Trail Rx Stop 4 on 2 Bridges Trail is near a bench and a wooden deck situated on the top of the bluff that overlooks the lowland of Hartman Reserve. You may use the benches for this stop, or simply stand and observe. Your mental health prescription for this Trail Rx stop is below. You may read the invitation or you may listen to a recording of the invitation. Be sure the volume on your phone or ear buds is turned up so that you can comfortably hear the speaker. After listening to the recording, you may need to stop the Soundcloud application from automatically advancing to another audio file. Perhaps you'll want to take some time after reading or listening to the invitation to reflect or to notice your environment.

Click here for a recording of the following invitation: As you sit or stand on the deck overlooking the bluff, take a moment to find a tree that calls to you or interests you, and position yourself so that you can see the tree in its entirety from the base to the crown or top of the tree. When you are settled, take about five minutes to gaze from the roots of the tree very, very slowly up, up, up to the crown of the tree. As you do, you may shift your gaze in to focus on smaller details, and then back out again to take in a wider view. At the end of this experience, take a moment to contemplate what you noticed about gazing up a tree in this way.

Benefits:
In one of the early nature studies, it was found that people in a hospital recovering from surgery had lower hospital stays (by almost one full day), less need for pain medication, and fewer overall negative comments if they had a room with a view of a tree as compared with a view without trees (Ulrich, 1984). Simply gazing at nature is healing!