Hi everyone!

To introduce myself, my name is Wee Meng (or ‘Meng’ by my nickname). I’m a Year 1 student pursuing Environmental Studies at the National University of Singapore. Outside of school, I engage in hobbies such as exercising, walking Nature, and Cardistry. If you wonder what ‘Cardistry’ is, check it out on Youtube, and you will see what I mean and the crazy content that is out there. You might find it pretty amazing!

This Cardistry display is called The Werm. (Source: Lee Wee Meng)

My purpose in pursuing this course is to deepen my connections with what I love to do in my life – Nature walks. Well…you might ask, what made me so enthusiastic about nature walks? It goes back to two years ago when I first conducted a guided nature walk with the community residents in my community, Jurong Spring. With the help of the youth committee members from the Jurong Spring Community Club, I bring residents to the different habitats of Singapore each month. The most awe-inspiring moment I had during these Nature walks was when I actually held an Oriental Whip Snake (Ahaetulla prasina)! But, this journey I had with my peers was enriching and eye-opening — I saw how an environmentalist or a Nature guide can discover and share much more biodiversity/wildlife than a layman can.

Look at this delicate snake on my hands! (Source: Anonymous)

From this experience, I began to wonder what sort of connections we are making with Nature. And, how does Nature have healing benefits that make us feel better after a walk around a forest trail? So I did some research, and this word caught my attention – Ecopsychology. To define this, the closest definition I could find was from a review article by Whit Hibbard. Based on Theodore Roszak’s description…

“Ecopsychology is the name most often used for this emerging synthesis of the psychological (here intended to embrace the psychotherapeutic and the
psychiatric) and the ecological.” (Hibbard W.,2003)^[1]

This means that this is a growing field where nature heals the mind. Sounds therapeutic, no? In this blog, I will offer insights into how ecopsychology connects people with Nature and why it becomes relevant to future human wellbeing.

In my next post, I will be looking at a unique interaction between humans and Nature. And it all boils down to a word.

In the next mind,

Wee Meng