Living Near Water as a Child is Linked to Better Mental Health and Well-being in Adulthood:
Copyright by GWC
Using research from 18 countries, a new study concludes that adults with better mental health are more likely to report having spent time playing in and around coastal and inland waters, such as rivers and lakes as children. The team used data from over 15,000 people across 14 European Countries and 4 other non-European regions (Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, and California). This was all gathered from the BlueHealth International Survey, a cross-sectional survey coordinated by the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Environment and Human Health. Respondents were asked to recall their blue space experiences between the ages of 0-16 years including how local they were, how often they visited them, and how comfortable their parents/guardians were with them playing in these settings, as well as more recent contact with green and blue spaces over the last four weeks, and mental health over the last two weeks. The research found that individuals who recalled more experiences in childhood around blue spaces tended to place greater intrinsic value on natural settings in general and to visit them more often as adults. This, in turn, has been shown to be associated with better mental well-being in adulthood.
She Just Loves Cleaning and Now Helps Women in Need By Scrubbing Homes for Free While Traveling the World:
Auri Katariina / SWNS
A woman loves cleaning so much that she gave up her job and is now traveling the world scrubbing homes for free, helping women who need a huge hand. Auri Katariina was a service manager at a cleaning company in Finland in the summer of 2021, when she decided to quit and follow her unique passion. Her dream is to clean all over the world and started posting videos online giving cleaning tips. Then one day a woman contacted her through her social media account asking for help with cleaning her home. She had lost her husband and was struggling to clean while taking care of three kids so Auri was happy to help. Auri then went over on a weekend and cleaned her home for two days and by the end, the woman she helped was crying and her kids were hugging me and thanking her. The young woman from Tampere has gone as far as the USA and UK to help people who are in desperate need of decluttering and cleaning. With her following on social media, she has gotten sponsors to pay for her cleaning endeavors and now she continues to take appointments online, helping give homeowners peace of mind and a clean home.
‘Important Message of Hope’ Made by Re-Planting Extinct Tree Species on Hawaii:
Discovering Delissea argutidentata – Kamehameha Schools
While on a seed gathering trip atop a Hawai’ian mountain in 2021, conservationists found a tree species believed extinct in the wild since 1992. Palm-like in its appearance, it belongs to a family known as Hawai’ian lobelioids, and can grow to 35 feet (10.2 meters) with a thick head of long narrow leaves. They used to be found growing under the shade of giant koa trees in volcanic craters. This month, teams from the organizations that found it went up to the same area and planted 30 seedlings born from the fruits of the plants they found, growing hope that this species can recover to repopulate the Hawai’ian Islands. They fenced off the area until February of 2022 and when they returned to harvest the fruit a second time, which they shipped it off to cold storage for additional security. They also found two new wild-growing seedlings which provides new hope for the species to grow and make a comeback.
Sources:
'Important Message of Hope' Made by Re-Planting Extinct Tree Species on Hawaii (goodnewsnetwork.org)