The Wild Remedy: How Nature Mends Us - A Diary

By Emma Mitchell

Book Overview

Emma Mitchell has suffered with depression for 25 years. In 2003, she left the city and began to take walks in the countryside around her new home, photographing, collecting and drawing as she went. Each walk was as medicinal as any talking therapy or pharmaceutical. Emma's moving and candid account of her year is a powerful testament to how reconnecting with nature may offer some answers to today's mental health epidemic. While charting her own seasonal highs and lows, she also explains the science behind such changes, calling on new research into such areas as forest bathing and the ways in which our bodies and minds respond to wildlife. Filled with Emma's beautiful drawings, paintings and photography, this is a truly unique book for anyone who has ever felt drawn to nature and wondered about its influence over us.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1789290422
• ISBN13: 9781789290424
• Release Date: July 2019
• Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Hopeful Journey

As a knowledgeable naturalist, Emma Mitchell tells of her battle with depression and how she deals with it through every month and season with nature. She finds hope and comfort in getting outdoors, going on adventures and walks with a friend, or her dog, Annie. Then, she uses art in the form of photos taken of bits she found in nature or through drawing her finds and observations. The Wild Remedy is filled with lessons in nature. Though she lives in the UK, I am intrigued by the similarities and differences in what can be found in nature there and here in New England. Mitchell's understanding of birds, insects and plants is vast. I have learned so much! Her style of writing is easy to read even with a vocabulary that keeps me on my toes. For anyone who loves nature, gardening, or who deals with depression on any level, The Wild Remedy gives solace and peace. And, knowledge through her words, drawings and photographs. It's a must read.