We live in a fast-paced, digital world where we often lose track of how important it is to connect with nature. A simple walk in a local park, or a hike in the mountains, or even just sitting under a tree, you are not only enjoying the comfort of the outside world, but adding substantial value to your physical and mental health. Many studies have been conducted, further explaining how imperative nature is to our bodies, and every time we study the relationship, we have empirical evidence to support it. 

When we are talking about time in nature, we are referring to living outdoors and all things related to nature, for example, trees, plants, water, fresh air, animals, etc. Time in nature could be anything, walking in a park, sitting under a tree while a bird sings, hiking in a forest with burning legs, swimming in ponds, camping in a forest or mountains, it does not matter how far away you get; whether you are as far as your yard garden or balcony that contains plants; or if you’re living on a city block included in your “patio” with trees – it’s time in nature.

The heart of the matter spending time in nature is that it’s time to disconnect from the artificial world (which often includes screens and other times helps to disconnect from traffic, buildings, and more) so that you can reconnect to the real world. This reconnection does wonders for your mind, body, and emotions – stress reduction, and improvement (or restoration) of well-being, and it even encourages movement and mindfulness. 

Here are 10 interesting health benefits of spending time in nature that will make you want to be outside more-

1. Reduces Stress and Anxiety

Nature has a powerful way of calming the mind and body. Once you enter spending time in nature(forest, park, by a stream), your body begins moving away from tension to relaxation. When you hear natural sounds, like birds, moving water, and wind rustling through leaves, your brain gets the signal to release less cortisol- the stress hormone. It is already starting to feel relaxed, which helps to lower blood pressure, relax tight muscles, and slow down fast-paced breathing.

Most importantly, nature provides us a moment to detach from the nearly non-stop barrage of notifications, deadlines, traffic noise, and everything else that can overload our bodies and our brains. By disconnecting from those stressors, even for a moment, we are able to give our minds an opportunity to heal from chronic stress, emotional fatigue, and burnout. Forest bathing is also (shinrin-yoku in Japan.) Studies have shown that an individual can decrease their physiological measures of stress quickly, in 15 minutes or less.

2. Enhances Mood and Mental Well-being

Studies have shown a direct link between exposure to nature and mental well-being. Natural environments influence positive emotions and reduce negative emotions. Also, being spending time in nature exposes a person to sunshine and helps the body to produce serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that enables mood changes and has an antidepressant-like function. Any green space has a tendency to induce mindfulness and a sense of awe, and both relate to well-being.

Recently, mental health practitioners have shifted away from traditional options of prescriptions of anti-anxiety medications, to spending time in nature, gardening, or eco-therapy as an adjunctive treatment option for mood disorders, including depression, PTSD, and bipolar disorder. These activities offer not only the potential for psychological relief but also awareness based on the cognitive structure of processing cognition. Also, with time, regular outdoor exposure benefits individuals in coping with mood volatility, crisis of emotional dysregulation, and cognitive clarity.

3. Improvements in Immune System Function

Your immune system’s role is to act as a safeguard against chronic diseases, bacteria, and viruses. Nature can help or optimize this responsive system in several different and unexpected ways. First, through specificity, harming substances contained in phytoncides, antimicrobial antioxidants released from trees and plants to discourage an animal from consuming the plants. When trees and plants release phytoncides and when you are in the forest, when you breathe these naturally occurring compounds, will cause your body to increase the production of white blood cells, including natural killer (NK) cells that are designed to seek, find, and kill senescent or infected cells in your body.

Researchers in Japan and South Korea, spending time in nature studying forest bathing, have identified that individuals taking part in forest bathing promoted NK activity for approximately a week after experiencing exposure to the forest. The benign or decreased stress response you have from spending time in nature will elicit an improved immune response because chronic stress eventually erodes your immune defenses. Not only do you feel calmer while immersed in nature, but you can also mount a stronger response to disease.

4. Enhances Creativity and Problem-Solving

Stepping away from technology and stepping outside and spending time in nature allows your mind a reset. The urban experience bombards the mind with thoughts, notifications, decisions, and lacks time to reflect. Nature provides time to do nothing; give it time to sit still, and it allows contemplation in a much less structured way, and for what is termed “mental white space,” where you allow your mind to work creatively.

In a classic study, participants showed improvements of almost 50% on creative problem-solving tasks after four days of immersion in nature, with no electronics. Whether you are a student, artist, entrepreneur, or writer, spending time in nature provides a reset for your mind to think clearly, draw connections, and be more successful at achieving flow.

5. Enhances Sleep Quality 

Sleep is controlled by your body’s internal clock, called your circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms respond primarily to light, and natural sunlight, especially when you can get natural sunlight, is the most dependable signal for both your mind and body that it is day! When you get out into the morning sunlight, it tells the body it is daytime and this readies the body to start the sleep cycle that you will go through that will ultimately trigger melatonin, or the sleep hormone, as day becomes evening.

If you do not get enough exposure to sunlight, you are taking away and sending your body a confused daytime signal, and therefore, the body could become confused about when and where to produce the sleep hormone melatonin. 

Spending time in nature benefits sleep as well because it reduces anxiety, creates more physical tiredness, and limits the time in front of a screen, or even more specifically, the blue light of phones and computers, which is especially notorious for robbing our minds and bodies of sleep by inhibiting melatonin production. Therefore, when we have a day out in nature and have less access to the digital distractions that cut into our evening sleep opportunity, we usually wake up from a much deeper sleep.

6. Enhances Physical Activity

People tend to be more active outdoors. Nature encourages movement in a way that buildings and structures do not, whether it is walking, hiking, swimming, biking, or gardening. You may not consider these activities “exercise,” but they offer near-cardio benefits, increased muscle tone, strength, and even flexibility.

Sustaining spontaneous, spending time in nature can be easier than sticking with a structured, regular gym setting/exercise program. You will also gain all the other benefits that come from breathing fresh air, absorbing vitamin D, and perhaps feeling a more invigorated mind. Before you know it, you will have developed fitness habits!! Spending continued time engaging in the outdoors can create habits of this nature with favorable outcomes, which can help create a healthy weight maintained, better posture, and potentially better coordination, and lastly, better balance when traversing natural terrain and trails and/or sandy beaches.

7. Benefits Heart Health

Nature will not only make you feel good, it will also benefit the physical health of your heart. Being in a calming/green space can reduce resting heart rate, reduce blood pressure, and create a better physiologic state – we refer to as the “rest-and-digest” mode. The “fight or flight” mode is the body acute stress response that can create strain on the heart.

Countless longitudinal studies have shown that the risk of stroke and heart attacks is greatly reduced for those spending time in nature, living next to parks, forests, and other green places around the world. Nature reduces important risk factors in heart disease, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and inflammation. Nature helps promote heart-healthy practices, like walking, as opposed to driving, or de-stressing. 

8. Boosts Concentration and Focus

Multitasking, digital devices, noise in urban spaces, and digital overload are key elements that continually disrupt attention today. Going outside spending time in nature can help to ‘rest’ the brain from this barrage of advancing demands. Indeed, Attention Restoration Theory (ART) indicates that while natural environments can ‘rest’ our directed attention (that is, the attention we expend on work or study), they can allow us as they gently grab our senses in a low-key manner. The restorative effect of nature is particularly relevant to children with Attention Deficit Disorders, and adults who are impaired in focusing, cannot finish tasks at hand, and find themselves excessively fatigued.

 Improvements in memory, mental performance, ability to concentrate on complex tasks, and so forth have all been recorded for people after spending time in nature or a local park or green area; even a one-off short walk during a break in natural environments can enhance productivity and increase alertness.

9. Cultivates Social Connections

When we find ourselves spending time in nature, we become more socially engaged. We walk our dogs, work in community gardens, and learn yoga classes in parks, therefore being outside with others. Nature maximizes social interaction and engenders casual, open settings with others who provide an opportunity to connect and possibly become friends (person, child, family, friend, etc.).

Social relationships matter for emotional health because they provide emotional support, reduce feelings of loneliness, and even contribute to living well on this earth longer. Spending time in nature play, groups, or joint experiences such as camping and team sports, especially offer the opportunities to develop trust, cooperation, and resilience between each other. Especially as we lead more isolated digital lives, it is more important than ever to develop collaborative relationships with others.

10. Increases Overall Happiness and Satisfaction with Life

Research on spending time in nature (not the weather) has established an association with subjective measures, including happiness and satisfaction with life, as clear as day. Much of that is experienced as tranquility, a sense of belonging or connectedness, and obtaining perspective. This is very different than enjoying a sunny day (or whatever nice weather you have been experiencing). Nature can often remind you of how small you are in relation to the broad world that surrounds you. And maybe that contributes to deepening your positive feelings and gratitude, while perhaps you feel less self-centred and self-important.

Spending time in nature, and especially a regular practice of spending time in nature, has also been demonstrated to relate to people’s levels of mindfulness and sense of satisfaction. Nature provides a space where the a chance to slow down, consider, and remember the little meaningful things that matter. Nature can be great like that – whether to sit back and enjoy a sunset, walk in the grass, or enjoy the fresh air, and even the happiness can last longer, and replace material possessions.

Simple Ways for you to Spending Time in Nature

1. Walk in your local park or around your neighborhood every day

Walking outside every day is one of the best ways to connect with spending time in nature. Walking in a green space will ease stress, lift your mood, stimulate blood flow, and give your mind a rest from screens or indoor environments. Being in nature, spending time in nature naturally encourages relaxation and clarity. You can expect to feel uplifted and re-energized after walking around the neighborhood.

2. Practice yoga or meditate outside

Practicing yoga or meditating outside is a great way to enhance the experience while building mindfulness if you do these practices already. Not only will you be able to hear the birds, experience the wind, and feel the warm sun on your skin, but you will also be improving your ability to be present and focused. Finally, there are the added benefits of spending time in nature that will reduce anxiety, calm your nervous system down, and improve your mind-body connection, which can help with emotional processing and developing a deeper sense of inner peace.

3. Hiking and nature weekend getaways

Going for hikes or seeking out a nature getaway for day trips on the weekends can be a fantastic way to hit reset with your mind and body. You will be surrounded by trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, or whatever your grassy knoll is, and have some space to hike in, where you can not only disconnect from the fears and thoughts of each day, you will have a chance to be present. Hiking is a really great way to get your heart beating more effectively, and also, there is potential for clearer thinking as well. You may even be able to increase your creativity, and it may improve your overall mental health.

4. Start a low-cost garden or take care of an indoor plant

Gardens, even tiny gardens, are helpful therapeutic engagements for people, that provide less stress, better health, and a sense of accomplishment. Gardening allows us to possess attributes such as patience, focus, and responsibility So, when we care for a plant, whether it’s herbs, flowers, or house plants, we are bringing ourselves a pause, a moment to have mindfully caring for a living plant, we also can have a normalizing act that is affirming of life.

5. Plan family picnics, outdoor workouts, or bike rides

Organizing family outings, spending time in nature such as a picnic, an outdoor workout, or a group bike ride to allow you to spend time in the outdoors with your family will also reinforce your social connections while creating an opportunity for everyone to be active!  Getting people together in the outdoors, stimulating deeper conversations, and making great memories is a function of getting off our screens.  If you can get everyone moving, outside in the sun and fresh air, you will be physically active, as well as have some fun and emotional connection memories at the same time.

Conclusion

Finding ways to spend time in nature every day is one of the easiest ways to improve health, physically and mentally. It does not matter if you are walking on a forest trail or gardening in your backyard; each minute spent in nature can have a great health benefit that society has left behind, along with the experience outdoors.

So next time you feel overwhelmed, burnt out, or simply drained from today’s world, just go outside. Spending time in nature is the best free medicine you will ever take!