30 Ways to go #30DaysWild in 30 Minutes

It may be the last day of 30 Days Wild but if you’re late to discovering the hashtag, you can still join in – and with a little creative thinking, you can even manage 30 #randomactsofwildness before the end of June!

Spare 30 minutes for nature tonight – and become part of the wonderful #30DaysWild community. (The links below take you exactly where you need to go, to save you time. If any of the tasks aren’t possible, there are lots of other ways to connect with nature to choose from.)

1. Follow @30DaysWild on Twitter.
2. Follow people who post on the #30DaysWild tag on Instagram.
3. Follow @30DaysWild on Facebook.
4. Follow @WildlifeTrusts on Twitter.
5. Follow @WildlifeTrusts on Instagram.*
6. Follow @WildlifeTrusts on Facebook.
7. Retweet a #30DaysWild post on social media (or better yet, lots of them, to increase the social shares for 30 Days Wild and make the hashtag more likely to trend, and attract more nature lovers to going wild.)
8. Look at a nature blog, or better yet, follow, a #30DaysWild blogger.
9. Take a photograph for #30DaysWild and share it on Instagram. If you’re indoors, photograph a houseplant, a spider, or the ripples on a glass of water after you stir it. Bright colours tend to be the most popular. What’s the brightest thing near you?
10. Share a #30DaysWild photo on Facebook.
11. Drink a glass of water, and pay attention as you drink it. You’re part of nature too. What process can you feel as you drink it? How does drinking it make you feel, as you drink, immediately after you’ve drunk it and half an hour after you’ve drunk it? You don’t have to get deeply analytical about it or spend hours sipping it – just feel the joy of fresh water sliding down your throat, and notice the effect it has on your body.
12. Tell a friend about #30DaysWild, whether online, by phone or face to face.
13. Visit ecosia.org and do an internet search. Their advertising revenue funds tree planting. Better yet, set it as your default browser. It has a pretty row of trees across the top of the browser so can give you a nature boost in emoji form.
14. Check your taps aren’t leaking.
15. Sow a virtual seed (and follow @GrowWildUk while you’re at it).
16. Visit the Canal and Rivers Trust website and find the nearest one you could visit. Plan a trip: the canal banks are teeming with wildlife.
17. Read a poem about nature. I love William Morris’s nature poetry.
18. Look at nature art. I love May Morris’s work (I also adore William Morris but he gets much more credit.) If you love May Morris’s art as much as I do, help fund an exhibition of her work that the William Morris Gallery is trying to put together.
19. Look at the Transition Towns website and find your nearest transition town.
20. Google ‘community allotment’ along with your local area and find the nearest one you could visit.
21. Listen to a nature-inspired song. I love Hat Full of Sunshine by Professor Elemental, Scare Away the Dark by Passenger (NB: video contains mild Eden-like nudity at the end) and Kick the Bucket by Charlie Winston (the happiest ever song about death, which is part of nature. I particularly recommend listening to it if you’re grieving or facing your own mortality: it’s helped me through tough times.)
22. Go outdoors. Just outside your front door is fine. **
23. Listen to the birds, breeze or whatever else you can hear (whether you are indoors or outdoors). Try to think of five things you can hear to help you focus. There’s a lot to listen to when you pay attention beyond the car noise.
24. Look at the sky.
25. Look at the nearest plant. There are urban weeds everywhere – a wonderful sign of nature’s resilience.
26. Pick up a piece of litter and dispose of it in the bin or recycling bin as appropriate.
27. Take the outdoors indoors, even if only a blade of grass or a daisy. Look at it closely. NB: do not pick anything rare, poisonous or likely to get distressed or bite you.
28. Download an ebook about nature. There are lots of free ones in the Amazon Kindle store, along with a free ebook reader for your phone – and you can get a discount on nature videos for downloading some of them too. My book, Go Wild: Over 200 Ways to Connect With Nature, is currently 99p and contains lots of ways to connect with nature year round. It also includes ways to save money with nature that will save you a LOT more than 99p if you do them all. I’m donating all profits to the Wildlife Trusts until the end of June so buy it tonight and you’ll be helping nature even more (which technically means downloading my book counts as two #randomactsofwildness).
29. Join the Wildlife Trusts – and better yet, make a donation too. If you don’t have enough money, look at volunteering opportunities available near you instead and find one that suits you. Find out how else you can support the Wildlife Trusts too.
30. #StayWild, and let nature enhance your life every day.

* If you don’t have Instagram, replace those items with sending a nature photograph to a friend and cutting a nature photograph out of a magazine or newspaper. Food counts, if you can’t find any nature pictures in the publications you have to hand.

Alternatively, or join Instagram and start following people using #30DaysWild to fill your Instagram feed with beauty every day. Follow @WildLifeTrusts too, for wonderful photos.

** If you can’t get outdoors, replace those items with looking at the sky through a window, looking at a nature webcam, looking for items every colour of the rainbow in your home, downloading the Calm app, which includes free nature meditations, or doing whichever of these 30 things you can do to connect with nature when you’re housebound most appeals. And if you’re still short of something to do, read last year’s State of Nature report. It’s a fascinating read.