The video highlights the numerous benefits of spending time outdoors, even when the weather is uninviting. It suggests that many of the best moments in life occur in outdoor settings, like at the beach or in the mountains, where natural elements like light, green spaces, and fresh air provide psychological and physical benefits. Despite the instinct to stay indoors during rainy weather, venturing outside can uplift the spirit and enhance overall mood. The notion is supported by historical practices in occupational therapy and informed by modern research.

It explores the concept of Puddle Parks, innovative outdoor spaces designed to encourage outdoor activity even on rainy days. These parks transform rain into entertainment, with features activated by heavy rainfall, such as lighting, music, and water movements. This design transforms rainy days into anticipated events and invites communal outdoor fun despite the inclement weather. The narrative illustrates how these parks change our relationship with rain, encouraging us to see rainy days as opportunities for enjoyment rather than hindrances.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. inception [ɪnˈsɛpʃən] - (noun) - The beginning or start of something. - Synonyms: (commencement, onset, origin)

My profession of occupational therapy has been using nature based therapy and the outdoors since its inception over 100 years ago.

2. enormity [ɪˈnɔrmɪti] - (noun) - The great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong. - Synonyms: (magnitude, vastness, hugeness)

That ability to get outside adds so much positivity for people who are facing the enormity of death and dying.

3. occupational therapy [ˌɑkjəˈpeɪʃənəl ˈθɛrəpi] - (noun) - A form of therapy that helps people engage in meaningful and important activities to improve physical and mental health and well-being. - Synonyms: (rehabilitation, therapy, treatment)

My profession of occupational therapy has been using nature based therapy and the outdoors since its inception over 100 years ago.

4. shell shock [ʃɛl ʃɑk] - (noun) - Psychological disturbance caused by prolonged exposure to active warfare, especially being under bombardment. - Synonyms: (combat stress, war neurosis, battle fatigue)

Early occupational therapists working with injured soldiers from World War I realised that doing therapy with their patients outside had a positive effect on their symptoms of shell shock.

5. hydroelectric [ˌhaɪdroʊɪˈlɛktrɪk] - (adjective) - Relating to the generation of electricity by using flowing or falling water. - Synonyms: (waterpower, hydraulic, dam-generated)

They're powered by hidden hydroelectric motors that are underground.

6. craving [ˈkreɪvɪŋ] - (noun) - A powerful desire for something. - Synonyms: (yearning, longing, urge)

During COVID we all started to view time outside as our right, and we had it as a craving to get outside, even for a few minutes every day.

7. intuitive [ɪnˈtuɪtɪv] - (adjective) - Using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive. - Synonyms: (instinctual, innate, natural)

But our instinct tells us to stay inside, put the kettle on, make a cup of tea, get cosy.

8. precious [ˈprɛʃəs] - (adjective) - Of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly. - Synonyms: (valuable, cherished, treasured)

Those brief moments outside at the end of life are really precious and enriching.

9. transform [trænsˈfɔrm] - (verb) - To make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of. - Synonyms: (convert, change, alter)

Puddle Parks present a creative solution to make outdoor spaces alluring in all weather conditions, transforming public perception of rainy days into opportunities for enjoyable and innovative experiences.

10. sustainable [səˈsteɪnəbl] - (adjective) - Able to be maintained at a certain rate or level. - Synonyms: (maintainable, viable, eco-friendly)

We need science, technology, art, sculpture, engineering to bring sustainable and accessible and innovative puddle parks to life for everybody.

The magical park that can make a rainy day incredible - Hazel Cottle - TED & TEDxBrighton

Picture the last time you felt truly alive. Were you inside or were you outside? When you think back over some of your best memories, how many of them took place in an outside space? At the beach? Up a mountain? By a river? In your garden? Being outside more of the time, every day is just better, isn't it? But what happens when it rains? Our instinct tells us to stay inside, put the kettle on, make a cup of tea, get cosy. Sure, I know it would do me some good to get out today, but it's a lot of hassle and I might get wet.

But don't you find when you stay in that you're all liable to feel a little bit more grumpy? And maybe your screen time goes up and your step count goes down. What we need on a rainy day is an incentive to go outside. And I think I might have just the thing. But what is it about being outside that is so good? Could it be something to do with the natural light? Who else here has found that if you leave your workspace in the middle of the day and you get outside on your lunch break, you turn your face up to the sky and soak in a bit of natural light. It gives you a bit of a boost for the rest of the day.

Recent research has shown that getting more daylight in your life reduces your risk of depression, helps you sleep better and improves your mood overall. Could it be something to do with going out into green spaces? My profession of occupational therapy has been using nature-based therapy and the outdoors since its inception over 100 years ago. Early occupational therapists working with injured soldiers from World War I realised that doing therapy with their patients outside had a positive effect on their symptoms of shell shock. Users of the hospice that I often work at will comment on the wonderful healing powers of the amazing gardens and green spaces that the hospice is fortunate enough to have.

Every inpatient room has bed accessible patio doors that open out into year-round greenery and fantastic views across the countryside. That ability to get outside adds so much positivity for people who are facing the enormity of death and dying. Could it also be something about fresh air? I think that must be a big part of it, because in as much as the hospices' green spaces bring joy, I've also discovered that hospital patients can get that same lift to their spirits by being wheeled out onto metal access ramps that overlook hospital car parks where there's very little green to be seen. It's something about the breeze that, when it touches their face and hands, it gives them something they've been missing. Those brief moments outside at the end of life are really precious and enriching.

During COVID, we all started to view time outside as our right, and we had it as a craving to get outside, even for a few minutes every day. The outdoors connects us in a wonderful way that's complicated to define universally, easy to appreciate, but liable to be set to one side if it's raining. The funny thing is that here in the UK, it's quite rainy, quite a lot. In fact, nearly half of all of our days are rainy ones. So I was thinking we probably need to reimagine our relationship with that rain.

The forecast for the weekend is grim, but you're looking out of the window and you're willing it to rain really hard. This time it starts to. So you're messaging your friends and your family. You're saying, do you think it's raining hard enough for the thing to be working today? Do you think this is enough rain for it to be running? You all decide it is. So you get on your coats, your ponchos, you grab your umbrellas, put your boots on, and you head out to your local park. When you're there, other people are coming, and you're all looking at each other and you're smiling because it's a bit absurd that you've come out in this kind of weather.

But then you're smiling because actually, this is really cool and it's really fun. And it doesn't actually matter if we're getting wet because our skin is waterproof and we'll dry out when we get home. This doesn't happen every day. What you've just experienced is the magic of a puddle park. So we value our time outside for the green spaces, the natural light, the fresh air. Our community spaces are often deserted when it's raining. Many is the time that I've got my kids into their waterproofs, taken them to the park, and we're the only ones there.

So that incentive we were talking about, this is where puddle parks come in. So a new puddle park area has been made in your local green space. You're going there with your family or friends to check it out. You spent some time jumping up and down in the puddle, collecting paving. You've been playing with some pumps and some crank handles that will move the water around in different ways. And now you're watching as the rainwater is being diverted through channels that are flowing down through wonderfully landscaped flower beds. You find an enormous leaf. Set it off at the top. Watch it as it swirls down, following the flow.

Next, you and your friend find Pooh sticks, like as in Winnie the Pooh, just to be clear. You set them off at the top for a race. They're flying down. Your stick goes left and gets stuck where somebody's closed a little sluice gate. Your friend's stick is going down the right-hand channel. It goes over a mini waterfall. It goes around some obstacles, narrowly misses a siphon where the rainwater is disappearing underground completely. And it comes out at the bottom to win the race. You're just about to go for a rematch when you notice something among the plants. Did anyone else see it? It looked like a light.

Yes, it was a light. And there's more lights there all over the puddle park. And now they're changing color from red to blue to green to purple. Amazing. And it's raining a bit harder now. And suddenly you're hearing music and sounds coming from different places in the puddle park. And actually, because you're there on a completely torrential downpour day, some previously unnoticed things have started moving. And they're powered by hidden hydroelectric motors that are underground. So all of a sudden, you've got a whole sensory show going on that's purely powered by the rain.

Part of the magic of a puddle park is that the more sophisticated features only operate in heavy rain. So you start anticipating rainy days and wondering if there's enough rain to make the light up, singing, spinning water feature thing run. I think this could mean that we all started to look forward to rainy days, rather than seeing them as a barrier to getting out and having fun. Puddle Parks needs collaborators. We need science, technology, art, sculpture, engineering to bring sustainable and accessible and innovative puddle parks to life for everybody so that next time it rains, you choose not to stay in. You'd step outside, embrace the weather, and start to feel a magical difference.

Thank you.

MOTIVATION, INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY, OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES, MENTAL HEALTH, NATURE THERAPY, TEDX TALKS