Building resilience through nature

Overview:

• This session will give you tools to access the health benefits of nature and why nature connection matters.
• The speaker, Vanessa Potter, shares her story of sight loss and how it led to her becoming a health researcher.
• A potted history of "Shinrin-yoku" (traditional forest bathing).
• The science of nature connection (benefits including immune/ heart health).
• How nature helps build resilience.
• The ParkBathe project.

Date and timings:

• Tuesday, 18 February, 10am - 11am via zoom.

Speaker bio:

Vanessa Potter is a leading green health entrepreneur, well-being researcher, TEDx speaker, and meditation expert. As a former award-winning head of television, Vanessa’s journey changed after a life-changing illness left her blind and paralysed. This experience led her to explore contemplative practices as powerful tools for resilience. Recognising nature’s impact on her recovery, Vanessa’s work includes collaborations with Cambridge and Derby universities on contemplative and green health projects, including the successful citizen-science initiative “ParkBathe”.

She is a best-selling author of Patient H69: The Story of my Second Sight and Finding My Right Mind: One Woman’s Experiment to Put Meditation to the Test, a book that documents her three-year EEG study exploring 12 mind-body practices, including mindfulness, compassion and psychedelics.