Happy Earth Day and National Parks Week!

keywords:  spending time outdoors (nature) and health, environmental health, self-care, supporting kids and their adults to connect with nature, integrative healthcare paradigm, recommended books and resources

updated December 2020

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better.  It's not.  -Dr. Seuss

In the U.S. we honor today as Earth Day and the following week or so as National Parks week.  My school-age kid loves Earth Day and the variations of school-sponsored activities she's participated during the last several years.  If you've been following the blog and the HH Project newsletters, you know I love an excuse to get outdoors with the kids.  Growing up in the northern Midwest, I was taught that we can be outdoors in most weather, as long as we prepare for it (proper clothing, changes of clothes, etc).  Exceptions, of course, for dangerous-to-health weather conditions like skin-freeze warnings (cold weather) or the black flag days (hot and humid), etc.

I feel that building confidence in kids (and adults!) to enjoy the outdoors (and feel safe doing so) helps foster a sense of wonder.  And, there's nothing quite like wonder and finding wonder in the natural world, from backyards to local parks, to national parks. I am sure there are personal health benefits to feeling wonder and awe.  In fact, this is one of the many areas of nature research Florence Williams writes about in The Nature Fix.

If you are looking for ideas of how to get outdoors with kids of all ages (or need some fresh ideas for your list), check out Richard Louv's Vitamin N:  The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life or the website for the Children and Nature Network.  I recently started reading How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature by Scott Sampson (who my kids know as the paleontologist from the PBS show, Dinosaur Train).

There has been a trend in "natural navigation" lately.  An old way of understanding our environment and direction that has been lost to some in the past generation or so requires practicing your skill of observation and pairing it with some farmer's almanac-style facts mixed with modern science.  Tristan Gooley has a full set of resources to learn more about this on his natural navigation website.

Nature time and Your Health

Connecting with nature, whether it is a walk in the town park, gardening, or a trip to your state or national park, is healthy for us.  Health benefits are myriad from movement to the air we breathe to the scenery (see Nature Fix for the details and research citations).  Also, hopefully, it keeps us mindful of our impact on our environment, on both local and regional/national scale.  From gardening classes in schools or your local Master Gardener county extension community courses, you can learn how to grow plants in your area from veggies to local flora.

Our connection and stewardship of our environment is integral to our health and the health of our community.  In traditional Chinese medicine, we talk about the body as a garden, affected by both internal and external factors.  Our environment is an essential piece to the integrative health paradigm. 

Rachel Carson, known for her groundbreaking book, Silent Spring, also wrote a book of poetry-prose of her time with her nephew and mentoring his sense of wonder.  If you are interested in this poetry-prose book of hers, The Sense of Wonder, I recommend the audiobook version narrated by Kaiulani Lee for the lyrical style.

How are you and your healthcare practice connecting to the environment/nature/Earth?

So, how are you connecting nature in your healthcare practice?  Does your healthcare system already have environmental stewardship, nature-mentoring, or other sustainable-environment health practices in place?  Maybe you have a nature area nearby for easy walking or a hidden sitting garden?  Are you connected to a Teaching Kitchen? Or maybe you have a gardening program with your county's Extension Service and Master Gardener resource? How are you working with your patient population in developing a healthy connection to nature?

More resources and ideas below.  And, please add a resource in the comments if it is not listed here and you think it may help others!  Thank you.

Note: if you follow a link directly from this article to Amazon and buy something, a few pennies of your purchase goes toward the Hospital Handbook Project (HHP), a nonprofit community resource.

Reflective reading and poetry

• Meditations on John Muir
• poetry by Mary Oliver
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (non-fiction)
• The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson (more poetry)
• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Resources for Parents, Grandparents, Educators (for kids)

• "Nutrition and Health Lifestyle:  Nature and Children a Natural Fit" from the Center for Parenting Education 
• Hike it Baby--an online resource to connect with other parents and kids to get outdoors with others at a kid-pace 
• Children and Nature Network
• National Wildlife Foundation (NWF), known for the Ranger Rick magazines for kids.  Resources for parents and other adults spending time with kids. They have a new book about attracting birds, butterflies, and other backyard wildlife.
• Learn about reading maps and orienteering at the USGS website
• More USGS resources for kids/parents and educators
• books
  
• The Down and Dirty Guide to Camping with Kids:  how to plan memorable family adventures and connect kids to nature by Helen Olsson
• How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson
• Vitamin N:  The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life by Richard Louv
• Omnivore's Dilemma, young readers edition
• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Get Outside and Learn More 

• REI Co-op Journal
• Gardening
• Local master gardeners (county volunteers related to the extension service of your state’s land-grant university).  For example, the Washington state master gardener resource.
• Learn about your local U.S. geology and ecology at the USGS website
• "4 ways to mindfully appreciate nature" from mindful.org
• Read more about natural navigation from supermoon and tides, how to read wave patterns, temperature inversions, and more at the Natural Navigator website.

Books/Audiobooks

• The Nature Fix:  Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative by Florence Williams
• The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide: Tools and Techniques to Hit the Trail by Andrew Skurka
• The Down and Dirty Guide to Camping with Kids:  how to plan memorable family adventures and connect kids to nature by Helen Olsson
• How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson
• Vitamin N:  The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life by Richard Louv
• Omnivore's Dilemma, young readers edition
• Tristan Gooley books: 
• The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals—and Other Forgotten Skills
• The Nature Instinct: Learn to Find Direction, Sense Danger, and Even Guess Nature’s Next Move—Faster Than Thought (August 2019 publication)
• or the (2020) boxed set of How to Read Nature, How to Read Water, and The Natural Navigator

Gear and Games

• Ecological Calendar 2021
• Card deck--Don't Die Out There!
• Card deck--Urban Survival playing cards--has basics of what to do in emergency disaster situations.  Useful for the car, and your emergency preparedness kit
• Solo stove fire pit ranger kit
• Eno hammock and suspension straps
• camping chairs:  Coleman, Terralite, Trekology, Onwego, Trek rotating camp chair

Related Blogposts

• Health and Wellness Learning with Children
• Gift Ideas page
• Reflective Reads
• any post tagged with "self-care"

If you follow one of the Amazon links above and buy something from Amazon within 12 hours of clicking the link, a few pennies go toward the project.  

The most direct way to support the project?  

Buy us a cup of coffee or sponsor the Project for the day. 

 If you love supporting your local library system, most of these books are available through Overdrive or through the Libby app via your library card.  :)

Happy Earth Day from the Hospital-practice Handbook Project!

www.thehospitalhandbook.com