How these little red delights helped with my mental health struggles

A lot of you will already know I suffer from a mental illness, in particular depression and anxiety. I struggle with suicidal thoughts on a daily basis, and even with medication, talking therapies and meditation, they have never gone away. I am slowly coming round to the realisation that this is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

The only thing I've found to have some impact on how I feel is to connect with nature and use photography as a therapy. To stop and listen, to immerse yourself in the lives of the wildlife around us, be aware of our surroundings (maybe stand in a woodland for while and study the trees and plants, listen to the birds) seems to have a calming effect. Then by using photography to capture that piece of time, to concentrate on taking that photograph, to keep yourself in that moment, to slow down, really helps. It's like Mindfulness, which is a therapy used to treat depression, it homes in on the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Pressing that shutter button makes you slow down and be mindful of that moment - some people refer to it as shutter therapy.

If you suffer from a mental illness or even if you are just having a bad day, then may I suggest you grab yourself a camera (you don't need a fancy camera, most phones nowadays have a camera on them) and go out into nature and be present, I'm sure it will benefit you too. Drop me a line and let me know if it works for you.

So bearing all that in mind I want to share with you some little creatures who helped me with my mental health last year and will help me into the future I'm sure.

I live in Staffordshire, just on the outskirts of the Staffordshire Moorlands and the Peak District. Peak Wildlife Park is a place I hadn't before as I'm not one for captive animals, however I read that they had recently installed an area where you can "walk with the red squirrels" and I'm a sucker for a red squirrel, so I thought I'd give them a visit!

Deliberately choosing a quiet day I made my way to the park. On arriving I immediately noticed how much open space the animals have. You can walk amongst the animals such as lemurs, wallabies, goats, rabbits and of course the squirrels. It doesn't feel like a wildlife park, there seems so much open space for the animals & humans to roam together.

One of the ring tailed lemurs relaxing whilst people walk through the enclosure. Olympus E-M1 mark ii and 100-400 lens, f7.1 1/250th

They also have enclosures for other animals such as the penguins, deer, otters & the ever popular Meerkats, who always manage to raise a smile :-)

Meerkat lounging around. Olympus E-M1 mark ii & 100-400 lens, f 7.1 1/1000th

The red squirrels have their own space which they share with some waterfowl. It takes a minute or two to get your bearings and locate the squirrels, the first thing you'll notice is how small they are!

As I walked towards a bench situated under a tree I noticed the first squirrel - there he was sitting in the tree above!

First sight of a red squirrel, sat in a tree munching on a hazelnut, Olympus E-M1 mark ii & 100-400 lens. f7 1/160th

The park has a total of 5 squirrels and on the day I was there only 4 were in the park. The squirrels eat a mix of veg and nuts with their favourite clearly being the hazelnut.

Red squirrel portrait. Olympus E-M1 mark ii & 100-400 lens f6.3 1/1000th

I was totally smitten and in all honesty the photography took a back seat as I just sat there observing them, watching them scoot around and watching them bury their nuts in preparation for the winter, (it was nice to see them carrying out behaviours you would see in the wild).

They are so funny, they dart here there and everywhere, sometimes you can't see them for the undergrowth, but that tails gives them away!

Red squirrel in the undergrowth. Olympus E-M1 mark ii & 100-400 lens, f6.3 1/400th

As I sat there I felt so relaxed and totally absorbed by these little animals, I actually think this was the most relaxed I was in all of last year. I stayed for a while just observing until it was time to leave.

As the experience made me so relaxed I decided I must come back, so I upgraded my day ticket to a year pass (which was incredible value for money by the way) and made plans to come back another day.

My second visit to the park was just as relaxing as the first and I was just as engaged. I tried to take some more pics of the squirrels but I'm afraid watching took over from taking the pics, but I did get a few..

Checking me out! Olympus E-M1 mark ii & 100-400 lens,, f5.9 1/500th

Is that some sort of karate move?! Olympus E-M1 mark ii& 100-400 lens, f7.1 1/250th

My third visit was amazing. I decided to sit on the floor and let the squirrels investigate me. They were soon climbing over me and sitting on my legs, it was a a lovely experience as you'll see here in this short video taken on my iPhone..

And a final photograph of one of the red squirrels eating lunch..

Lunch time. Olympus E-M1 mark ii & 100-400 lens, f11 1/250th

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my visit to Peak Wildlife Park and the red squirrels, if you can pay them a visit I'm sure you'll really enjoy it was much was I did.

If you like what I do then please consider buying me a coffee, (it's like giving me an electronic tip and helps to spur me on to create further content). Thank you.

Date of walk - various dates in 2021

What-Three-Words location of park - ///shuttling.ratio.remote