June is here, and while the weather in Scotland this week might not suggest it, today marks the start of meteorological summer in the UK. With longer and warmer days, it's time to enjoy the outdoors. Whether you're recovering from your exams or working hard on your dissertation, spending time in green space can benefit your mental health and physical wellbeing.1
Here are some books from the Wellbeing Collection to inspire you to get out into nature.
The Wild Remedy: How Nature Mends Us - A Diary
Emma Mitchell's richly illustrated and evocative diary records her nature finds over the course of a year and shows how being in the wild benefits our mental and physical wellbeing.
Into the Forest: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness
Humans are increasingly becoming an indoor species. We spend 90 per cent of our life indoors. And, on average, we dedicate eight hours a day looking at screens. Our increasingly domestic lives are having huge consequences to our health. In Into the Forest, Immunologist and Forest Medicine expert, Dr Qing Li, examines the unprecedented benefits of the world's largest natural health resource: the great outdoors.
Gardening for Mind, Body and Soul: How to Nurture Your Well-Being with Nature
Science now tells us that cultivating a green space of our own can be restorative and even transformative for our physical and mental well-being, with a proven ability to reduce depression and anxiety, boost our happiness levels and provide a feeling of balance and calm. Explore which plants release scents to help uplift and soothe, discover the ways gardening can promote feelings of balance and calm, and experience how growing plants from seeds teaches us to slow down and appreciate the simple things.
Walk yourself happy : find your path to health and healing in nature
Walking, one of the most accessible activities for most of us, is the fastest and easiest way to embed yourself in nature. You don't need expertise or equipment; you just need to put one foot in front of another. You don't need an epic landscape either, you can walk down the street or in your local green space.
About the Library Wellbeing Collection
The Library supports wellbeing through buying, promoting and providing access to a range of relevant print and electronic resources. The Library’s Wellbeing Collection is for all University of Edinburgh staff and students.
Browse and borrow from the Wellbeing Collection Space on the 1st floor of the Main Library. Some books from the Wellbeing Collection are also available at Moray House Library and at the Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library.
Explore more of the resources in the Library Wellbeing Collection on the website.
1 Nature and mental health (2025) Mind. Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/nature-and-mental-health/ (Accessed: 01 June 2026).
(Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Unsplash)
