The Role of Nature in Mental Health

Summer – a season when children go wild with freedom, parents with noise, and our mental stability melts faster than ice cream in a car without air conditioning. The usual routine disappears, gadgets take over the house, and even holidays turn into a quest to “survive amongst your loved ones.” This is exactly when nature can become your personal therapist – no appointment, subscription, or Wi-Fi required.

What Science Says: From Theory to Practice

Modern environmental psychology offers compelling evidence that interaction with nature positively influences mental wellbeing.

One of the foundational models explaining this effect is the Attention Restoration Theory (ART), developed by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. According to this theory, natural landscapes possess four qualities that support the restoration of cognitive resources:

• Being away – the feeling of stepping outside of daily life;
• Extent – the sense of depth and richness in the world;
• Soft fascination – gentle, effortless attention;
• Compatibility – harmony between the environment and our internal needs.

These elements help reduce mental fatigue, restore concentration, and build inner resilience.

Supporting this theory are practical studies by Dr Marc Berman of the University of Chicago. His research shows that a walk in nature lasting just 50 minutes can improve memory and attention by 20%, and only one hour in nature can provide an emotional boost equivalent to a two-day holiday.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Harvard Health, active outdoor play helps children develop a consistent sleep routine, maintain healthy physical activity levels, and improve coordination.

The British initiative The Green Gym turns outdoor work – such as tree planting or park maintenance – into a form of health-promoting exercise. Research indicates that just five minutes of this kind of activity can produce a significant positive impact on a person’s emotional and physical state.

Shinrin-yoku (森林浴): Forest Bathing, Not Sushi
It might sound like a Japanese dish, but shinrin-yoku is not rice – it's your new anti-stress remedy. This Japanese practice has become part of the country’s official preventative health system. Forest walks are used to prevent anxiety, insomnia, and even hypertension. They stabilise heart rate, lower cortisol levels, and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

Next: Practical Tips for Reconnecting With Nature, The Natural Environment of Cyprus, and Trinity’s Approach to Outdoor Learning

Green Habits: Daily Mental Hygiene

Psychological research agrees: lasting change begins not with effort, but with consistency. You don’t need to move to the countryside or drag your family into the mountains to benefit from nature’s therapeutic effects. Mental hygiene often starts… on the windowsill.

 Mini-practices – for when you have no time, energy, or access to wild nature

1. Breakfast outdoors – Once a week, take your breakfast outside: balcony, steps, terrace, or under a tree. No phone, no tasks. Just you, food, and the morning. A short ritual of mindfulness in the morning can lower cortisol and boost readiness for school or work by up to 30%.
2. Observation as attention – Keep a daily nature journal: one line a day on what you saw, heard, or felt outdoors. This re-engages perception from a “filter” mode to an “open channel” mode, activating brain regions linked to self-awareness and empathy.
3. Look at the sky for 7 minutes a day – Constantly looking at screens narrows perception. A vertical, spacious gaze relaxes eye muscles and literally expands our view of the world. According to neuroscientist Andrew Huberman (Stanford), this reduces anxiety and activates spatial thinking linked to creativity.
4. Walk without a goal – barefoot, listening minutes. Leave the house without a step counter, Spotify, or a goal to walk “3 km.” Just walk, breathe, and listen – to wind, birds, footsteps, children, rain. If possible, go barefoot. This reminds your nervous system it’s not just for managing responsibility – it’s also for feeling. Barefoot walking also stimulates the reflex zones of the feet and improves coordination.
5. Microstillness – Spend a quiet moment with another living being: an ant, bird, or snail. No comments, no photos, no posting. Research shows that even the intention to share something can reduce the quality of inner experience. Pure contemplation activates mirror neurons and reduces mental tension, especially in anxious children.
6. Wabi-sabi collection – Gather imperfect natural items: cracked stones, holey leaves, dry twigs. The Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi (accepting the imperfect) is increasingly used in therapy to rebuild the image of “enough-ness.” Especially valuable for burned-out teens and parents.

These steps work – especially when done regularly. And if you can give just a little more time – even once a week – Cyprus offers so much more. We are incredibly fortunate, and it’s time we stopped treating the island as a mere backdrop and started tapping into its powerful therapeutic potential.

Cyprus: An Ecosystem for Recovery

Some trees in Cyprus outlive visas – there’s plenty to learn from them. Living on an island with sea, pine forests, and citrus groves, talk of “nature as a resource” may sound redundant. But let’s be honest: we can go a whole week seeing nothing but car parks and screens.

From an ecological psychology perspective, Cyprus is nearly an ideal landscape for attention restoration and stress regulation. It offers all four components of the ART model – even if you only have 30 minutes and no car.

You don’t need to travel far to restore your balance. Nature is already near. It doesn’t ask for plans, filters or heroics — only your attention. But are we ready to give it space in our everyday lives, not just on holidays? At Trinity, we rise to this challenge every day — not with words, but with practice.

How Trinity Integrates Nature Into Education

Psychological resilience, attention, emotional regulation, and decision-making are shaped not only in lessons but also through bodily, sensory, and spatial experiences. That’s why leading global education systems increasingly embrace outdoor learning: from forest classrooms in Scandinavia to nature routes in Australia, sensory gardens in Singapore to mindfulness meadows in British schools.

At Trinity Private School, we adopt this approach as part of holistic development. The learning environment extends beyond desks and classrooms. Nature is an active educational agent – enhancing attention, cognitive flexibility, emotional strength, and social skills – key 21st-century competencies central to international programmes like the IB.

Outdoor Learning as Daily Practice

We integrate nature-based education from early years to senior school. Pupils keep observation journals and build ecosystem models. They conduct mini climate and biodiversity studies. They track seasonal changes.

This living experience fosters attention, critical thinking, sensory awareness, and, most importantly, a sense of connection to the natural world that no screen can replicate.

The location of the lower school allows the natural environment to serve as an extension of the classroom: the zoo, park, and sea are all within walking distance. Teachers consciously incorporate these local resources into daily educational practice by conducting outdoor observations, organising reflective sessions after completing units, and creating mini-projects right in the schoolyard.

In Trinity Camp, nature becomes the method. Outdoor learning is the foundation of project, research, and embodied activities:

• Art in the Troodos Mountains, where the horizon becomes part of the composition
• STEM expeditions – measurements, sample collection, ecosystem analysis
• Micro-observations, stargazing, fire-making, shelter building
• Sailing trips – with map navigation and wind management

Real challenges in real environments build personal resilience, leadership, and respect for nature.

From Observation to Responsible Action

We develop not just soft skills, but ecological sensitivity – the ability to feel connected and act ethically within the environment.

Many Trinity student projects focus on ecology and sustainability:

• Year 7 students created fashion from recycled materials for the Trash Show.
• IB students collected school plastic waste and made an art installation now displayed at school.
• Year 9 students organised a recycling campaign and ran an eco-bag upcycling workshop.
• Year 7 art classes produced junk art pieces about pollution and environmental responsibility.
• A Year 9 student used free-diving skills for a solo underwater coastal clean-up in Limassol.
• Year 8 students launched a paper collection drive promoting conscious consumption.
• Trinity pupils germinated acorns from a 700-year-old oak in Paphos to begin a reforestation project. 

At Trinity, we cultivate an environment where nature becomes part of the learning culture – intentionally, meaningfully, and aligned with global standards.

When a child learns to see nature not as a backdrop, but as a resource, that connection becomes a source of inner strength. Recovery and resilience often begin with a return to the world around us.