Walking Restorative Paths: Can Mother Nature Really Heal?
The path less travelled
As soon as my boots hit the sandy trail leading up Bickerton Hill, my shoulders relax. I’ve not taken this route before, but that doesn’t matter. The same rule applies; the further I move from the roadside and civilisation, the more my daily stresses and worries disappear. Maybe I simply left them behind at the car. But I often think the trees have more to do with it. Just as they breathe in carbon dioxide and release the life-giving oxygen we need, perhaps they hold the stresses of our daily lives in their branches, converting it into the perspective we need.
Urban roots
But I didn’t always have this kind of relationship with nature. In fact, I was very much raised to be a city girl. On shopping trips to London with my mum, we would take a deep breath of fumes as we stepped out of the tube station at Oxford Circus and onto the busy pavement. The smell and noise of the traffic symbolised that we were in our happy place. Even my pollution ‘tan’ marks at the end of …
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