Introduction
disability
Mental health difficulties are associated with high levels of disability globallyTraditionally, mental healthcare has been driven by our collective ‘rule of rescue’, focusing primarily on treatmentFor these reasons more focus on prevention interventions has been called for in many quartersNature-based interventions (NBI) have the potential to alleviate mental health difficulties in young people via both treatment and prevention approachesNBIs are wide-ranging in scope and may involve full contact with wild natural environments such as in the Japanese art of Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) It is also important to recognise that access to natural environment spaces is not equally distributed across the population. First, more deprived areas tend to have less green space access than affluent areasIn the present, proof-of-principle study we tested the effect of a brief nature walk video versus an urban control on several mental wellbeing indices including stress, relaxation, negative and positive affect, mood, rumination and self-reported attention. We also set out to test the effect on nature connection and nature spirituality. The study was designed to test the following specific hypotheses: a brief immersive video of a woodland walk (nature condition) relative to a comparison video of a busy underground train journey (urban condition) will improve (i) mental wellbeing and (ii) a sense of connection to nature. We also tested (iii) whether nature spirituality would increase in the virtual nature condition. We note here that we follow the conceptualisation of non-religious spirituality put forward elsewhere, where spirituality may be seen in connection to oneself, others, nature, as well as to transcendence but may not involve religiosity per seThis study was reviewed and approved by the Psychology Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter (reference number: 530476) and the experiment was carried out in accordance with the principles outlined in the Helsinki Declaration.