People everywhere seem to be busy all the time. Whether they are a student reviewing for upcoming exams, an employee doing an honest job for the day, a mother taking care of her child, or a father who is a CEO of a company, everybody needs some time to relax. Unwinding is inevitable, and a well-known university in the UK revealed through studies an activity that can help busy individuals ease their minds from a stressful day.
King’s College London revealed that “bird-watching” can help improve mental health. Through studies led by the university, people who watch birds as a hobby are more relaxed and stress-free.
The university worked together with landscape architect J&L Gibbons and art foundation Nomad Projects. They developed an app called “Urban Mind”, collected opinions from 1,292 participants, and completed a total of 26,856 evaluations. During the assessments, each participant would receive questions from the app 3x a day. One of the questions was whether they see or hear birds chirping every day, and will be provided a mental health questionnaire for them to answer.
The results revealed that listening to a bird song or seeing birds fly does improve a person’s mental health. Individuals with depression have improved when they see birds outside the window, on the treetops, or the wires. Such a relief and a feeling of contentment and pleasure have lasted for 8 hours!
The 3 parties published their reports on the benefits of birdwatching and listening to their song in the journal Scientific Reports, October 2022 issue. If you are in dire need of a stress reliever, you may stop what you are doing tentatively and observe the birds outside your window. Listen to their relaxing song. It is guaranteed that your mood will improve!
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