Social Lives
Author: Ellen Staeglin Tucker, 3rd year BSc psychology intern of Dr Tadhg MacIntyre at Maynooth University
World Mental Health Day takes place on the 10th of October every year and has been running since 1992. The month of October is also World Mental Health Month. Every year a theme is highlighted around the topic of mental health today, as well as a general aim to spread awareness and gain support. The theme for 2022 is “Make mental health & well-being for all a global priority”. There are two important factors being highlighted this year; 1. the need for everyone, regardless of their circumstances, to have easy access to mental health services, and 2. the prioritisation of mental health and mental health services. For some, professional healthcare is vital to find ways of improvement and recovery, for a lot of people mental health services could go a long way in improving mental health. This is where a lot of the disparity in access lies. However, there are daily activities that nearly everyone can do at home to help improve their mental health.
Engaging in art can have a positive impact on one’s mental health in that it is supportive, can be done on an individual level, and personal control is easy. One study credited an art therapy course with improvements in self-esteem and self-confidence in participants, and said it provided a safe space for reflection on mental health issues. Another way to help mental health is through sport participation. Whether it comes from the physical positives of exercise, the enjoyment of meeting friends, or being part of a team, participating in sports is an activity many people use to regulate their mental health. Increasingly, research is also pointing to a number of health benefits associated with exposure to urban natural areas, including a range of benefits being connected to physical activity in nature, active transportation in nature, and living near green spaces. Psychological benefits have been seen in mood, well-being, attention, and pro-environmental behaviour, while physiological benefits have been observed in terms of increased physical activity, improved cardiovascular parameters, lower stress hormone levels, and strengthened immunological resources.
At the end of the day, mental health is highly individual and different things help different people. Personally, I like to paint, mostly just abstract pieces which helps me calm down and let out some emotion, through colours, shapes and how aggressively I am attacking the paper. Motivation for this however can be difficult, and often I need to already be in a good place in order to use this tool. Something I have found helps a huge amount is meeting with friends who make me laugh, and truly help me relax, and take my mind off any stressor or worries. Or having a big sob and moan fest together, at least they are in the same boat! I also have friends who say that relaxing and watching Netflix or reading helps them shut off the stressed or anxious mind. Another daily activity that can be used to improve mental health is mindfulness and meditation, intentionally taking time to focus on something to aid yourself. During the COVID lockdowns, I was also living at home and often craved some space to myself; headspace and physical space. Especially as I studied online I felt a huge lack of motivation and low mood. I needed some peace and to see more than the same four walls of my bedroom. I am lucky enough to have a big park near me, named River Valley, which has a gorgeous deep valley with a small river running along the bottom. A very creatively named park really. I would walk through there, take in the fresh air and greenery and enjoy the nice contrast to the constant screens at home. I find being surrounded by trees to be a very peaceful experience. Something about the vastness of them, the shelter while outside, the light meditative sounds, brings such a sense of peace and calm. It helped me gain some perspective each time and made the work I had built up seem more manageable. This seemed to be quite a universal experience with lots of stories coming out about people exploring the natural spaces around their home and discovering how it impacted their lives.
When choosing college courses and deciding which university I wanted to go to, the general atmosphere and environment was very important to me. My primary and secondary schools both had a lot of green spaces and I had always enjoyed the little escape away, a contrast from classrooms and buildings that really let my mind realise I did not need to concentrate in that moment of time, and I could relax a little. This was especially hard to remember during the leaving cert years. So, when I was visiting prospective universities, I attached a lot of importance to how it felt to walk around. Many of the city universities had great modern buildings, courses which were of interest to me, but really, very little in terms of trees or even shrubs or grass. Maynooth was a great contrast to this. There is a park on the south campus, the buildings are covered in ivy, and lots of flowers and shrubs bloom around the edges of the buildings. North campus has lots of trees and grass spaces, particularly behind the bigger structures. Maynooth has the canal running through where you can always see the ducks and swans swimming around, fighting against each other, or chasing after bread. It also has the Maynooth Green Campus Committee (MGC) who have created a set of practical goals in a few themed areas including Biodiversity, Energy Management, Water Conservation, Waste Management, and Sustainable Travel and Transport. I personally would like to see a shared project between MGC and Maynooth’s mental health services offered by the Student Health Centre, to try to implement more learnings from environmental psychology and the health benefits of nature.
In this respect, Maynooth has just launched a new Master’s degree in environmental psychology, and so, are raising more awareness about the ongoing green initiatives around campus would be an ideal next step. Indeed, nature is a great way to begin to tackle mental health and wellbeing for all. As a low-cost and non-invasive approach, it has the ability to lessen disparities, however, access still remains an issue. A team from Maynooth University has been studying digital placemaking with nature and whether mental health benefits can be seen. Another program run on Maynooth grounds is GoGreenRoutes, an H2020 project aiming for increased nature-connectedness across Europe, Latin America and China. This is being done by implementing “nature-based solutions” such as green corridors, linear parks, pocket parks and shared walkways to enhance the physical and mental health of urban residents. Presence of nature can greatly affect the atmosphere of an area and perception of the environment.
In the same week as World Mental Health Day, GoGreenRoutes has hosted national and international experts from the United-Kingdom, Finland, Italy and Norway for a two-day Autumn School event. The event was concerned with forests for health and Nordic Irish pathways to sustainability and is supported by the Ambassador of Finland (Irl.), H.E. Raili Lahnalampi, with funding support from the EPA (@EPAResearchNews) and the Research Development Office at Maynooth University. Minister of State Pippa Hackett (DAFM) officially opened the event on the 10th of October, with the Finnish Ambassador and the President of Maynooth University, Prof. Eeva Leinonen. This work is part of the GoGreenRoutes project (www.gogreenroutes.eu) which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869764.