Building communities: a Wildlife and Wellbeing model
Written by Charley, Oct 2024
Over the course of July, August and September 2024, we ran 2 x 4 week blocks of Wildlife and Wellbeing “Monday group” with small groups of people in Salisbury as a sort of trial/pilot study. This is a face-to-face outdoor weekly group session for adults who are keen to learn about wildlife, practice mindfulness and improve their wellbeing.
The idea is that this can be replicated and built on, and we are currently seeking grant funding for this purpose. We hope to be rolling the project out from spring 2025 – watch this space! Join our mailing list here if you haven’t already and would like to stay up to date. Read on for an overview of what we got up to, with photos.
Our first task was to find the perfect spot for our first activity – hot drinks, cake and chat!
Our first 4 week block, in July-August, was in Queen Elizabeth Gardens.
For our second 4 week block, in September, we met in the Secret Garden at Bourne Hill, and explored the various greenspaces surrounding it.
Lemon drizzle cake and coffee
Brownies went down a treat another week – all snacks were homemade and “healthy-ish” – less sugar than a standard recipe, and with fruit, nuts and seeds sneaked in 😉
While snacking, we “checked in”, chatted about how our weeks had been and shared stories about the wildlife we had each spotted over the last few days.
Next, more focused wildlife watching (we had often already started while chatting and checking in!). Themes included butterflies, wildflowers, birds and trees, but we also went with what we saw, which included bees, dragonflies and damselflies too.
The group watch a Peacock butterfly resting on the ground
Spot the pigeon
Wood Pigeon hanging out on Salisbury Arts Centre – our ears told us to look up!
In block 2, week t(h)ree we enjoyed a wander around Wyndham Park Open Space. The OPAL tree identification guide is a great resource – available to download free and print here.
Finally, in week 4 our aim was to make the most of all that we had learnt over the weeks by learning how to submit wildlife records to the Biodiversity Records Centre via the iRecord app.
Towards the end of each session, we did a guided mindfulness and/or breathing practice – sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, sometimes lying. On a particularly hot week, we even had a “mindful paddle” in the River Avon, which runs through Queen Elizabeth Gardens! Mindfulness means being completely aware of what’s happening in the present moment and can be done anywhere.
Guided body scan in Queen Elizabeth Gardens
Mindfulness practices included 5 senses, “meet a tree” and a body scan.
Breathing practices included 2:4 breathing, 50-0 breathing and square breathing.
Wildlife can be an excellent trigger to practice mindfulness – once you start noticing nature, it can be hard not to watch the flight of a butterfly (and maybe even follow it down the path!).
A Year in Story and Song by Lia Leendertz – a beautiful book for celebrating the seasons. We used readings to embrace the change from summer to autumn.
To finish up each session, we reflected on the last hour and a half and gave everyone the opportunity to set an intention for the week ahead (optional). This idea is borrowed from Action for Happiness’s Happiness Habits course, which Charley participated in earlier in the year. We chose simple things like:
- get outside first thing every day
- get back in the habit of meditating every day
- use the 2:4 breathing technique when feeling stressed.
Knowing you are going to “report back” to your friendly, supportive group can be a good motivator!
The feedback from the 2 x 4 week block pilot/trial was really positive, and we are confident that we have a good model to use and build on now.
What’s next? We aim to be starting up a bigger programme of events from spring 2025 – subject to acquiring grant funding. Watch this space…
In the meantime:
Check our Events page for what’s on.
Get in touch if you’re keen to work with us – as a partner, client, participant, volunteer, potential funder or something else!
Wildlife and Wellbeing Community Interest Company 