The Healthy Healing Power of Nature – Right Here In My Backyard

We hear enough about the healing power of nature. With lives as busy as ours, we could do with all the downtime we can get, right?

There’s an increasing body of evidence in support of nature-based interventions or NBIs as effective tools to improve mental, physical, and cognitive health outcomes.

I’ve written earlier about how children need the healing power of nature too. Nature Deficit Disorder is not a nice thing and the way our lifestyles are going, we and our children could be at risk.

Let me share how I enjoy the healing power of nature today, right here in my backyard!

Call it nature therapy!

I may have mentioned this a few times and will probably do it many more times — I am fortunate to live in the ‘garden city’ of India. A city where water tankers cruise the streets, watering plants and trees. Practically everything grows here.

And that is a relief, considering I was born with ten brown thumbs in a family of green thumbers. I am lucky that wherever I look, nature greets me welcomingly, telling me it is okay — she’s all around me.

So, while I’d really love to take you around the city — I’ll save that for another time. Today I am just sticking to my backyard.

Our building — actually twin buildings — sits in a large compound surrounded by foliage. It is more of a community garden where residents have their own patches with plants. The trees of course are maintained by the condo maintenance. Besides this, many of the balconies overflow with plants. Sadly, mine is not one of them. Yet. 😉

So our building is four-storeyed, with the top storey being the terrace (roof) where we can walk in the evenings. Our back gate opens onto one main road, while the front gates open onto another main road. We have a front garden and a back garden — and plenty of plants in between.

The back garden looks somewhat like this. I enjoy strolling here with a book or a cup of coffee — and at the far end, there’s a lovely seat where one can sit, watch the world go by, or simply listen to the birds going about their business.

Here, there is this fabulous tree that always makes me think of the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk! It seems just perfect for the story. Have you read it? I always imagine climbing the tree and finding an ogre’s castle at the end of it.

I love this hibiscus plant which is always in full bloom. It is fun to look at the buds, then come back and see the flowers opening, treating the world to their charm.

Of course, we have the standard crotons to pretty up the place.

This Red-hot cat’s tail (Latin name Acalypha hispida) spooks me out a little, but apparently, it is good for the environment.

How can our garden have a plant without heart-shaped leaves for me?

Then someone thought to fill our compound wall with a splash of greenery — and it looks really lovely to me.

When we take our eyes off our garden, we love going to the terrace and spending time there — watching the birds fly across.

First, it is mynahs, followed by parrots. So many parrots in groups, shrieking loudly! Then the crows cruise around, with the pigeons making a half-hearted attempt at frolicking around before they settle into the — you guessed it — balconies. Not mine, anymore, ha!

Then the kites own the sky, dazzling us with their prowess. Finally, it is time for the bats to spread their wings and fly across the sky.

Sometimes, I like to carry my camera up to the terrace to catch a glimpse of the moon up close. It looks so beautiful.

And oh, our sunsets are breathtaking too, as you can see here.

I love my area. I love that when I walk out, I can brush shoulders with plants everywhere. And I love that the city looks after its greenery well–giving us the healing power of nature.

And not to make you jealous, but we have fab weather all year through. Sigh.