' It cast sunshine all over my soul.'

How do you lift your spirits in mid-winter? Just look up, says birdwatcher and author Tammah Watts

At Heart Leap, I explore how to build a happy, creative, and simple life. At 9 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, I host ‘happy writing hours’ for paid subscribers. It’s for anyone who is trying to write a book, start a substack, or just have a little accountability for their writing practice. We chat for 5 minutes or so, and then we write quietly together for the rest of the hour. It’s strangely comforting and motivational to have a cohort of writers to support you and write alongside you. Subscribe and join us if you want some support. Zoom link at the end of this post. For one-on-one coaching sessions and support, please become a founding member.

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Trying to think positively when you’re feeling low can feel a little grim.

Last year, I interviewed therapist and best-selling author

TAMMAH WATTS

about her book, Keep Looking Up: Your Guide to the Powerful Healing of Birdwatching (Hay House, £12.99), and she writes how by ‘just looking up’ we can shift our mood from grim to good.

Since I did that interview, it’s taken my dog walks to a new level. I’m constantly looking up and being inspired by our feathery friends. From my envy of the swans, deeply in love and showing what forever love looks like on the river in front of Alnwick castle, to the bolshy little robin giving me the side eye whenever I sit on my favourite bench, I feel like I’ve suddenly become part of a new universe.

When you’re all upside down in your head, worrying and disconnected in a freezing January where you can’t seem to get warm, communicating with the birds can refocus your attention and soothe and warm you.

Don’t believe me? Give it a try.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

‘If you sit outside and watch the birds for a while, it will naturally lift your mood, and you will relax. There are a bevy of scientific studies that now show the act of watching birds creates an active connectedness to nature, which makes you healthier as well as happier,’ says Tammah.

Why does bird watching make you happier?

‘Birds are accessible. They are around us all the time. Wherever you are, there will be birds, and it doesn’t take long to see one. They are flying and living their lives in freedom, which can be very symbolic. They also sing.

Research has found that birdsong does cause us to have a sense of calm and ease and lowers stress levels. Birds have a way of connecting us back to being on the land and in natural spaces—to a place we know at our cellular level benefits us. Birds can serve as the gateway back to a connection with nature, which all the studies show makes us happy and healthy.’

How does birdwatching make us healthy?

‘Studies show that spending time outdoors in nature for up to two hours and watching birds, regardless of whether you can identify them or not, is restorative and healing.

While the benefits of spending time in nature have been known throughout time and civilizations, concerted efforts to quantify them are growing given the drastic increase in health-related complications all over the world.

Physicians worldwide are rallying for nature to be an integrated component of health and healthcare systems, like Park Rx America in the United States, Nature Prescriptions in Scotland, which is endorsed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and Healthy By Nature in Canada. They prescribe written prescriptions for patients to spend time outdoors and track the reduction of chronic illness, risk factors, and significant health improvements in their patients’ lives.’

How has bird watching helped you become happier?

‘The practice of birdwatching helped me with my struggles with years of debilitating pain—following a surgical procedure and subsequent depression—that had left me in secret despair and feeling hopeless for a cure.

In my darkest hours, the connection I formed with a little yellow bird just outside my kitchen window made me feel lighter and happier. I often reflect on how connecting with birds has helped me transcend my depression, anxiety, and grief, and I cannot imagine living without them in my life.

It started when I saw a bright yellow bird outside my kitchen window. And at the time, I didn’t know what type of bird it was. Now I know it was a yellow warbler. But at the time, it felt like a magical gift. It cast sunshine all over my soul. That’s the only way I can describe it. It opened up a new way of seeing life. I kept looking for it every time I went to the kitchen.

I started to notice the other birds. I began to notice the doves, the finches, the crows, and the hawk. I began to see the residents of the garden and the visiting birds, and I started getting curious about what other birds I could see. I was couch-bound, but this created a new interest for me. I started spending more time outdoors, built up my stamina gradually, and eventually joined a birdwatching group.

Being part of a community helped my mental health enormously. Being part of a community is the very essence of belonging. There are all kinds of birdwatching, conservation, and environmental groups that you can join. Belonging to a group will help you feel more connected, and we know that this boosts your sense of well-being and reduces your stress.’

Keep Looking Up: Your Guide to the Powerful Healing of Birdwatching (Hay House, £12.99) is out now.

Here’s the Zoom link for the Heart Leap Happy Writing hour today at 9am