Saturday June 5th marks this year’s World Environment Day, and the theme for 2021 is Ecosystem restoration. This entails repairing billions of hectares of land – imagine an area larger than China or the USA. It means bringing back plants and animals from the edge of extinction, and even small actions such as planting a tree, rewinding gardens or litter picking can make a difference. It’s no secret that the environment plays a huge part in our wellness, both physical and mental. It’s so important to us in fact, that one of the core elements in our 8Wise™️ model is ‘Environmental Wellness’, part of our External Dimensions.
Our environment can dictate our mood, our emotions, and behaviours. Spending time in nature and green spaces has been proven to improve your mood, reduce stress levels and feelings of anger, help you to relax, improve physical health, and even boost your confidence and self esteem.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to protect our planet and do our part to restore our ecosystems. So how can you protect the environment and strengthen your Environmental Wellbeing? Here are some of our top tips that you can easily incorporate into your daily life…
- Ditch the car!
Swap out driving for walking or cycling. Try walking to work or hopping on your bike to your friends house. Not only is this great for the plant, but getting out in the fresh air does wonders for your Environmental Wellness (bonus if you can plan your route to go through a park or other green space!). Not only is this great for your Environmental Wellness, doing this will also boost your Physical Wellness!
- Try gardening
Head to your local garden centre and pick up some flowers, plants and seeds to plant in your garden. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even try growing and tending to some vegetables! If you haven’t got a garden – don’t worry. Indoor plants can help boost your Environmental Wellness, or you can reach out to your local community and see if you can lend a hand tending to any of their community gardens or green spaces.
- Eat your greens
The meat and dairy industry produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the largest contributors to climate change. We don’t expect everyone to cut these things out completely, but simply cutting down and enjoying more plant-based meals is a great way to do your part to protect the planet and your environment. If you’ve grown some vegetables in your garden from the previous tip, why not cook up some delicious planet-friendly meals! Plus, this is really beneficial to your Physical Wellness too!