Think, Eat, Be Healthy

Nature Keeps Us Healthy

A little nature in our daily lives has a profound effect on our health and well-being.

A little nature in our daily lives has a profound effect on our health and well-being.

Human Nature

We are a part of nature and the natural world. Our health and mental well-being depend on nature. Without nature we would not have food to eat or a habitable world to live on.

In our modern world, where we all live, it can be all too easy to think that people are something apart from nature. We wake up in a bedroom, make and eat breakfast inside a kitchen and check the weather on the television instead of looking out a window. We spend five seconds outside walking to our cars and spend another five seconds walking into the building where we work.There are either no windows or we are too busy all day to look outside. Then we go home the same way and spend all night inside our homes.

This is not a healthy way to live. On a very deep level, we need contact with the natural world to stay healthy. Many of us sense this but don’t know what or why our feelings are about or what to do about them.

The beauty of nature can lift our spirits.

The beauty of nature can lift our spirits.

Nature Makes Us Healthier

Scientific studies show that being outside in nature improves health, both physically and mentally. Patients recovering in hospitals who have windows with views of trees, grass and sky recover more quickly and with fewer complications than patients in rooms without windows. Spending time each day outside, even if only a few minutes in a city park with a few trees and a patch of grass, has been shown to cause improvement in people suffering from depression. Being able to watch, or even just to listen to, running water improves the mood of almost everyone.

Science has not yet figured out why these positive effects occur. But they do occur and it seems to be a universal human phenomenon.

It is interesting that even looking at depictions of nature in books, on television or on a computer screen produces the same positive effects to a lesser degree. It seems we must always remember that we evolved over millions of years as just another minor part of the natural world. When we remove ourselves from that world, something within us notices and revolts, causing a variety of health problems.

Just being out in nature can make us feel more "connected".

Just being out in nature can make us feel more “connected”.

What To Do?

Take at least a little time each day to just be outside in nature. Eat lunch in the local park and watch the leaves tremble in the breeze and the birds flit through the branches. Listen to the stream or the fountain burble. Smell the grass and the roses.

Get a little sun on your skin every day. This is our natural way of supplying vitamin D. It also feels good and is invigorating in cooler weather. Direct exposure to sunshine every day has also been shown to improve sleep by keeping our internal clocks synchronized.

Try to get at least one longer period of exposure to nature every week. Take a hike along the shore or through the woods. Have a picnic beside the pond or river. Meditate in the yard instead of in the house.

A tree can be an effective mental health counselor.

A tree can be an effective mental health counselor.

Resources

While many of us get a vague feeling of “something wrong” or “something missing” when we lose contact with nature, it is difficult for most to make the connection with the actual problem. Science still does not know why a disconnect from the natural world causes health problems. The following links refer to source material for this post and go into more depth about these issues.

http://theunboundedspirit.com/how-connecting-with-nature-can-heal-and-uplift-you/

http://www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=39564

http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/3/173.full

http://www.hphpcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/beyondblue_togreen.pdf