Spring has sprung, which means green spaces near your home are getting ever-greener, and spring thaw is making it less inconvenient to bundle up and get outside. On the heels of two years that have been hard for mental health, it seems like the perfect time to talk about the science-backed benefits of getting outside, which include, remarkably, healing faster.
First, “Get Outside” is Different Than “Exercise”
You don’t need to be moving - at all - to reap the benefits of being outdoors. A 2019 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that even study participants that simply sat on a park bench for 20-30 minutes had less cortisol (our main acute stress hormone) in their saliva than they did prior to their nature-sit. We all have days where we’re feeling sluggish, unmotivated and unfocused. Nature can help with all of that. To prepare for these inevitable days, spend an afternoon searching your local park for a quiet place to sit, and return to that place for 20-30 minutes, phone-less and undistracted, even on your “lazy days.”
Defining “Outside”
A local park is ideal, but anywhere with plants that’s somewhat separated from loud urban noise will do the trick. The key is to leave your phone. Music, podcasts, the dinging of your email inbox… those all count as “urban noise.” The idea is to stop asking your mind to stretch its attention across a multitude of things and just exist in nature, for a moment.
Nature For Your Brain
- Less acute stress: 90 minutes in nature decreases activity in your subgenual prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for repetitive thoughts surrounding negative emotions (thanks, brain). Translated: 1.5 hours in nature quiets that part of your brain that wants to spiral and ruminate on things that make you feel worried and distressed.
- Improved attention: Like any valuable natural resource, attention is available in limited supply. Researchers have found that after time outside, study participants perform better on cognitive tests than those who weren’t immersed in nature. They attributed this to something called “Attention Restoration Theory” (ART), which proposes that being undistracted in nature - we repeat, phone-less - encourages your brain to operate more effortlessly, which allows it to replenish its capacity to pay attention.
Nature For Your Body
- Better immune function: The Japanese have a word to describe this “time in nature” we’re alluding to: Shinrinyoku, which translates to “forest bathing” (queue contented sigh). A Japanese research team found that 30 days after a three-day/two-night trip to the woods, natural killer cell activity was elevated. Translated: a full month after an immersive trip outdoors, a type of white blood cell responsible for killing tumor cells and virally-infected cells was more abundant than before participants’ forest bath.
Nature For Your Kids
- Enhanced creativity, physical activity, and social belonging: The attentional and stress benefits we mentioned above have also been studied and validated among kids. As an added bonus, the natural world enables kids to play and problem solve in a completely unstructured environment, which encourages them to work brain areas responsible for social cooperation and creativity.
How Much Nature is “Enough?”
Two hours per week! (And no, it doesn’t matter if this is broken up into smaller chunks, or taken all at once.)
We’ll see you on that park bench, then? ✌️🌳🧘🏽♀️
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