Nature and living things, it seems, tend to make most people feel good. The idea that the quality of nature in peoples’ home neighbourhood affects their mental health is not a new one . During the 20th and 21st centuries, an increasing number of people have found themselves living in wholly urban settings. But urban settings by definition have less nature than rural ones. And less green nature
Today, stress and mental ill-health are becoming more common, and the public health costs associated with these conditions are growing. The World Health Organisation (WHO 2001) estimates that depression and depression-related illness will become the greatest source of ill-health by 2020. This is because many other behaviours, such as smoking, over-eating and high alcohol consumption.
As physical activity can positively affect both physical and psychological well-being .we hypothesise that there may be a synergistic benefit in adopting physical activities whilst at the same time being directly exposed to nature. We have called this ‘green exercise. It is increasingly well established that the natural and built features of the environment affect behaviour, interpersonal relationships and actual mental states