Why Wellbeing Matters in Choosing Your Next Break

Mental & Physical Wellbeing – Green Space Scientifically Proven to Help 

According to the charity Mind, 1 in 4 people live with mental health issues and most do not get the help they need. 

While many of these conditions can need specialist medical diagnosis and support, Mind also offer tips for helping yourself, and advice for friends and family.

Green space is an area encouraged for individuals, family and friends to try, giving tips on ways of connecting with nature. 

Here, we take a look at how nature can help your mental and physical wellbeing and focus on some some good examples within the Areas of Oustanding Natural Beauty of the Howardian Hills and Yorkshire Wolds all at the doorstep of our cottages!

What are the benefits of being among green space?

Spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing. For example, doing things like growing food or flowers, exercising outdoors or being around animals can have lots of positive effects. 

It can:

• improve your mood
• reduce feelings of stress or anger
• help you take time out and feel more relaxed
• improve your physical health
• improve your confidence and self-esteem
• help you be more active
• help you meet and get to know new people
• connect you to your local community
• reduce loneliness
• help you feel more connected to nature
• provide peer support.

We all have different experiences of nature, and different reasons for wanting to connect with it more. 

You might find you get something completely different from one activity compared to someone else.

How could you measure these benefits?

As with most things today, there is an app for doing this! The good news is it is free, easy to use and provides some interesting insights. 

It is provided by the London School of Economics (LSE) as part of a research project into this subject and is called Mappiness. 

It’s simple to use, the app notifies you once a day to ask how you’re feeling, and a few basic things such as, who you’re with, where you are, what you’re doing – if you’re outdoors, you can also take a photo.

The data gets sent back to the LSE, anonymously and securely to their data store, along with your approximate location from the phone’s GPS. 

Interesting information about your own happiness, which you can download or see charted inside the app — including when, where and with whom you’re happiest.

The Howardian Hills & Yorkshire Wolds

An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is a designated exceptional landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are precious enough to be safeguarded in the national interest. 

AONBs are protected and enhanced for nature, people, business and culture. There are 46 (soon to be 48) of these araes in England, Wales and Northern Island 

The Howardian Hills covers 79 sq miles of the North Yorkshire countryside, nestled between the North York Moors National Park, the Yorkshire Wolds and the Vale of York. 

It is a unique and captivating landscape with its well-wooded rolling countryside, patchwork of arable and pasture fields, scenic villages and historic country houses with classic parkland landscapes. 

The Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. On the western edge, the Wolds rise to an escarpment which then drops sharply to the Vale of York. 

The highest point on the escarpment is Bishop Wilton Wold (also known as Garrowby Hill), which is 807 feet (246 m) above sea level. To the north, on the other side of the Vale of Pickering, lie the North York Moors, and to the east the hills flatten into the plain of Holderness.

What to do in these two areas of AONB and surrounding areas?

The great news is our cottages sit at the foot of these two areas! They are landscapes for nature, people, business, culture and all four of these interests are intertwined. 

You could take in the Puffins at Flamborough Head, be inspired by the work of David Hockney or Robert Fuller (a regular on the BBC One Show) from around the Wolds. 

Perhaps you could visit the best preserved and largest deserted medieval of Wharram Percy along with supporting the local econmy and visiting the many tea rooms, bars and restaurants, after all Malton is the food capital of Yorkshire.

All of this is possible by getting outside and exploring on foot, bike, car and in some cases boat. 

So if mental health and physical wellbeing is to be a factor in chooing your next luxury cottage break, why not give ‘This Is Not Here’ a try and relax in one of our amazing cottages. 

What will your mappiness be telling you and your family after a stay with us?