Health and Wellness: Environment / Healthy Spaces

Exercise interactions with green and blue spaces offer low-cost, non-invasive solutions to public health challenges--particularly around mental health and obesity--and issues around environmental sustainability. Physical Activity in Natural Settings brings together multi-disciplinary, international research on physical activity, health and the natural environment, offering evidence-based guidance on implementing nature-based solutions at individual, patient and population levels. Divided over four sections, the book assesses the current research landscape, explores the underlying psychological and physiological mechanisms of the benefits of green exercise, details applied examples of physical activity in natural settings, and suggests future directions for research and practice. It features contributions from experts from around the world and covers topics including: Self-determination, nature and wellbeing Visual cognition and multisensory stimuli Nature's role in growing resilience Physical education and nature Mindfulness and green exercise Positive psychology and pro-environmental behaviour Timely and prescient, and showcasing real-life examples of green exercise prescription, Physical Activity in Natural Settings is fascinating and important reading for any students or researchers in the psychology or physiology of physical activity and health, physical education or outdoor studies, and policy-makers and health professionals.

Research in health geographies has seen the ongoing development of therapeutic landscapes. Emerging contemporary research explores nature-based health and health-enabling places. This book asks questions about the relationships between water, health and wellbeing. Water and blue space is a key focus in current health geography research and a new hydrophilic turnhas emerged with a particular focus on the aspects of water which are affective, life-enhancing and health-enabling. Research considers both the benefits and risks associated with blue space, including access to safe and clean water in the Global South and the deeper implications of climate change in terms of impacts on livelihoods and indigenous cultures. This book reflects recent theoretical debates within health geography, drawing from research in the public health, anthropology and psychology sectors. Broad thematic sections focus on inter-disciplinary, experiential and equity-based elements of blue space with individual chapters that consider indigenous and global health, water's healing properties, leisure and blue yogic culture, coastal landscapes, surfing, swimming and sailing along with more contested hydrophobic dimensions. The interdisciplinary research lens means this book will be extremely valuable to human geographers and cultural geographers. It will also appeal to practitioners and researchers interested in environmental health, leisure and tourism, mental health and swimming.

Grand Prize Winner for the Non-Fiction, Indie Book Awards Winner for the Science/Nature/Environment category, Indie Book Awards Gold Medal Winner for Best Environment/Ecology/Nature Book, IPPY Book Awards Winner for Spiritual category, Green Book Festival AwardsThis book takes the Sharing Nature exercises to a much higher level. It encapsulates a "Healing in Nature" program that can be used by individuals and professionals such as educators, naturalists, health practitioners, and religious leaders.There is a tremendous power in these exercises. Those who practice them enthuse: "I felt euphoria, and that I was one with everything." "It made me feel like I was actually a part of the sand and ocean. I was moving with the waves." "I found myself expanding farther and farther into nature." "The exercise slowed down my observations. It sounded so simple, yet it was so strong." "I knew that I belonged to the forest. I could feel the tree breathing, and enjoyed a sense of unity with it."Reading The Sky and Earth Touched Me expands the self, and nourishes the soul. These exercises can take people beyond themselves, beyond their daily problems, and bring them to a higher level of consciousness.Cornell is a master storyteller, with a gift for sensitizing others to the great outdoors. Readers are uplifted, and transported to lakes, canyons, and woodlands while reading his words. He weaves magic with science, poetry with instruction, with delightful serenity. He invites readers, through their senses and intuition, to launch their own exploration into a magical world.To fully enjoy this book and its exercises, read The Sky and Earth Touched Me outdoors in a beautiful setting such as a garden, backyard porch, or nature park.As readers practice each of the exercises, they will experience invaluable nature awareness principles. While Part One is designed for personal practice, Part Two contains exercises that can be shared with a friend or a group of friends.

The concept of Green Exercise has now been widely adopted and implies a synergistic health benefit of being active in the presence of nature. This book provides a balanced overview and synthesis text on all aspects of Green Exercise and integrates evidence from many different disciplines including physiology, ecology, psychology, sociology and the environmental sciences, and across a wide range of countries.  It describes the impact of Green Exercise on human health and well-being through all stages of the lifecourse and covers a wide spectrum from cellular processes such as immune function through to facilitating human behavioural change. It demonstrates the value of Green Exercise for activity and education purposes in both schools and the workplace, as well as its therapeutic properties. Green Exercise is an effective intervention for vulnerable groups and promoting healthy ageing, with activities including wilderness therapy, therapeutic horticulture and the use of forests and water. Chapters also integrate cross-cutting key themes which are relevant to all stages of the lifecourse and have significantly contributed to the Green Exercise research base, such as forest bathing and blue exercise.  The book also explores the future of Green Exercise, the way in which research can be used to influence green design and planning and how health, social care and environmental agendas can be integrated to enable Green Exercise to be more widely used as a mechanism for improving health.

This collection of essays by leading scholars and practitioners addresses a timely and essential question: How can we design, plan, and sustain built environments that will foster health and healing? With a salutogenic (health-promoting) focus, Healthy Environments, Healing Spaces addresses a range of contemporary issues, including health equity, biophilic cities, healthcare facility design, environmental health, aging in place, and food systems planning. Contributors: Ellen Bassett ● Timothy Beatley ● Emily Chmielewski ● Jason Corburn ● Tanya Denckla Cobb ● Tye Farrow ● Ann Forsyth ● Howard Frumkin ● Judith H. Heerwagen ● J. David Hoglund ● Carla Jones ● Andrew Mondschein ● Christina Mullen ● Reuben Rainey ● Samina Raja ● Jennifer Whittaker