Reading recent research on making connections and creating community made me want to share this story. 

Last month, I was a regular granny in Clapham Common Park in the UK, pushing her grandson in the infant swing – all I could see was his smiling eyes.  Nothing else in the world mattered. 

I am 73 and had just arrived in London to celebrate my only grandchild’s first birthday and my son’s first father’s day. I live in Manitoba, Canada. 

After our lovely time in Clapham Common, my grandson and I both went down for our needed naps in my son and daughter in law’s home in the Battersea area of South West London. 

When I woke up from my nap, my lovely daughter in law said to  me “you left your purse in the park by the swings. The mom who found it is on her way over to drop it off.” 

When this mom immediately appeared with her sweet daughter  - both all smiles and grace at the door, all I could do was thank her over and over again. This is what I pieced together from what she and my loved ones told me. The mom had seen me in Clapham Common Park pushing my grandson in the swing. When she left the park she noticed a purse on the ground by the swing. She looked inside and asked if anyone named “Verla” was in the park. No one by that name answered her. 

In my purse was my phone and this mom somehow found and called my first emergency contact, my partner in Canada. He said “thank you so much I will call her!”  The young mom replied “ you won’t be able to do that because I am calling you on her phone.” 

Then this young mom  found my eldest son’s number, my second  emergency contact and he has a UK number. She was able to reach him while he was in a corporate meeting. He excused himself and together they figured out the logistics of how to  get my purse with my phone, credit cards, and  government information back to me. 

This mom offered to drop it off on her way home saying “it is no trouble – we live in the Battersea area.” After this mom talked to my son and they figured everything out, she called my partner in Canada again to tell him that everything was sorted. He was relieved and so grateful that she took the time to call him back to let him know all was fine. 

Now that I am back to my small hometown, Pine Falls, Manitoba, my friends are amazed and tell me  how lucky I was to  have had this angel find my purse. This mom’s good will has spread across the Atlantic and will keep going. She is still making people feel good about other people in the world. 

Thank you again to this mom’s act of  compassion for this granny who only had eyes for her grandson that lovely morning in Clapham Common Park. It could have gone so horribly wrong if not for this angel in the park.  To this wonderful mom: you  make me, my friends, and my family even more in love with this world, it’s people, and Clapham Common. 

To this human angel in Clapham Common: you are my hero. Thank you for all that you do for others. May your kindness circle back to you over and over again.  I will be in contact with you to thank you again for making this world a little brighter. 

PS. I have made contact with this mom now. She said she and her daughter found the whole thing a “great adventure” and they were happy to do what they did. So there you go, what a lucky little daughter to have a mom to model such kindness. And I do wonder if the research that shows generosity increases in green space helps to support angels like this mom and daughter. And of course I am sending a little gift to that lovely daughter who is just like her mom. 

The green space research I am referring to says that the problem is that modern communities frequently struggle with a lack of social cohesion, loneliness, and, in some cases, high rates of crime. Green spaces act as social catalysts that encourage interaction, strengthening community bonds. Studies show that neighborhoods with more greenery have stronger ties, better "neighboring" behaviors, and lower crime rates. Shared natural areas increase feelings of community, belonging, and safety. 

All the best to you this summer wherever you may live and may it involve some time in a lovely green park with your purse close at hand while you take back your outside mindset. 

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

Listeners thank you again for keeping this podcast in the top 5% of podcasts of 3.7 million podcasts globally as reported by Listen Score.   In addition I want to thank Million Podcasts for recently recognizing Your Outside Mindset in the top Aging and Well Being Podcasts in Canada.

As you may know I am an active member of the Global Nature Nurses Collective and interviewed the chair of the group Susan Alliston Dean and will add a link for that. In our last meeting Sue asked me to do a grounding mediation of my time in the boreal forest bush. So I thought I would just share that with you today. 

I mean hope in the way psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and Dr. Dan Tomasulo’s book describe it as a teachable skill based on agency and many pathways. Hope changes everything – hope helps us feel differently about what is coming at us.  Finding small ways to feel better (like getting outside into the woods) activates hope which an be regulated, improved and cultivated. This is not so much a state of mind but a practice or a learned habit of mind. More on hope in Kaufman book "Rise Above"  in this link. Hope is a form of energy and very frequently that energy is strongest at times when we are outside in the trees. So dear listeners keep trusting that being outside makes you feel good, you become energized, and your perspective shifts.  Being outside sharpens your ability to chose a new outlook as you take back Your Outside Mindset. 

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

Verla Fortier introduces her podcast "The Outside Mindset Show" and discusses her experiences with nature and community walking initiatives in London, England.  

 The conversation features Alison Palmer, who shares details about the Walk and Talk movement she and her colleague started in Wimbledon Park, which has since expanded to multiple locations and attracted thousands of participants. 

They discuss the benefits of walking groups for social connection and community building, with Alison highlighting her work in education and Verla sharing her positive experiences organizing similar walks in her own community.

Walk and Talk 

Alison Palmer on Linkedin

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

Dear Baby Brooks, 

As you will come to know, you and your parents love to be outside. Although you live in the big city of London, you have beautiful life spent outside.  I am your Nana and I came to spend over a month in your house when you were just 2, and then 3 months old. 

If You Could See What I See 

 I see you outside in your back yard or in a nearby park at least 5 times a day.   I see how you are spending your time falling in love with the people and your world around you. 

Brooks, with a name of  tree and water spirits, you are safe in a world of love. Your mom and dad share you easily with family and close friends.  They seem to know that the more love we  give to you, the more love there is to go around. And I am beginning to realize that being brave might be the same with them too. 

You are a Dream Sleeper

You are a dream sleeper.  If you could see how this saves us and restores us every night. Although you are just 3 months old you have slept all through the night in your own room. Your mom (my lovely daughter in law) sleeps since she gave you your “dream feed” at 11 pm to help you to sleep through the night.  Your dad (my son) comes into your bedroom at 0700 am. You greet him with smiles that create rapture while you move your legs and arms with the excitement of new daylight, love, and attention. 

As soon as you get on to the diaper change table – which we now call your massage table – you smile as he tells you how beautiful and amazing you are. He massages your arms, feet, legs, shoulders, and tells you how lucky we are to have you in our lives. You smile, look into his eyes and coo something gentle that  feels and sounds like you feel the same way too. 

Your Mornings Outside 

It is late August 2025 and your dad gives you your bottle after he wraps you in a warm blanket, takes you in his arms to the outdoor couch in your soft green backyard. On either side white jasmine flowers bloom and give off a heavy sweet scent of summer. The front facing wall is lush   green bamboo.

The evening before, your mom pumps breast milk so that your dad can give this to you in your bottle in the morning. This is her way of giving your dad the great gift of you fixing your eyes on your dad’s eyes as you hum pure sounds of mmmmm  with each draw of that magic breast milk.   You snuggle deep into your dad’s arms.  He is in heaven and you are too. 

Your dad  wakes up before you do, getting ready for work so that he can spend every minute he can with you before he leaves for work. Once when I thought it was time for him to go to work he said “I get to have 5 more minutes with him Mom” with a smile as he moved around the backyard with you in his arms. 

see full transcript on Verla Fortier's substack 

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

This is Verla Fortier of your Outside Mindset show. This podcast is about taking back  your outside mindset by exploring and practicing new ways of noticing  when you are outside close to nature  whether you live in the city or country. For peer reviewed research on how your time spent in green space can change your mindset, prevent disease, balance your nervous system and your heart rate please go to my Substack website https://verlafortier.substack.com. Find my best selling books on Amazon  Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space. Thank you for providing a  review of my books. 

Today it is my pleasure to speak with Pearlette Ramos. Let me read you her bio and then we will chat. To learn more please visit https://threeextraordinarywomen.com

Pearlette Ramos was born in poverty and raised in the projects,  Pearlette's home environment was riddled with alcoholism, mental illness and domestic violence. Due to the trauma, Pearlette fled her parents’ home when she was 15 years old and moved in with an older brother. Within twelve months she was pregnant, married and a high school dropout. Tragically, after living four short months Pearlette’s baby girl, ChaviElle, died of acute bronchial pneumonia. Devastated by her daughter’s death, she channeled her heartbreak into studying. First obtaining her GED, she applied and was accepted into college, then law school – becoming the first in her family to graduate from both.

After practicing law for 11 years, Pearlette went back to school and obtained a doctorate degree in psychology. She has raised two daughters, ages 27 and 36, while globetrotting around the world—having visited the seven continents and more than 80 countries. 

4:02 Film is called Three Extraordinary Women who experienced extreme trauma in their childhood and how they went on to make meaning of that experience in their lives and each one became a social justice and human rights advocate in the world. 
4:43 They tell their story as they climb Mount Kilimanjaro with the idea that we each have a personal Kilimanjaro. And they each have a collective Kilimanjaro  - giving voice to children and women globally. 

5:23 My personal story and connection with nature. I grew up in poverty and had a TV. I was about 10 years old I saw the legendary film maker Jacques Cousteau. 

Full transcript of this episode is at  https://verlafortier.substack.com

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

For over 40 years, Dr. Martin Moore-Ede has been a leading world expert on circadian clocks and the health problems caused by electric light at night. As a professor at Harvard Medical School (1975 – 1998), he led the team that located the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the biological clock in the human brain that controls the timing of sleep and wake, and showed how it is synchronized by light. Since 2010, he has been the Director of the Circadian Lighting Research Center, which identified the key blue signal that synchronizes circadian clocks and developed patented LED lights, which provide health-optimized light across day and night based on comprehensive medical research. He has published over 180 scientific articles and authored ten books. His latest book, THE LIGHT DOCTOR: Using Light to Boost Health, Improve Sleep and Live Longer,has just been released. 

3:15 Story. My whole life has been focused on the trajectory of light and the human body - particularly as a medical intern working 36 hours on and 12 hours off – when couldn’t make sense of things that I had written the next day and that got me interested in the  circadian rhythm. So did a detour out of surgery and went to  Harvard Medical School to study the effect of light on the human body. At the time it was a new field – about 3 papers published a year on this. The papers  on circadian clocks are now in the thousands. I was invited to Harvard faculty and to open a lab. Here we discovered   the human brain SCN that regulates the body’s cycles and rhythms. 

4:17  rhythms of our body eg some things peak just before dawn ,  in the middle of the night like melatonin, late afternoon like  body temp,  and that light was a key signal that kept our biological clocks in sync with the outside world was not known at the time. 

5:07 There began to be a recognition of the huge medical problem of those exposed to light at night like shift workers or sleeping with the lights on or just having artificial lights at night . And it is very much related to the colors of the light spectrum. 

5:37 It is very much connected to white light is made of all the colors of the rainbow plus invisible ultraviolet and  infrared.  

 transcript verlafortier.substack.com 

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

Andrea Jaramillo  is a bilingual hospice nurse, urban farmer, ceremonialist, and beekeeper in training. She is the founder of Forest Nurse, a forest therapy practice that connects people with nature through guided, intentional sessions. As a certified forest therapy guide, she supports individuals through life’s transitions, drawing from her experience in both birth and end-of-life care. Originally from Ecuador, Andrea honors ancestral wisdom and integrates Mesoamerican and South American traditions into her work. She believes in cultivating a deep relationship with the land as a way to protect and care for it. She also sees nurses as guardians—stewards of both human and ecological well-being. 

Andrea Jaramillo (Haramillo) and I know one another as members of  a new group called Global Nature Nurses Network – which so far,  is a comprised of nurses from US, Canada, and UK in the fields of  academia, public and private sectors practicing and promoting awareness of the vital reconnection with nature. One of the many goals of the Global Nature Nurses Network is to get the green space science and the nature connection piece into the nursing curriculum in Schools of Nursing. Last podcast episode I interviewed Susan-Allison Dean the Co Chair of the Global Nurses Network. I will put a link to that in the shownotes for your interest. Now over to you Andrea Jaramillo…

1.    Please tell us more about your personal story and connection to nature.

2.    You are an urban farmer. Please tell us more. 

3.    You are a hospice nurse. How does that relate to nature? 

4.    You are a forest therapist. Please talk about the evidence. 

5.    How do your nature work in urban areas?

6.    Can you walk us through one of your sessions?

7.    You are from Equador. Please talk more about being an apprentice of traditional medicines in Central and South America. 

8.    We are both in a new group called the Nature Nurses Network. Last week you opened with a beautiful grounding practice. Could you end our session today with that one? I loved it. 

website: https://forestnurse.com/      LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/andreajnurse

Instagram: @forest.nurse 

So listeners as Andrea Jaramillo, forest nurse  says immerse yourself in nature to improve physical and mental well-being. And because our bodies are sensing our environments all of the time…..  Use Andrea’s mindful approach to helps you to slow down, engage your senses, take in the light, notice how that makes you feel, notice how that makes you think, as you connect with your natural environment. And finally remember to thank yourself for taking back your outside mindset. 

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

Susan Allison-Dean is a Board Certified Advanced Holistic Nurse and Certified Clinical Aromatherapy professional with over thirty years of experience in nursing.  During the first half of her career, she practiced mainly as a Certified Wound, Ostomy, & Continence Clinical Nurse Specialist, holding a joint position with Yale-New Haven Hospital & Yale University.

In 1999, she experienced the profound loss of two significant family members just two days apart.  This loss and the profound healing experiences that she experienced in nature led her to leave the disease-care model and shift her practice to health promotion, specifically nature and health.

Sue is the Founder and CEO of TheNatureNurse.com, which focuses on connecting women with nature so they may live more joyous, vibrant, awe-inspiring lives in harmony with Mother Nature.  She is the co-chair of the Global Nature Nurse Network, connecting nurses who specifically partner with the natural world to enhance holistic health and prevent disease.

Sue also enjoys writing, traveling with her husband, and dabbling in other creative arts.  She lives in New York and North Carolina in the US.

How you became a Nature Nurse

4:12 deep level grief, profound loneliness, pain
6:02  mother nature 24/7 availability - transformative - helped me to live a joyous and productive life. Bring light into people's lives.
9:03 Florence Nightingale "nature itself is healing"

14: Nurse Pioneers in Global Nature Nurse Network

Verla cites podcast episode with Professor Andy Jones systematic review and meta analysis of green space exposure and health outcomes (103 observational and 40 interventional studies investigating 100 outcomes: green space exposure decreased heart rate and blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, increased HRV, decreased preterm birth, diabetes, and all cause mortality in particular cardiovascular mortality. 

For transcript see [email protected] 

 Nature Nurse on Instagram
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-allison-dean-rn-ms-ahn-bc-ccap/

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

Dr James Doty says Balance Your Nervous System To Manifest Your Desired Goals 

The word manifest may put you off, but I like James Doty (MD)’s  definition of manifesting. He says “once the body and the mind are in a state of balance, we have the power of manifestation, we can start thinking clearly about what we want to manifest.” Renown Stanford neurosurgeon and neuroscientist  Dr James Doty says we all  have goals and intentions. When your nervous system is balanced you can begin to manifest.Studies  show that as little as 5 minutes outside in nature or even looking at an image of nature balances your nervous system. When you are outside in nature your autonomic nervous system shifts to the parasympathetic (PNS) and you become less self focused, calm, and more connected to others and your world around you. You experience joy and awe. The relaxed PNS state (that can also be achieved by breathing and just thinking about the joy and awe in the world) is what Dr James Doty’s recent book “Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything” (link: https://www.amazon.ca/Mind-Magic-Neuroscience-Manifestation-Everything/dp/1399710966/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title) teaches. The book is well worth the read and fits beautifully with your practice of spending time in nature or green spaces. 

The ability to manifest is based in Neuroscience

Doty’s idea of manifestation is not the self-serving get rich quick scheme,  tarot cards, crystals, or pseudoscience.  Doty’s view is based in “significant developments in brain imaging that allows us to watch the brain transform on a cellular, genetic, and even molecular level. We can now speak about manifestation in terms of cognitive neuroscience……and the brain’s extraordinary ability to change, heal, and remake itself, known as neuroplasticity.” 

Manifesting according to Dr. Doty is the process of intentionally embedding thoughts and desires into your subconscious. For this he suggests visualization and picturing powerful positive emotions of your desired goal. Why? Because your brain will not know the difference between the real and the imagined.  Dr Doty says this is manifestation is not magic – it is neuroscience.

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space

This is Verla Fortier of your Outside Mindset show. This podcast is about taking back  your outside mindset by exploring and practicing new ways of noticing when you are outside  close to nature  whether you live in the city or country. 

Two podcast episodes ago I did a solo podcast on a great book “Better In Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your Life.” This is the link to that podcast episode is titled Get Intentional About Using Your Senses.
 
Today I have the author of this book with me. This is his bio. 

 Norman Farb, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, where he directs the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics laboratory. He studies the cognitive neuroscience of well-being, focusing on mental habits, such as how we think about ourselves and interpret our emotions. Together with Prof. Zindel Segal, he wrote Better in Every Sense, a book that describes the surprising role of sensation in mental health. His current research explores online interventions to support  wellbeing, and neuroimaging of interoception, our sense of the body's internal state.

Tanscript of interview is on [email protected]

For peer reviewed research on how your time  spent in green space can change your  mindset,   balance  your nervous system and  your heart  rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com  and check out my books Take Back  Your Outside  Mindset:  Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control  Your Chronic Illness and  Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space