The Web of Life

This pandemic is reversing the world upside down, but I tell you, it can also bring some positive things.

The Biophilia Project has its own new website and my dream to help people getting more opportunities for nature connection, is a step closer to become true.

Putting on hold my job in March 2020 has been one of the hardest thing I had to do in my life.

Obviously, not just for the sudden catastrophic hole in my cashflow, which certainly plays a vital part in this, but also the fact that my job, well… I simply love it and I miss it so much.

I miss being surrounded by green leaves, trees and children. I miss listening to the birds and to the giggles of little people at the same time. I miss observing parents connecting with their kids while looking at squirrel running fast from branch to branch.

When the first lockdown came into force last year, I felt so pushed down that I couldn’t do any more than keep myself alive. 

You know, simple things: eating, sleeping, taking little walks outside.
But what really helped me in getting out of that situation, was my daily walk in the woods. 

I probably have been benefiting from what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku.
For us, people of the West, also known as “forest bath”.

Indeed, after a long day surrounded by trees, squirrels, flowers and birds, our spirit has been lifted and we all were happier.

Forest bath is one of those physiological and psychological exercise that can be regrouped in a bigger category: ecotherapy. 

Ecotherapy, or nature therapy, or green therapy, is the applied practice of the emergent field of ecopsychology, which was developed by Theodore Roszak.
Ecotherapy, in many cases, stems from the belief that people are part of the web of life and that our psyches are not isolated or separate from our environment.

To grab the concept at its very centre: imagine yourself walking surrounded by building in a very trafficked and stinky road.
Now imagine the opposite: you are walking in a beautiful green field surrounded by wonderful flowers.
The air is fresh and incredibly perfumed. 

How do you think your body and your mind would react in each one of these environments?

This concept is deeply entwined with the concept of Biophilia, which I like so much: our innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. -Edward O. Wilson

Now, I don’t want to write too many names and concepts on this post like I am the expert in the origins and development of our relationship with nature, because I am not.

I am just a very passionate forest school practitioner. 
And I certainly had the chance in the past years, to focus on nature connection sessions and observe its benefits.

In particular, I have spent roughly three years, offering child-led play and nature connection sessions to the pupils at Bessemer Grange Primary School, a school situated in central London.

Along with noticing the improvement in behaviour in those pupils that were considered  more challenging in school, I have realised how the groups were more keen to gather together with disregards to those stereotyped labels that otherwise they involuntarily embrace in the school setting.

Each single session has been so extraordinary, that I have slowly came to embrace the assumption that nature connection should be embedded in the school curriculum on a daily basis.

Also, I think that nature should be accessible daily, to everyone.

Unfortunately and especially during this pandemic, schools faces many problems large and small, to make the current set-up function effectively. 
There are so many challenges to consider.

My hope with this project, is to offer the resources to grow green spaces and green souls.
We really need to understand how much we are part of the web of life and nature is undoubtedly our greatest teacher.

For now, welcome to the Biophilia Project. 
I hope this will be a pleasant space to explore, learn and connect.