Research consistently demonstrates the profound positive impacts
of nature immersion on human mental health Observe the 75th of
Mental Health Awareness Month by committing to unplug and reconnect
with the wilderness areas of the Tennessee River Valley.
NORRIS,
Tenn., May 23, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --
Established in 1949, Mental Health Awareness Month has been
observed each May for 75 years in hopes of heightening better
cultural understanding about the causes, difficulties and
challenges associated with personal psychological turmoil.
This year's theme for Mental Health
Awareness Month is "Where to Start?" A good prescriptive answer
might be, "How about in a Tennessee River Valley wilderness
area?"
But in addition to celebrating three-quarters of a century
promoting treatment and compassion to encourage healing and
wellness, this year's Mental Health Awareness Month coincides with
another notable milestone: it occurs in the 60th anniversary year
since passage of America's Wilderness Act in 1964, which was
established to set aside areas of innate natural value "where the
earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man
himself is a visitor who does not remain."
Find Solace in Solitude
The modern environmental conservation and wilderness
preservation movements were in large part born of the recognition
not just of the value of nature in its own right, but the
importance of safeguarding special wild places as asylum for
citizens of modern civilization to retreat and hopefully recharge
healthy mental functioning.
"The tendency nowadays to wander in wildernesses is delightful
to see," wrote the famed naturalist writer and environmental
movement founding father, John Muir,
at the turn of the 20th Century. "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken,
over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the
mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that
mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of
timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. Awakening
from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the
deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix
and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to
get rid of rust and disease."
For six decades, the Wilderness Act has safeguarded some of
America's most pristine and ecologically significant landscapes.
These protected areas – including many remote sylvan gems nestled
deep within Tennessee River Basin watersheds and unfathomably
ancient Southern Appalachian mountains – serve as sanctuaries for
both biodiversity and human well-being seeking, offering
unparalleled opportunities for outdoor exercise, exploration, and
spiritual renewal.
Nature Nurturing Mind & Body
Research consistently demonstrates the profound positive impacts
of nature immersion on human mental health. Time spent in nature
correlates with reduced stress levels, improved mood, enhanced
cognitive function, and increased feelings of happiness and
well-being. The sights, sounds, smells and sacred solitude of
wilderness engages our physical and soulful senses. Even a short
walk in the wilderness provides a therapeutic respite from the
pressures of day-to-day life that can take an often unacknowledged
toll on even the most stoic and well-adjusted of us.
Exposure to nature has been linked to a host of benefits,
including improved attention, lower stress, better mood, reduced
risk of psychiatric disorders and even upticks in empathy and
cooperation, according to the American Psychological
Association.
Wilderness is a place both to heal a wounded psyche and help
sustain a healthy mind – to offer physical challenge and provide
spiritual refuge. Whether you're wallowing in a pit of despair or
floating on a cloud of bliss, wilderness can ground you, elevate
you and reconnect your inner self with the most authentic and
restorative aspects of the outer world.
The immense national forests flanking the Tennessee River Valley
are home to more than 25 designated wilderness areas. Many of them
– like the vast Big Frog and Cohutta tracts along the Tennessee-Georgia border, or diminutive but dazzling Gee
Creek gorge just up the road in Polk
County, Tennessee – were among the first swaths of scenic
and rugged woodland set aside for special protection after the
Wilderness Act was expanded to include eastern U.S. public lands in
1975.
So what better time than the present to highlight the
rehabilitating power of nature and the great outdoors? This year's
theme for Mental Health Awareness Month is "Where to Start?" A good
prescriptive answer might be, "How about in a Tennessee River
Valley wilderness area?"
"Environmental conservation really begins in our minds," said
Tennessee River Valley Stewardship Council executive director
Julie Graham. "There's something
deeply rewarding and inspiring about the idea that when we seek to
preserve and heal ecologically important landscapes and natural
habitats, those landscapes are healing and preserving us as well,
both physically and mentally."
To learn more about Wilderness Areas in the Tennessee River
Basin, visit ExploreTRV's wilderness portal.
To explore and discover wilderness areas nationwide, visit
Wilderness Connect https://wilderness.net/
Media Contact
Julie Graham, TRV Stewardship
Council, 8655850811, exploretrv@gmail.com,
https://tennesseerivervalleygeotourism.org/
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/explore-trvs-wilderness-wellness-connections-natures-serenity-as-a-remedy-for-restoration-302152837.html
SOURCE Tennessee River Valley