Opinions & Observations: Why we all need a little #BirdTherapy
Part sport, part mindfulness, part meditation: birding is what many of us need right now. Birding can help us be together while we are alone.
About a year ago, I started an informal birding group along with some of the graduate students in our program at Columbia University. As academics, we knew about the benefits of spending time in nature for mental health; but as humans, we recognized the need just to be outside.
I think we are all feeling that primal instinct for the outdoors right now. In the face of fear, and of looming unknowns; we all ache to hear the rustle of leaves, to smell the earthiness of damp soil, and to watch the bustling life that we so often hurry to ignore. For these reasons, and so many others that you have to experience to understand, I think it’s time for everyone to take up birding.