What is nature connection?

May 14, 2024 Stephanie Steele

‘Nature Connection’ is a term used today to explain activities that (unsurprisingly) aim to connect you with nature. As I use this term myself when marketing my outdoor textile workshops, I wanted to unpack what ‘nature connection’ could mean.

This post uncovers various definitions of ‘nature connection’, and some activity suggestions that may fall under this category to help highlight what practically connecting with nature could look and feel like.

What is ‘nature connection’?

Do a search of that term — nature connection — on your preferred search engine (I used Ecosia), and the first page of links will bring up various research institutes looking into why nature connection is beneficial, list articles on activities that may come under the ‘nature connection’ banner, and organisations who run nature connection activities.

But there isn’t really one single definition.

There’s a super cute downloadable handbook — The Nature Connection Handbook — from Professor Miles Richardson’s nature connectedness blog Finding Nature, produced by The Nature Connectedness Research Group at the University of Derby. The definition in that of nature connection, is:

“Nature connection is about our relationship with nature – how we think about, feel about, and experience nature. When we feel very close to nature, we recognise ourselves as part of the natural world, and value our relationship with it. We notice nature, seek it out, and feel happy when we are in it.”

The most important element is that it isn’t simply about being in nature, but about how we interact with it. It is dynamic and changeable, rather than a static state of standing somewhere a bit green or watery. It is a close relationship that builds in trust and awareness over time, the more you’re with it; and we do indeed want to be with it and not simply in it.

Noticing the simple things in nature matters more than how much time we spend in it [1]. During the first coronavirus lockdown it was found that increases in noticing nature explained higher levels of wellbeing better than people’s increased visits [2].

A Caledonian pine forest shrouded in mist in the Cairngorms National Park.

Why does nature connection matter?

The University of Derby folk and their handbook focuses on psychological nature connection — how we relate to nature in our minds and through our emotions — and have identified the various benefits of nature connection as:

Improved mental wellbeing
More pro-environmental behaviours
Greater vitality and happiness
More pro-nature conservation behaviours
More satisfied with life
Greater meaning and purpose in life

There is now a solid body of evidence from dozens of studies that have shown having a strong sense of connection to nature helps people feel good and function well [3]. Additionally, dozens of studies have shown a clear and causal relationship between nature connection and carbon cutting pro-environmental behaviours [4,5]. So it’s not just of selfish benefit to us feeling good, but the effect on others, on animals, and on our home too.

A white out on the summit of Fiacaill a'Choire-Cas in the Cairngorms in January 2024.

How can I connect with nature?

What’s key to start with here, is that we’re all coming to it from different levels, as it were. We’re starting from our own place dependent on our privilege in life, really. Some folk simply have it accessible enough to afford to jump in the car and go off into some rural countryside location, while others may not be able for many reasons to leave the town they live in. So it’s good then that research has found that our connection to nature is much more important than our environmental knowledge in the actions we take to help the environment and wildlife [6].

And though knowledge has been proven to not be integral, it is useful when it comes to recognising what “nature” could be, and where to find it. For instance, do you associate a city park as nature, or does it need to be a mountain landscape? Nature and how you connect with it is so dependent on what you yourself require. Some days it could feel more hassle than it’s worth to go traipsing through greenery to find a spot to sit in, when in fact, you could head to any tree and simply stand for 5 minutes to engage with the noises and sights around.

The 5 pathways to nature connection have been noted as:

Senses — Exploring and experiencing nature through all the senses. This involved actively engaging with nature through all the senses, and noticing what is seen, heard, smelled, felt, or tasted.
Beauty — Seeking and appreciating the beauty of the natural world. Activating the beauty pathway involves noticing and appreciating the beauty of nature, and seeking opportunities to experience and celebrate this beauty. Arts-based activities are known to help with this.
Emotion — Noticing and welcoming the feelings nature inspires. Activating the emotions pathway involves seeking, noticing and reflecting on the moments and feelings of joy, awe, calm, delight (annoyance, even?) that nature brings.
Meaning — Celebrating and sharing nature’s events and stories. Activating the meaning pathway involves exploring our personal and cultural stories and what nature means to us e.g. myths and folklore or celebrations.
Compassion — Helping and caring for nature. This pathway is activated by looking after nature and seeking opportunities to help it, involving a sense of care and love for nature and taking actions that help protect and support the wellbeing of the natural world.

Honeybee foragers enter and exit a Warre hive.

You could:

Feel the different textures of bark and leaves, and even do a pencil/crayon rubbing
Forage (responsibly and knowledgeably) for edible plants, and make a herbal tea from them
Listen for birdsong, and try to imagine what the bird may look like
Find a vantage point and draw what you see
Participate in a textile workshop that makes marks with plants, for instance leaf printing or bundle dyeing
Go for a walk and record a voice note of everything you see, then compose a poem
Celebrate one of the equinoxes or solstices, particularly with a fire or leaf crown and related food
Participate in a local tree-planting event or make a bug hotel

Nature connection projects.

The above mentioned The Nature Connection Handbook has a wonderful section highlighting various projects on national UK and local levels, plus those big and small. For instance:

The Oak Project — an arts programme with mini projects within the project, one of which was the creation of a quiet reflective space for people in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Generation Green — was funded by the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund to provide more than 100,000 opportunities to connect young people to nature (many for the first time) through new jobs, training, volunteering roles, residentials and outdoor and online learning experience.

RSPB Nature Prescription — offer formal prescriptions from GPs to patients to encourage them to participate with nature using the five pathways (not necessarily simply by going for exercise).

There are many projects and activities nowadays that may not even have the term ‘nature connection’ attached to them, as research is still being conducted into the importance of such behaviour. The Covid-19 pandemic definitely highlighted our need to have something tangible and tactile and stable.

Though a lot of activities may feel out of reach, or simply not your vibe (yoga in a glasshouse, forest bathing, tree hugging), it is essential to recognise that your version of nature connection may not be someone else’s. And especially that what type of connection you need on one given day, won’t be the same on another; it’s like when some days you’re more social than others… imagine nature as a friend and that your interaction levels will waiver. How I feel and what I need from nature will differ according to my schedule, my hormones, my sleep pattern, my location etc etc.

A basket of weeded stinging nettles, processed in a pan for cooking into a soup.

Textile nature connection.

As all of the above photos try to show, nature connection can be about the grandiose trips to mountains, where you’re met with the challenge of nature on its terms. Or forests, where you’re literally bathed in textures and smells and sounds. You can watch wildlife, such as getting close to the hum and sweet scent of a honeybee hive. Or cooking dinner from foraged ingredients.

My own pathway to nature connection is very much about the physical challenges of exploration, but is also the super macro levels of getting close to wildlife and plants. As a food grower it would be difficult not to do so, but even as a textiles specialist, I see fibre and materials all around us — generally because fibre and materials are indeed all around us. But it’s finding them in places you least expect. You know, it’s fairly obvious to consider this, for example, when up a mountain in minus temperatures with 50mph wind gusts, or in an apiary with an open beehive, as you’re really aware and conscious of the design of your clothing.

How about though, where the colours of our clothes come from, or what the fibre is, or how it was transported? If we look intricately at each detail, we begin to understand the complexities of something we take for granted. We can start to recognise that nature isn’t necessarily those massive landscapes, but all of the everyday stuff.

And what about, how those textiles also interact with food? That, in fact, fibre and fashion and food are all interlinked. Cotton is a fibre, but it’s also used in vegetable oil and animal feed. Wool is a fibre, but it comes primarily from the meat industry [I won’t argue the specifics of that point right now].

The textile nature connection workshops I lead — such as bundle dyeing and plant printing — stem from a desire to encourage folk to consider these small moments, and how they affect the whole. If we take a couple hours to look at the micro of our local surroundings, even when in an urban park, what can we then consequently notice in the macro?

Images: 1. Bundle dyeing workshop in a permaculture kitchen garden using food “waste” and cotton calico; 2. Hapa zome workshop in a city park using freshly foraged plants on cotton poplin; 3. Nature weaving using rocks, branches and reclaimed yarns at Tate Britain; 4. Bundle dyeing using fresh and dried plants onto socks.

Steele.