Mindfulness in Nature

Exploring the mental health benefits of spending time

in nature and practicing mindfulness outdoors.

Mother Nature may find the indoor world pretty tough to compete with sometimes. After all,
she can’t offer flat-screen TVs, air conditioning, or Wi-Fi. But she might potentially offer
something even more important: improved health, by way of a stronger immune system,
better sleep, and reduced stress.
Spending time outdoors can boost physical and mental health in a range of ways. You don’t have
to spend hours at a time outside before those benefits kick in, either.

1. Better breathing
Air pollution can trigger allergies, asthma, and other respiratory diseases, which you may already
know. It might surprise you to learn, though, that indoor concentrations of air pollutants are often two
to five times higher than outdoor concentrations.

But spending more time in natural green spaces could help lower your risk of respiratory concerns.

One 2016 study examining the relationship between local greenery and mortality risk followed
108,630 women for 8 years. Compared to people with the least greenery in their neighbourhood,
people with the most greenery were 34 percent less likely to die from respiratory diseases.

You’ll generally find the freshest air in places with high air circulation. For example, camping in an
open field may give you more relief from pollution than resting along a river walled in by skyscrapers
and factories.

2. Improved sleep

Typically, your body’s internal clock follows the sun, making you feel awake during the daytime and sleepy
at night. Although artificial illumination can mimic natural light, direct sunlight has 200 times the intensity
of office lights in a closed room. As a result, sunlight affects your circadian rhythm more than electric light.

Exposing yourself to sunlight can improve your sleep by:

 helping you feel more tired at night

 shortening the time it takes to fall asleep

 improving the quality of your rest

The nice thing about sunlight? It doesn’t cost a thing. To get a daily dose, you only need to step outdoors.
Just keep in mind that sunlight needs to enter your eyes to affect your circadian rhythm. If you’re hoping
to improve your sleep, picnicking at the beach may help more than napping in a shady wooded area.

3. Reduced depression symptoms

Sunlight can often help ease depression symptoms like low mood and fatigue.

Light therapy can help treat both major depression and seasonal depression. If you have seasonal depression,
you may notice improvement after a few days. If you have major depression, it may take up to 2 to 5 weeks
before you notice improvement.

Experts still aren’t completely sure how sunlight affects depression.

Some people believe sunlight has a protective effect since it can help your body produce vitamin D. It’s also
possible that sunlight improves sleep, which in turn reduces the severity of depression symptoms.

If depression has sapped your energy, you can still get sunlight fairly easy. Try absorbing your daily dose
while eating lunch, reading a book, or doing some good, old-fashioned sun-bathing — just don’t forget
the sunscreen.

4. More motivation to exercise

Working out in green spaces could help boost your motivation to exercise in the future, in part because
outdoor exercise can:

 offer a nice change of pace from gyms and make physical activity more interesting and enjoyable

 make it easier to socialize, as many gyms have unspoken rules about not chatting to the person on the
treadmill next to yours.

 feel easier and less strenuous, according to 2013 research suggesting people who walk outside tend
to exercise at a greater intensity and report less exertion

You don’t have to bike a triathlon or ski down a mountain to enjoy exercise in nature. Any activity that gets
your body moving in a way that’s doable for you, like gardening, playing with your dog at the park, or
washing your car, can offer some health benefits.
 5. Mental restoration
The modern world contains plenty of intrusive stimuli — flashing screens, vibrating phones, rumbling
roadways — that compete for our limited attention. This ongoing overstimulation may raise your stress
levels without you even realizing it.

The natural world, on the other hand, can offer a mental and emotional refuge when you need to unwind and
recharge. In nature, soothing attractions for your senses, from the perfume of flowers to the music of bird
song, can hold your attention without draining your mental energy.

Research from 2020 suggests spending time in nature can help you feel more relaxed and focused, especially
when you take the time to notice your surroundings. To get these benefits, you might consider doing slow-
paced, contemplative activities like hiking in the woods or kayaking on a lake.

6. Boosted immune function

Expert guidance suggests you’re less likely to contract the virus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2), not
to mention other viruses, when outside. That’s because air circulation can dilute the presence of viruses in
the air. In fact, according to 2021 research, the chances of transmission are 18.7 times higher indoors than
outdoors.

Even ignoring the pandemic for the moment, spending time outdoors can still help your immune system
function optimally. Microorganisms found in nature that aren’t dangerous can run practice drills with your
immune system, in a manner of speaking, to help prepare it for more serious infections.

If you live your life in a completely sterile environment, your immune system can lose its ability to
recognize what is and isn’t dangerous. It may then set off a red alert for any microorganism it comes across,
which can lead to chronic inflammation.

So, while soap is a wonderful invention, getting muddy once in a while can be good for you, too.

7. Protection from short-sightedness

There’s some evidence to suggest children who spend plenty of time outside have a lower chance of
developing myopia(Myopia or near-sightedness is an eye condition caused by a refractive error that makes faraway
objects appear fuzzy or blurry. People who are nearsighted can see nearby objects clearly. ), or near-sightedness.

One 2020 study included 10,743 children between the ages of 9 and 11 in Taipei. Researchers found that
children who spent more time outside at recess were 22 percent less likely to develop myopia than their
peers.

Increasing the eye-work distance when doing close-up work and taking a break after 30 minutes of close-up
work also offered some protection.
Experts have suggested a few potential reasons why spending time outside might help protect against
myopia:

 Natural light offers a brighter and richer collection of light wavelengths to see with.

 The outdoors lets your eye practice looking at objects from various distances.

 Light stimulates the retina to produce dopamine, which prevents your eyeballTrusted Source from
stretching out and warping your vision. This theory has only been tested in animals, though.

This benefit only seems to affect the eye while it grows, so spending time outside can’t reverse myopia in
adulthood.

However, regular outdoor activities in childhood, like playing catch, swimming, and going sledding might
just save your kid a trip to the optometrist down the line. An added bonus: They also offer great
opportunities for family bonding.

8. Improved emotional well-being

Outdoor time can do more than help relieve unwanted or painful emotions like fear, worry, and sadness. It
may also help promote emotions you want to feel more of, like happiness, peace, and optimism.

Going outside at night can also leave you with a sense of awe and connection with the world. Plus, the drop
in noise and light can help you focus on the world around you more easily. If you’d like to forge a deeper or
more spiritual connection with the nighttime natural world, consider nocturnal activities like stargazing or
night fishing.

Time spent in nature can boost physical and mental well-being

Spending time outdoors in green spaces has been linked with myriad(a very large number of something)
physical and mental health benefits, including lower mortality, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of
Public Health’s Heather Eliassen.
Eliassen, professor of nutrition and epidemiology, was among the experts quoted in a December 14 Pop
Sugar article about the health impacts of nature and being outside. She explained that exposure to green
space has been linked to better sleep, lower blood pressure, and reduced risk of chronic disease—likely
because people who spend more time in green spaces also report higher levels of exercise.

“Green spaces can be destinations for walking or bicycling, as well as space for play, and among children,
green-space exposure is linked to more playtime and less screen time,” Eliassen told Pop Sugar.

She also said that spending time in nature has been linked to better mental health and a decreased risk of
psychiatric disorders among adults and children.

“[Time spent outdoors] provides a combination of stimulation of different senses and a break from typical
overstimulation from urban environments,” she said. “Exposure to green space results in mental restoration
and increased positive emotions and decreased anxiety and rumination. Improved mindfulness can result
from exposure to green space as well.”
Eliassen noted that even city dwellers and people who work indoors can pursue and reap the health benefits
of the natural world. Spending time in urban spaces like parks and gardens has been linked with improved
health, according to Eliassen and other experts quoted in the article.

“If there are some green spaces a short or medium distance from home, try walking or biking to the green
space to get the benefits of exercise while getting [there],” she said. “Or, find green space you could
incorporate into your commute to or from school or work.”

Conclusion
It’s easy to forget sometimes that a whole world really does exist outside your window.

Making a habit of spending regular time outdoors, especially in nature, can do a lot to boost physical and
emotional wellness. It can also go a long way toward strengthening your bond with the planet, or Mother
Nature herself.

Bibliography
https://www.semanticscholar.org

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

https://academic.oup.com

https://royalsocietypublishing.org

https://extremephysiolmed.biomedcentral.com

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/time-spent-in-nature-can-boost-physical-and-mental-well-
being/