Hello! My name is Amy, and I am currently working on a project to inspire the local people of Sunderland to go out and explore what the city has to offer during lockdown for their own hour of outdoor exercise per day. Many of us have become trapped indoors as only essential shops are open in lockdown number 3, as schools and workplaces are closed, limiting the opportunities for us to go outdoors. We are now showing more symptoms of depression and anxiety in lockdown when we are not exposed to the outdoors (Pouso et al, 2020). But it has been proven that just 29 minutes of outdoor fresh air improves productivity by 45% (Anderer, 2020). If you can't get to an outside location like a park or the beach, an alternative would be to open the windows of your home or office, or taking a moment to go into your garden, maybe look to see what birds you can spot in a specific time frame that suits your schedule.
I find I work best when I open all my blinds as far as they go to let as much natural light in. When I need a break from work for a few seconds I look out of my window and watch the traffic go past. As I am writing this, I am watching the snow fall gently past my window, which is encouraging me quickly get my work done so I can go out and take photographs later on before the sun sets or the snow melts. This helps me be more productive in a shorter space of time as I have a goal of what I want to achieve before a certain time.
I have been looking at a few studies that surveyed British people about their outdoor habits and their feeling during lockdown, here are the most shocking numbers (Friends of the Earth, 2020):
49% didn't get to any green outdoor spaces during the first week of the November lockdown
11% didn't leave their home for the first week of the November lockdown
18% lack inspiration of what to do outdoors
14% bored visiting the same spaces
I am here to find the inspiration you need to get outdoors for an hour a day, which doesn't have to be every day, so there's no pressure. The map on the underneath shows each place that I am going to visit which are local to Sunderland over the next month. I have used the website 'See it Do it Sunderland' to help give me inspiration of where to go, as I am not from Sunderland so I didn't know of all the places I could visit. Hopefully, there are some places on this list that you haven't visited before that give you that motivation to go explore the outdoors.
The places I am going to visit are:
Barnes Park
Backhouse Park
Mowbray Park
Penshaw Monument
Herrington Country Park
Northern Spire Bridge
Wearmouth Bridge
Roker Pier
Roker Park
Seaburn Lighthouse
Sunderland Marina
I am going to document each adventure I go on, letting you know of all the outdoor spaces you can visit in Sunderland and what I think of each place, so you can decide for yourself if you would like to visit these places too. I will be photographing everything that makes up these places to show you the beauty that Sunderland has to offer during these cold winter days, that can help boost mental health and wellbeing throughout lockdown.
Friends of the Earth (2020) Reconnect with nature during lockdown with these top tips. Available at: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/reconnect-nature-during-lockdown-these-top-tips (Accessed: 07 February 2021).
J. Anderer. (2020) Work productivity improves after 30 minutes of fresh air outdoors, research shows. Available at: https://www.studyfinds.org/work-productivity-30-minutes-fresh-air/ (Accessed: 07 February 2021).
Pouso et al. (2021). Contact with blue-green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown beneficial for mental health. Science of The Total Environment. 756:143984. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972037515X?via%3Dihub (Accessed: 07 February 2021).
You have captured the heart of Sunderland. The photos are beautiful.