If the daily grind is getting you down, there's a free and easy way to improve your mental health. As Isaiah Scott (@ikesbirdinghikes) explains in a recent post, getting outside and experiencing nature is a powerful remedy, especially when paired with the healing power of birdsong.
As part of his series supporting #blackbirdersweek, the avian aficionado further elaborates that there's an important correlation between the variety of birds singing around us and our mental well-being.
He references a recent study on the subject that found, "The results suggest that a greater likelihood of having many different bird species in a person's area of residence might positively contribute to mental health, especially for people with lower socioeconomic status."
Bird watching not only gets you out into nature, but the act has also been found to positively impact well-being, including that of stressed-out students.
"Bird watching is among the most ubiquitous ways that human beings interact with wildlife globally, and college campuses provide a pocket where there's access to that activity even in more urban settings," Professor Peterson explained in a Forbes article.
If you're lucky enough to have a backyard, consider letting it grow free and become a diverse ecosystem again. However, according to the World Bank Group, about 56% of the world's population lives in cities, which aren't known for their vast swaths of greenery.
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Setting aside some of these urban areas as community gardens is a starting point. Simply having something other than hard pavement to walk on can help heal you in more ways than you might think.
Having small green areas scattered throughout our cities is a good start, but a study led by Frank La Sorte, a research associate at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, found that "If you want to support birds in urban green spaces, you should make them larger and plant more trees."
Those birds need a safe space to rest during migrations, and those spaces need to mitigate what's called the "edge effect." Smaller parks are exposed to more non-green urban areas that can harbor predators like feral cats or invasive plant species.
Some readers found solace in Scott's message by offering their own perspectives.
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One shared, "My planting trees and bushes that attract diverse insects will attract an assortment of birds too."
Another stated a common refrain that bears repeating: "It's almost like we weren't meant to sit in an office all day."
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