How often do you take time to unwind in nature? It’s no secret that immersing yourself in nature is good for you and your health. Do you know that nature can prevent some chronic diseases that you battle with? Allowing yourself to be absorbed by nature has endless health benefits. Let’s get it. Here are four ways nature can improve your health:
1. Relieves Stress
Nature has a soothing reaction to the mind and body. The chaos and buzz of the city trigger stress in your mind. The city stimulates yet nature expects very little of your senses, all you have to do is absorb in it to be healed.
Your time with nature could be something as simple as a daily walk in a park or a Sunday afternoon stroll in the forest. This is far from the madding crowd and into the depths of nature.
Spending time outside in nature lowers your cortisol levels. These are the stress makers that make you feel more anxious and stressed. Therefore with nature, our bodies release less cortisol and more natural endorphins, which promote happy thoughts.
A study published in Frontiers in psychology tried to show that nature does indeed reduce stress by lowering cortisol levels. They researched by telling participants to spend time in a place that gives them a sense of contact with nature for ten minutes or more per outing, three times per week, over eight weeks.
The research found that participants who absorbed themselves in nature for at least twenty minutes experienced a decrease in their levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.
2. Boosts your Focus, Concentration, and Memory
Nature gives your brain a break from everyday work and stress, this can have a powerful restorative effect on your attention levels. The calming effect of nature helps clear your mind and brain. A study by University of Michigan psychology research found that short-term memory improved by 20% by walking in nature or even looking at natural beauty.
A mental break from phones and social media to nature will increase your attention span. Because human beings find nature interesting, we can naturally focus on what we are experiencing out in nature. This refreshes the mind for new tasks.
3. Enhances Strong Immune System
In Japan where they practice “forest bathing, the medicine of simply being in the forest. Researchers found that it has many health benefits for the body. The research found that spending a day in the forest increases a person’s number of natural killer cells and the number of anti-cancer proteins in a person’s blood cells. This increased immunity enhanced the body’s ability to fight diseases.
Many trees in the forest release immunity-boosting organic compounds into the air. This leads to faster healing hence good health. The forest environment was also found to reduce blood pressure, enhance quick recovery from surgery, illness, and helped in the provision of better sleep.
4. Improves eyesight
Computer Vision Syndrome is a condition that affects someone because of staring at the screen for many hours. The prolonged exposure hence negatively affects your eyesight and you end up developing problems like chronic headache, myopia, and dry eyes. Interestingly, spending time outside with nature, especially in the green areas is the best solution for this problem.
By looking at green grass, flowers, and the environment, there is an improvement in your eyesight and focus retention. Research conducted found that increasing time spent outdoors may be a simple way by which to reduce the risk of developing myopia and its progression in children and adolescents.
5. Sleep
Nature can increase sleep quality. This is mostly due to stress reduction, but also because exposure to sunlight during the day increases your body’s production of melatonin at night, melatonin is a hormone that your body produces in darkness. Melatonin is essential to regulate your sleep cycle.
6. Nature can lower the risk of depression
A Stanford study found that people who walked in nature unlike those in urban busy areas showed lowered activity in the region of the brain associated with depression. This study proved how nature slowly improves the mental health of a person.
Conclusion
You don’t need to go for expensive therapies while you can get free therapy in the forest. Try spending time in nature and improve your overall health. You will be surprised how energized you will feel.