like community gardening, tree planting, and nature walks resulted in reduced anxiety and improved mental health for all ages. These findings underscore that fostering connections with Nature offers tangible psychological and physical benefits.
In an article written by Tom Seymore, of University of Exeter, Dr. Annette Haywood, Principal Investigator of the study said,
I'm thrilled to have led on this national evaluation of Green Social Prescribing. There is already a wealth of evidence to show the positive impact that nature and outdoor activities can have on mental and physical health. The findings of this report add to this evidence-base, demonstrating that nature-based activities are a relatively cost-effective way to support people with a variety of mental health needs.
Is it any wonder we feel comfort, calm, connection, peace, vibrancy, creativity, less pain, less anxiety, less stress, less worry, when we fully immerse ourselves in Nature? Think for a moment about how you feel walking along the shoreline, or in a forest during a change in seasons, or when you get the reward of harvesting ripe tomatoes off the vine from your garden.
One of my greatest fears is living in an environment where my ability to connect with Nature—where I can gaze at the sky and stars—is dependent on someone else. The thought of being literally locked away, without the autonomy to breathe fresh air, feel the sunshine and raindrops, and connect with the birds and all the elements of Nature I cherish, is deeply unsettling.
My fear is rooted in knowing loved ones, neighbors, and friends who spent the last years of their lives wholly dependent on a care system that does not fully value the Nature Experience as a form of basic care.
The Evidence-Based Power of Nature for Health
Feeling tired or overwhelmed by work or school?
Nature helps restore the mind from mental fatigue and improves work performance and overall job satisfaction.
Do your work and home environments provide daily access to Nature?
Incorporating Nature into building design, indoors and outdoors, provides calm and inspiration while promoting learning, curiosity, and clarity.
Are you caring with people living with dementia?
Meaningful engagement outdoors and with Nature for people living with dementia
has shown:
Improved Mental State: reduced stress, agitation, anger, apathy, and depression
Improved Physical Health: skin, fitness, sleep, and eating
Improved Verbal Expression
Improved Memory and Attention
Improved Awareness: Multisensory and Joy
Improved Sense of Wellbeing and Independence
Improved Social Interaction and Sense of Belonging
Do you have children or grandchildren?
Engagement with Nature nurtures nature connectedness that stimulates imagination, creativity, intellectual development and enhances social relationships.
Do you and those you care for have opportunities to Nurture Nature?
Research has shown people involved in restoring Nature:
Report improved physical fitness, reduced risk-taking behaviors, and positive impacts on their mental health, describing the work as life-changing and a saving grace.
Participating in ecological restoration projects provides a range of broader wellbeing benefits, including meaningful employment, contribution, a stronger sense of place, and increased social connections, aligning with the criteria for achieving wellbeing set by the World Health Organization.
Nature is Our #1 Care Ally
can we learn how to be Nature's #1 Care Ally?
Aging in a Climate-Changing World
There are two environmental crises: climate change and biodiversity loss and there is considerable disparity in awareness, coverage and research. For example, media coverage is around eight times higher for climate change and there is less funding and research into biodiversity loss. — Miles Richardson
When we deny ourselves and those we share care with, daily opportunities to connect with Nature, we lose touch with the most authentic aspects of our humanity. This disconnection is not only affecting our wellbeing but is also contributing to the destruction of the very ecosystems that sustain us.
Up to 70% of animal species have gone extinct in the last 50 years.
What will life on Earth be like in, say, 2040, if we do not rapidly grow our connection with Nature, restore our reciprocal relationship with Nature and regenerate the very ecosystems that sustain us?
The Global Commons survey, polled people across 22 countries, including low-, middle- and high-income nations. Its purpose was to gauge public opinion on "societal transformations" and "planetary stewardship."
The findings reveal a common concern among people in varying circumstances regarding the health of ecosystems and the environmental challenges that future generations will face. People who view themselves as highly exposed to environmental and climate risks tend to exhibit greater concern and urgency for climate action and are more inclined to connect human health with planetary health.
Individuals in emerging economies, including India, China, Indonesia, Kenya, and Turkey, perceive themselves as more personally affected by climate change compared to those in Europe and the United States.
Nearly half of Americans surveyed don’t believe they’re significantly affected by climate change, despite clear evidence of its widespread impacts, from intensifying hurricanes to wildfires.
While fossil fuel companies have long campaigned to shape public perception in a way that absolves their industry of fault for ecosystem destruction and climate change, individual behavior does play a role. Americans have some of the highest per-capita consumption rates in the world. –Katie Surma
Gerotranscendence and the Cosmic Connection
A few days ago, I had the pleasure of hearing from friends in their 70s about how their spirituality and connection with Nature have deepened with age. One friend shared how she finds solace in the realization that her existence is no more significant than that of a tick or a flower. She embraces the challenges of aging as a natural part of life, much like the lifecycle of plants, animals, and even ticks. Her profound connection to Nature is deeply meaningful to her, and the current biodiversity crisis fills her with sorrow.
Swedish sociologist Lars Tornstam, in his 2005 book
Gerotranscendence: A Developmental Theory of Positive Aging, wrote:
Gerotranscendence is the final stage in a natural process moving toward maturation and wisdom. The gerotranscendent individual experiences a new feeling of cosmic communion with the spirit of the universe, a redefinition of time, space, life and death, and a redefinition of self. –Lars Tornstam
Gerotranscendence provides a valuable framework for understanding how older adults often develop a more cosmic perspective on life. This perspective includes a deeper sense of connection to Nature, past generations, and the universe; a sense of coherence related to the development of ego integrity and reduced self-centeredness; and a shift in the meaning of relationships, where individuals become more selective about their social interactions and seek more time for contemplation.
This mindset reflects a shift toward a sense of interconnectedness and interdependence as opposed to individualism and independence, that leads to higher quality of life, and a positive aging experience.
However, not all individuals naturally reach this level of transcendence. According to Tornstam, factors such as mindfulness, life experiences, and even the design of one's environment significantly influence how ‘gerotranscendent’ we become.
Individualism: Researchers found a 42% increase in personal pronoun use between 1960 and 2008, with individualistic phrases also increasing. Beginning in the 1980s, songs switched to using “I” more the “you”. (Twinge et al., 2013).
Interestingly, the Science of Awe reveals that even brief experiences of awe can inspire a stronger connection to the world around us—the cosmos, Nature, and each other. These experiences generate a sense of the 'small self,' where we feel smaller in the vastness of the universe and notice the wonders around us more intentionally.
Gerotranscendence, Nature Connectedness & Biophilic Design
Recent research examined how biophilic design and Nature connectedness can act as catalysts for gerotranscendence.
Yasemin Afacan's findings suggest that living environments designed with natural features that include natural sunlight, greenery, and organic patterns can deepen an individual’s daily connection to the natural world, sense of coherence and solitude, and ultimately fostering the transcendence Tornstam describes.
By integrating biophilic design into the spaces where older adults live and engage, Afacan demonstrates that these environments not only provide physical and psychological benefits but also promote pro-environmental behaviors, due to increased opportunites to nurture nature connectedness.
Interestingly, research has shown simply living in ‘greener environments’ does not necessarily grow nature connectedness, it is paramount to understand that we need to restore our relationship with Nature.
We also found that living in a greener neighborhood was unrelated to either of the pro-nature behaviors. In contrast, people who had a closer relationship with nature took part in more pro-environmental and pro-nature conservation behaviors. When we compared the two, a person’s relationship with nature explained levels of pro-nature conservation behaviors and pro-environmental behaviors better than people’s frequency of nature visits. So, it’s right to focus on the human-nature relationship when considering climate warming and biodiversity loss. (Richardson, 2023, pp. 101–102).
Implications for Practice:
Afacan’s study results have significant social, physical, spiritual implications for nurturing gerotranscendence and holistic wellbeing.
Socially: Co-creating environments that inspire older adults to actively engage in their communities, particularly through environmentally conscious actions, can strengthen community bonds and build sustainable social capital, promoting holistic living and a sense of purpose while leaving a powerful eco legacy to be honored and remembered for generations.
Physically: Older adults experience health benefits by interacting with Nature in both outdoor and indoor settings, highlighting the need to incorporate natural elements into living and communal spaces for enhanced wellbeing. Designing care and living communities that inspire an outdoor lifestyle is most advantageous. Being outdoors promotes movement, connection to the wider world, fresh air and opportunities to grow the biodiversity of our landscapes; reciprocal-shared care.
Spiritually: Adopting eco-conscious behaviors and deepening connections with Nature can provide a sense of purpose, interconnectedness and inner tranquility, resonating with the broader, cosmic outlook described in gerotranscendence theory.
These insights point to opportunities for Care Leaders and Professionals—including designers, architects, urban planners, and policymakers—to develop models that support positive aging through nature-inspired (biophilic) design and forward-thinking policies, ultimately promoting a more compassionate and inclusive world for all generations, People and Nature.
Green Social Prescribing can be leveraged as a cost-effective, versatile way to ignite and complement the spiritual and psychological benefits gerotranscendence offers by providing an avenue for deepening connection to the natural world and living with a sense of renewed purpose. Intergenerational programs have enormous potential to transcend all ages while enhancing Nature’s health.
Nature IS Our #1 Care Ally
Yes and, we can learn how to become Nature’s #1 Care Ally
The endless benefits of the Nature Experience on health and wellbeing, for all ages, are well known, from reducing stress, improving mental and physical health, decreasing isolation and loneliness, while stimulating purpose and meaning.
Beyond the human benefits of meaningful moments with Nature, Nature restoration projects, such as rewilding and planting native species, directly contribute to a more sustainable, more equitable and healthier world.
Reciprocal-Shared Care, aligns with green social prescribing, expanding
person-centered care to include the care of whole communities, working together to care for Nature, while benefiting from the therapeutic effects of the Nature Experience.
Imagine, all ages, people living with dementia, disability, mobility impairments, working together, nurturing well beings by nurturing Nature. Elders leading environmental restoration projects, intergenerational teams cultivating biodiversity by restoring native plants at local parks, in green and blue spaces, older adults guiding children into the wonders of Nature, and inspiring curiosity and wonderment.
All ages, sharing care, enhancing personal fulfillment and meaning, and most of all, contributing to the greater good; turning eco anxiety into eco possiblity!
Nature Regeneration: A Public Health Priority
The biodiversity crisis poses an existential threat, with reports indicating that one million species are currently at risk of extinction, the highest in human history.
This crisis is not just an environmental emergency–it’s a public health emergency. Biodiversity underpins the ecosystems that provide us with clean water, air, and nutrient-rich soil that grows our food.
As the World Wildlife Fund reports,
Biodiversity supports everything in Nature that we need to survive, food, water, medicine, and shelter.
Regenerating and restoring the ecosystems of our Shared Home, is the most critical task at hand to ensure human health and wellbeing for current and future generations.
Collective Action: A Nature-Inspired Solution for All Ages
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murphy recently identified parental stress as a critical public health issue, noting 41% of parents say that most days they are so stressed they cannot function and 48% say that most days their stress is completely overwhelming compared to other adults, according to a recent survey.
Factors including financial strain, time demands, and technology were found to be major contributors. This stress not only affects parents but also has a detrimental impact on their children's mental health. Murthy emphasized the need for communities to support parents through better access to childcare, mental health services, and social support systems and is advocating for a more open discussion about the challenges parents face and urges for systemic changes to alleviate their burden.
In a 2021 survey, approximately 65% of parents and guardians, and 77% of single parents in particular, experienced loneliness, compared to 55% of non-parents.
Nearly 70% of parents say parenting is now more difficult than it was 20 years ago, with children’s use of technology and social media as the top two cited reasons.
A majority of parents of adolescents say they are somewhat, very, or extremely worried that their child’s use of social media could lead to problems with anxiety or depression, lower self-esteem, being harassed or bullied by others, feeling pressured to act a certain way, and exposure to explicit content.
Let's Get Our Brains On Nature!!!
Is there a better way to combat the stresses of modern life than co-creating accessible opportunities for families to slow down, reconnect with Nature and with their neighbors, and enjoy meaningful moments away from the digital world?
Neighborhoods and communities must take the lead, generate small grassroots coalitions of neighbors, increase access to green and blue spaces, and grow the biodiversity of these green and blue spaces, inspire Nature-based, inclusive experiences and activities, while fostering social cohesion, wellbeing, and harmonious longevity for all.
A New Vision: Healthy Nature = Healthy Humans
Can we collectively nurture gerotranscendence, and generate nature-rich living environments that promote a deeper connection to each other, to Nature, to the Cosmos, to mindful living, with a focus on interconnectedness and interdependence?
As we regenerate and restore natural habitats, biodiversity, we simultaneously co-create a healthier, less stressed, less anxious, less chronically ill and more sustainable world. This holistic approach to wellbeing, reflects Wilson’s view that preserving Nature, life systems, is our sacred duty.
Eco Gerontology grows Reciprocal-Shared Care, nurturing Care Outdoors,
Caring In, With and For Nature. In this way, we become Nature’s Care Ally, cultivating a mutually beneficial and interdependent relationship while exponentially improving the environments where we live, work, learn, pray, heal, and play. There is no reason for any of us to feel isolated, lonely, or overwhelmed. Nature IS our #1 Care Ally, always.
REFERENCES
Afacan, Y. (2024). Exploring the Facilitators of the Gerotranscendence Theory: Correlations among Sustainable Behaviors, Biophilic Design, and Nature Connectedness. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.
Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169-182.
Monroy, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). Awe as a pathway to mental and physical health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(2), 309-320.
Richardson, M. (2023). Reconnection: Fixing our broken relationship with nature. Pelagic Publishing Ltd.
Sánchez González, D. (2018). Natural landscape and environmental gerontology. Environmental Analysis & Ecology Studies.
Twenge, J. M., Campbell, W. K., & Gentile, B. (2013). Changes in pronoun use in American books and the rise of individualism, 1960-2008. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(3), 406-415.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2024). Parents under pressure: The U.S. Surgeon General's advisory on the mental health & well-being of parents. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/parents-under-pressure.pdf
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