They have long realised the benefits of being in touch with nature, but we have done our best to reject this innate need and replaced their childhoods with a technological world.
No longer is childhood synonymous with unsupervised play in the outdoor natural world and where children were free to roam and figure out how to navigate the world around them, respond to the vagaries of the weather or build their own resilience and confidence in their environments.
I originally trained as a psychiatric nurse and worked in what was known as an asylum. I always liked the original definition of the word asylum which actually means a place of refuse and security. Like many words it became tainted by negative associations but when asylums were built they always had large grounds and gardening was considered good for mental health. That remains true today.
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