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Nature Journaling is perfect for Seniors. It’s an activity that is enriching to do and share with others, but also highly rewarding to do alone in one’s own time, whenever suitable.
It’s an outdoor, nature-based activity that can be done anywhere, from locations as varied as national parks to your own garden, courtyard or living room with a window view. As long as you are around nature - the sky, plants, animals - you can journal about it.
The techniques we use intentionally exercise different parts of the brain. While this makes the activity fun and engaging, it also helps to keep the brain active and sharp and can improve memory.
When we nature journal about the flowers, plants, insects, birds, clouds and other natural wonders in a particular place, we quickly develop strong bonds and a sense of belonging to that place. Feeling that we belong and are connected to place is vital for our wellbeing and sense of purpose.
Nature journals are a beautiful record of a person’s life. While the journal content is framed around prompts in nature (like a birds nest we’ve spotted in the garden) - our response to that is personal and unique. What we choose to journal about, how we do that and what memories the prompt evokes - all of these are shaped by each individual and their life experiences and interests. This makes nature journals special to share with family and friends.
There’s a reason that Nature Journaling is a core part of the curriculum in Plumas County, California for kids aged 6 to 17 - because it can be used as a learning tool in subjects as diverse as Science, Art, English, Maths and Foreign Languages.
But most importantly, it’s fun! We take kids on outdoor adventures and harness their natural energy, ability to notice things and questions about the world to enhance their learning. It’s a child-led exploration of topics in nature, and we teach them techniques used by naturalists, explorers and inventors to make records of their observations and discoveries.
By journaling using drawings, words and numbers, we intentionally activate different parts of the brain, and our prompts encourage creative thinking, sensory awareness and noticing emotional responses.
Children thrive on being encouraged to be adventurous and inquisitive, and through spending devoted attention to species in nature they naturally develop interest, knowledge and empathy for the plants and animals around them.
Nature journaling is a fresh and fun way for adults to engage with the natural world and is a sure-fire way to improve observational skills, curiosity and the ability to be a creative thinker.
Intentionally going outside with your nature journal is also a guaranteed way to slow down and be present. We have to stop doing, be quiet and observe to be able to notice what interests us, and then sketch, question and write about it. It easily enlivens a sense of wonder and awe in the world around us - spending quality time devoted to something (even something as ‘ordinary’ as a beetle or a dandelion) transforms the ordinary, into the extraordinary. Doing this regularly in places that we frequent can fast-track our sense of connection and belonging to a place.
