If you’re someone who has lived in dense, urban environments their whole life, the idea of the countryside might be one that feels distant and uncomfortable. The city can provide you with means, put you closer to transportation links and offer you a greater variety of food and drink than you find in the countryside. However, there is a quality that more rural spaces often have that is more difficult to quantify.
Natural spaces are known to be beneficial to mental health, and if you feel as though this is an area that you struggle with in your day-to-day life, this could be an opportunity to experience it first-hand.
Take a Holiday
Straightforwardly, just taking a break from your current environment to put yourself somewhere very different from what you know can showcase this first-hand. If you’re really not use to the countryside, the quiet might even be daunting to begin with, but eventually, you might find this quiet begins to give way to calm. In the city there is always noise – traffic, people, sirens – and not everyone is as opposed to this noise as others, but it’s something that can have an ambient effect on your brain.
If you’re used to living a fast-paced lifestyle, embracing the slow and relaxed rhythm of a natural holiday might not come easy, but it could be a contrast that’s worth exploring, especially through natural walks and the exploration of green spaces.
Looking Ahead
Alternatively, this shift might be one that you prefer to think about in terms of the future. Right now, you might enjoy everything that the city has to offer, but when you’re less inclined to go out and enjoy the various offerings it has on display, you might prefer the idea of a calm and peaceful retreat. Many people think about retiring to the countryside, so it could be worth visiting the various destinations that are often popular for this to help you decide if you want to do the same.
At the same time, it’s worth thinking about how living in nature can be incorporated into residential care. While it’s easy to think of this as not being a component of what you expect from care homes, examples like Isle Court care home in Shrewsbury are situated in idyllic locales that can help residents feel a sense of calming solitude.
Connecting with Nature
When you do live in the city, it’s easy to feel that connection to nature slip. Office blocks, roads, cars – all of these can become part of the environment that you’re used to. You might have green spaces around you in the form of parks, but they’re often surrounded by roads and distant traffic noise that still grounds you in the city. Going somewhere that’s much more natural can make this contrast stark, and you might be surprised at how affecting it is to feel closer to it. Even if you would still prefer to live in the city, it’s a link that you might feel the need to nurture every now and again.
