The app Encounter has launched. It is a guided nature journal that lives on your phone, designed to help you notice what’s around you and deepen your connection to nature. The app offers inspiration and ideas tailored to your area and the time of year so that you can create your own nature diary entries. You can also tag the species and nature you see.
This free app, created by nature writer Melissa Harrison, with input from me along the way, helps you build a habit of noticing nature. Recording your experiences is a powerful way to boost nature connectedness, benefiting both your wellbeing and the environment. Encounter provides tailored tips and prompts to guide you, highlighting what to look and listen for, from the first spring butterflies to hedgerow fruit. You’ll also find invitations to join citizen science projects or local conservation initiatives, plus articles from Encounter’s partners to deepen your understanding of the wildlife you live alongside.
Encounter Nature
We know jotting down the good things in nature improves nature connection and writing about nature helps weave the emotional and biological threads that form a deep bond to the natural world. First, it helps understand that we’re not separate from nature, we’re part of it, flesh-and-blood creatures tied to the earth like every bird and tree. Second, it’s that quiet pull you feel when you watch the setting sun or hear waves lapping on the shore. Nature connection is much more than time outdoors; the two threads of knowing we belong and feeling it deep down cause a shift where the boundary between you and nature blurs into nothing.
Why does this matter? People with a strong tie to nature don’t just smile more or feel their days are more worthwhile—though they do. They’re also more likely to care about the birds, the trees, or the air we all breathe. This isn’t just a feel-good fix for our minds; it’s a lifeline for the nature crisis too. Nature connection unites our own wellbeing with that of the wider natural world.
So, how do we find this special relationship? The first step is to tune in and take notice of the birds chirping or the wind rustling the leaves. Too often, our busy lives take over, and others vie for our attention. Most people never stop to hear a blackbird sing. Too often, we can be tuned out, lost in our own noise. But when you start noticing—truly seeing, hearing, feeling—the soft fascination of nature wraps around you. These fleeting moments don’t need a lot of time; they can sneak in between the busyness. And if you jot them down, something magical can happen—writing about nature deepens those moments and roots them in place.
This writing doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. A couple of lines about a bright flower or a crow’s call plants these moments as seeds. It’s the act of writing that matters. There’s no need to worry about facts and figures; a few short, positive lines about the good things in nature is great. A paragraph or two is even better. Nature always has a story to tell, and for us, constructing stories is a natural process that brings coherence and meaning. Simply, noticing nature and weaving each moment together helps the two threads of feeling and belonging to form.
So, join in and be part of a collaborative project to reconnect people with the natural world we all share. Download Encounter and start weaving your own story with nature.
