Bird Therapy Quotes

“Nature and birdwatching can offer a great deal of stability. In the life of someone living with daily mental health issues, these consistencies can act as an anchor to the present and provide grounding.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“Every day, birds that are defined as common are overlooked. However, as you immerse yourself in the world of birdwatching, you come to appreciate the beauty in the common species as well as the scarcer ones.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“... even now, in the twenty-first century, mental health is still steeped in a lethal taboo which locks sick people up in themselves and leads to tragedy.”
― Chris Packham, Bird Therapy

“There are so many colours and flavours to be found in natural settings – embrace and enjoy them. Next time you’re outdoors, stop and immerse yourself in the colours around you.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“In that moment, watching the flock of finches, I was allowing myself to become lost and absorbed in the sights in front of me. In these early days of my interest in birdwatching, I was still burdened by an inability to manage and regulate my mental health. Birdwatching quickly became my escape route and I started to notice that when I was out, on my own, experiencing nature and birds in a personal and intimate way, I was more relaxed than I'd ever been before. My breathing rate slowed and I closed my mind to repetitive thoughts and worries. My only focus was observing birds and learning about them. I was losing myself in birds, in a positive way.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“It's reassuring to know that the garden birds are there, even when I'm not.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“(...) giving something back to nature can be a genuinely rewarding act.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“... I had also started to recognise just how positive I felt when I was immersed in the world of birds. My worries seemed to fade into insignificance and when I was feeling stressed, if I counteracted it with some time outside, watching them, it drifted off like birds do, in a stiff breeze.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“They are: to connect, to take notice, to give, to keep learning and to be active.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’ – William Shakespeare”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“To share such profound experiences that day was, in simple terms, amazing. I remember the extraordinary sense of calm I felt, as if it were yesterday, a feeling that was nurtured, and grew throughout the day. A void began refilling after lying empty for a long time. I began to feel alive again.
Not only did it bring such positivity but it also brought a great sense of meaning, as if I'd found my true calling. These were all feelings that I wanted to experience again. To see more and to open my mind to the world of nature that was, itself, opening around me.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“Sometimes I feel bloody awesome and like I can achieve anything, yet other times I hate everyone and everything and just want to be on my own.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“I find that thinking about winter conjures up great feelings of warmth,”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy

“Pay attention to how being outside and engaging with birds makes you feel. Harness positive experiences and try to recognise what makes them so.”
― Joe Harkness, Bird Therapy