Guest post by Dakota Murphey
The warmer weather is always a welcome treat after winter and an excellent reason to get active and creative in nature. Longer, lighter and sunnier days provide the perfect opportunity to share your love of being outdoors with children, encouraging them to get sandy feet on a lovely beach or green fingers growing their first flowers.
Spring can also be an inspiring time to take up healthy outdoor hobbies with nature as your guide. Whether it’s a day out at a National Park or a walk in the Peak District, taking a break can be incredibly beneficial for young people’s mental health, their imagination and for helping to unlock inquisitive minds.
Inspiring creativity with nature
Beyond the immediate physical and mental health benefits, natural settings can be a canvas in themselves to inspire creativity in young children. Observing the changing seasons with young people and pointing out the vibrant colours in the plants, trees and flowers, for example, is a fantastic way to encourage them to enjoy the outdoors. For someone who might be dealing with trauma, loss, or difficult circumstances at home, outdoor experiences can be a wonderful and unique chance to distract children from their troubles and worries.
Nature can also boost creativity in children, stimulating their imagination by showing them the diversity of sights, sounds and creatures that inhabit countryside and coastal locations. Exploring a forest, woodland or community garden can be enough to nurture a child’s early love of painting or introduce them to nature photography. When children are outside, young minds are likely to conjure up their own games and adventures which can also peak a lifelong interest in the natural world.
Expressing emotions via art and being outside
Going out and exploring a garden with children can be just as therapeutic as art. Something as simple as collecting leaves together for a creative collage can be incredibly healing. Sharing creative activities in nature has many benefits, such as providing:
- inner pride from a feeling of achievement
- an outlet for expressing tough emotions
- an opportunity for children to talk about difficult subjects
Therefore, for young people who have experienced trauma, being creative in nature can help to process complex emotions, build confidence and nurture talent.
Supporting Go Beyond’s long-term vision
Children dealing with profound challenges at home can often find solace in creative expression and having an opportunity to enjoy a break away somewhere beautiful can give them a chance to escape their worries and pressures in their daily lives.
Similarly, for families who may have limited opportunities and time to travel, or to to pay for their own outdoor activities, helping to provide young people with breaks away that are accessible, healthy and fun is invaluable. Go Beyond breaks are designed to bring children to natural environments where they can collaborate, make friends and create amazing memories together.
GoBeyond works alongside its valuable partners and within communities to help children visit different places and have a break when they need it most. Our dedicated team of supporters, volunteers, and fundraisers, advocate for young people to have the opportunity to have new and educational experiences that can inspire them to “go beyond” anything that stands between them and their brightest future.
