How to Bring More Nature Into Your Life as a City Girl: Simple Tips for Urban Wellness
As a city girl, it can be easy to get swept up in the hustle and bustle of city life, the routine of 9 to 5 and lose touch with nature. But with the boom in wellbeing has come a desire to spend time in the great outdoors and more people than ever are understanding the connection between wellbeing and nature. It’s even being prescribed by the NHS (known as green social prescribing) to support peoples mental and physical wellbeing!
There is a growing body of research building a picture of the benefits of time in nature, on both a community and individual level. Nature can help ground us in a culture where ‘the hustle’ is glamorised and we are encouraged to always be focusing on the next achievement. While achievements aren’t inherently bad, nature can help counteract the inevitable stress created by constantly striving to do and be better, encouraging calm, joyfulness and stimulating creativity (Mind, 2025).
When we talk about nature, you may have a mental image of woods, trees, plants or even a stereotypical birdwatcher. But one of the exciting things is that it is multifaceted, complex and can looks like many things to different people and the UK has a wealth of habitats to explore. From beaches, mountains, salt marshes, rolling green hills, coral reefs, moorland, gardens, parklands and estates, everyone will connect with the idea of these habitats differently. To you, ‘getting out in nature’ may look like exploring beautiful landscapes with a purposeful walk, sitting under a tree with a book or foraging for wild food in your local park. There is no right or wrong way to spend your time in nature, it’s yours to cultivate and we think that is pretty exciting!
Unfortunately nature doesn’t always feel very accessible, especially to us City Girls. You might be in a city centre with no car, the local public transport network might not take you to your local nature reserve or the big hiking trips you see online may feel too big and scary to attend alone. We’ve put together a list of our top tip’s on how to include nature in your life regardless of where you live…and rest is up to you.
Walking in your city
So this probably feel’s like a bit of a non-tip, especially if you already do this, but it’s more about re-thinking about how you walk around your city. As the old age adage goes ‘nature will always find a way’, and cities are a fantastic example of this. You might be surprised at the amount of nature you could see just by being present while walking from A to B.
If trees, plants and birds are your bag (I promise there are more than just pigeons, although I am front runner of the pigeon fan club), cities are teeming with them! They have squeezed their way into the city, pushing through the concrete and pioneering spaces we wouldn’t’ imagine they ever could. Putting your phone away as you walk, turning your music down and being more aware of your surroundings, could give you the chance to see that peregrine falcon or Jay you’ve always wanted to spot.
Your city likely has parks, greenspaces and little nooks and crannies in abundance. If you have a free weekend, you could explore a new park or rivers that’s been on your doorstep for all of this time?
Local hiking/walking/activity groups
Joining an activity group can be one of the best ways to get out into nature when it wouldn’t have been accessible/felt achievable on your own. Groups will often arrange trips where transports/accommodation is shared, meaning it’s more financially viable, you don’t need to transport yourself and alongside this you get to meet other people with the same interests as you.
Signing up for activities and having a specific time/place intentionally set aside for contact with nature can give you something to look forward to, an opportunity to forget about the stresses of the week and really switch off.
Growing.
Growing fruits, vegetables, flowers benefits us in many ways, whether that is relieving stress or quite literally, reaping the rewards of what you’ve sewn! You may not have the luxury of a city garden but even a sunny windowsill can bring a patch of green into your home.
If you’ve killed every plant in your house and are worried you won’t be a very good veggie mum, then looking at local organisations like city farms or growing initiatives volunteer opportunities could provide opportunities. You can get your hands in the soil, while not shouldering all the responsibility of the plants survival…a win win in my opinion. This also has the added benefit of getting to know others in the community with these sorts of organisations often drawing likeminded, kind and welcoming people to them.
Sign up to a city foraging walk
Foraging walks are another great way to meet people with a common interest while learning and being outside. You might be surprised by all the edible plants you could find on your doorstop and ones you likely see on a daily basis! From more commonly known species such as nettles, blackberries, cleavers and elderflower to hawthorn, garlic mustard, sumac and ground elder, there is probably a culinary world to explore on your doorstep.
The safest way to do this is by going on a guided nature walk around the city where an expert will be able to guide you on what is edible, what it’s not so edible lookalikes are and give you inside knowledge on how to go off and find these on your own, safely.
The library
It might sound like a strange suggestion that in a nature based article, I’m actively encouraging you to go inside. However, the library presents lots of opportunities to get in touch with nature through stories, non-fiction books, local information points, talks and exhibitions.
Accessing nature through books and stories can be a hugely effective way to get a snippet of the outdoors in your day, inspire your next adventure or give you the nudge you need to get outdoors. Books like the salt path by Raynor Winn, Rewilding by Isabella Tree and The Screaming Sky: in pursuit of swifts by Charles Foster can transport you into the natural world from the comfort of your bed.
There are lots of plant identification apps available to download but it’s always recommend that these are used with caution as while they are a useful tool, they don’t always get it right. Your library should have lots of books available for you to borrow and take out into the wild and if they don’t, you can see if they can get one in for you.
Written by Megan Lee, Photography by Megan Lee