Thrive Outside

Hello! We, as a podcast team, started to try to write a catchy, informative intro, and realized that one was already written, so to honor the hard work of others, and take the opportunity to do less work ourselves, here are the words from our website. “Have you ever felt calm walking along Lakeshore Path or happier after a few sunny minutes on Bascom Hill? Research shows that spending as little as 10 minutes in nature and green spaces can pose several benefits to your mental, physical, and cognitive health.” Listen on to learn more.

Hello, and welcome to the Connecting Badgers podcast. We are licensed mental health providers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. I am Casey Smart, she/hers. I’m a mental health provider here at UW.

And my name is Kari, I use she, her pronouns, and I am also a mental health provider. Today, we have Danyelle Okesanjo and Larissa Gearing-Bundy to discuss our Thrive Outside services. An invitation for you both to introduce yourself, perhaps names, pronouns, and your role at UHS. Danyelle, would you like to start us off?

Sure. Um, my name’s Danyelle Okesanjo. I use she, her pronouns. I am a therapist at UHS. I’m also embedded with the, um, Multicultural Student Center.

Thank you, and Larissa.

Hi there, I’m Larissa Gearing-Bundy, she, her pronouns. I am a nurse with the psychiatry team at UHS, and I am also a member of the mental health services outreach team. Thanks for having us.

Well, welcome. Thank you both. We wanted to talk more about Thrive Outside. So I guess just to start, what is Thrive Outside?

Yeah, so Thrive Outside is part of a larger initiative that Danielle and I started, I guess, summer of 2025, so a little over a year ago, about nature and well-being in general, and really looking at how we could increase staff and students knowledge of the benefits of nature and time outside, and also accessing all of our wonderful resources on campus here. So I would say, last summer we 1st started talking. I just finished my Wisconsin master naturalist training up in Bayfield County, and I was really motivated to bring nature and well-being into my work, and reached out to Danyelle as I knew she had done some work with the Multicultural Student Center on their Nurturing in Nature program.

Yeah, um, so over at the MSC, they had, um, a grant for the last 3 years through the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. It’s a student engagement grant, and so that went into funding the Nurturing Nature series, which was an opportunity for students to um, try new things in nature, like building a tent, building a campfire, learning how to kayak. Um, also doing nature walks, which I helped out with here and there. And so, um, the max that they could, um, apply for the grant was 3 times in a row, and so we decided to plan, um, apply for the grant and do similar programming, but with more of a focus on mental health. Um, and so from that, we created our Thrive Outside Challenge series, which is currently running from September 18th to the 23rd, and it’s a variety of activities outdoors that help with promoting self care and mental wellness. So we had an outdoor yoga event that we actually had to do indoors at a greenhouse. We have a garden plot at Eagle Heights and a tour and a variety of other activities. I won’t read off the whole list, but it’s six weeks and six activities.

Awesome. That sounds really exciting. I mean, when students are interested in doing some sort of Thrive Outside activity or things, I guess we’re just wondering if you could speak more to what options are available for Thrive Outside.

Yeah, Madison has an amazing campus that features nature in a variety of spots. If you have time in between classes, like instead of studying inside a college library, studying outside or sitting, taking a small walk down Lakeshore path instead of going up Bascom, or you can go up Bascom, that’s also nature. But if you’re looking for the sense of kind of being away, kind of surrounded by nature, going down Lakeshore Path is a great alternative. Those are just a few activities, but one of the big points of these thrive outside activities is to engage with nature, which usually means putting away a distraction. Maybe taking a moment to take off your headphones listen to bird songs, or take a moment to really notice the plants that you’re passing by, the greenery doing some mindful walking, so really noticing the feel of your feet on the ground, the air around you, and things like that. So being more connected to your immediate environment.

I was just talking with a student too about this and like little ways to incorporate this and I think the walking between classes is like a great time to just kind of drop into your senses like, you know, what do you, what do you smell? What do you see? What do you hear? You know, do you hear the birds singing? Do you hear the leaves crinkling under your feet? Like what? And I think right now is a great time with the colors changing is just to like when you’re walking, just like look for signs of fall and that kind of just brings you into the moment.

Exactly. And I like that push for, you know, some of those smaller but also everyday moments. I could see the argument to this of like, oh, I don’t really have time or, you know, I’m always going someplace or have a lot to do. And so those things fall by the wayside. But there are also those moments throughout the day, pockets here and there, you’re going to class, but that is, like, absolutely possible, or it doesn’t have to be such a commitment.

Even 10 minutes, like, I love this fact, too, like, even 10 minutes outside being in nature has benefit to you, and you don’t even have to enjoy it to have the cognitive benefit of it, too, so it’s just, like, especially as we move into, like, the colder months, and, like, you might not want to be outside, it’s still gonna benefit you.

I love that. That was actually going to be my next question of, like, what are some of those benefits? I love that you said you don’t even have to enjoy it to get the cognitive benefit. That’s really interesting. Um, yeah, I guess tell me more about that. What are, are there other benefits from small, big, everywhere in between activities?

Yeah, so there’s been a variety of studies that kind of have tested this theory called attention restoration theory so that I won’t get into all the nitty gritty, but basically one of the benefits of being in nature is it helps with your refreshes your ability to focus or pay attention to things. And so that’s one of the cognitive benefits that we talk about on our website, Thrive Outside. Yeah, a few other benefits. So obviously there’s the physical benefits that we’ve talked about or that are just kind of well-known, like walking, being outside, but also being outside can boost your mood, reduce cortisol levels, so stress reduction. Um, yeah, and certain environments are more therapeutic than other environments. So if you can find, nature settings that feel more away from buildings or built environments like roads and stuff like that, you’ll have even more of a benefit um, from being in spaces that feel a little bit more, um, away or wild, so to speak.

And I’d say another thing with the seasons coming up, too, we’re talking a lot about, like, the changing in the light, and it’s darker out later, and, like, what we can do to get light, and how that helps our sleep, and just, like, getting out in the morning and getting, like, 30 minutes of morning sunlight, like, helps with your vitamin D, it boosts your mood and energy, and improves your sleep, and even if you get more protective from, like, seasonal affective disorder, too.

Yeah, I would love to hear more about both of your thoughts on how students can be outside when it’s cold out, because I know that that sometimes can be, especially in Wisconsin, like a barrier. So I guess I’m curious to hear more about, yeah, what it means to enjoy the outdoors when it’s also freezing outside.

Yeah, so another amazing thing about our campus is we have a number of greenhouses. So there’s the Botany Greenhouse in Burge Hall. There’s the DC Greenhouse over by the horticulture building off of Linden, um, kitty corner to Steenbock. Yeah, and so those are just, like, one of… some of the more elaborate spaces, like, built for nature being indoors, but also…taking the benefits of nature while it’s wintertime, being by a window, having a view of Lake Mendota or seeing Picnic Point at a distance. Those are ways to still be connected to nature and there are studies have shown there are some benefits to still being by a window um, it’s not as strong as, like, actually being in nature, but it does help with, um, some of the mental and cognitive, um, or provides mental and cognitive benefits.

And I like hearing the, um, some of the, like, science behind it, too, is like, you know, everyone says, oh, get out, get some fresh air, and it’s easy to be like, yeah, yeah, but good to know, like, why these things are actually helpful. I guess that brings me to a larger question of just, like, what is ecotherapy? Because I know you had alluded to some of that before, and, like, how this ties in.

Yeah, so ecotherapy is like a modality of therapy as if…um, say, people have heard of cognitive behavioral therapy or dialectical behavioral therapy, so it’s just, like, a technique. Um, ecotherapy is kind of, um the therapist facilitates creating a relationship between the student-client and nature. And so…the hope is that this student will go on to have their own relationship with nature and be able to create their own practices around caring for themselves and under emotional regulation and kind of helping them with that. Thrive Outside is self guided. So it’s like, so there’s no actual eco therapist facilitating that. So it’s just the student and the information that we have provided and some of the workshops and what have you that we have have listed.

And then for the in part, the fall thrive outside challenge like it is, it’s doing this activity, and then also like reflecting on it. So we do have, you know, mental health clinicians as facilitators in addition to the activity. So like for our Yoga class, we had a Yoga teacher. We did an introduction beforehand, and then afterwards we did like a reflection on, on the process.

Yeah, and it seems like UHS is, um, you know, expanding a lot of services, you know, outside of, you know, the actual 333 East Campus Mall, so I feel like this is kind of an exciting, maybe, start to more things like this, so I really appreciate that. Um, and we’ll put the link to the website, too, for Thrive Oxide that has more, like, examples, um, and a lot of good information on there. Um, but thank you so much for joining us. It was, it was really great talking with you more about this.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you.

Subscribe to our podcast, and remember, this podcast is not a substitute for mental health treatment. If you are a UW–Madison student and are looking to start mental health treatment, call 608-265-5600, option 2 to schedule, and option 9 for 24/7 crisis support.

Thanks for listening.