Welcome back everyone! I hope you are enjoying the summer- or winter depending on your location! In Massachusetts, we’ve been having extreme heat in the 90’s, which is unusual for us. It has been a struggle trying to stay cool!
In this blog, I will be discussing the subject of how Nature is beneficial for all of us! This is an interesting and important topic for me. It is great to have other options for our health care, and I am finding that the amount of information available to us on how we heal from Nature is huge and continues to grow!
I believe that by spending time outside we can help ourselves in our journey of health! When you take a trip to the beach, camping or just walking in the woods how does it make you feel; relaxed? Invigorated? Refreshed? In the May/June Readers Digest, the article called How Nature Heals; Bert Mandelbaum sports medicine/orthopedic surgeon prescribes time in nature to his patients. He states,” Getting outside takes us back to how we were designed to work; it’s like a reset for our bodies, I tell my patients that being outdoors has nose-to-toes benefits.” “Nature treats the whole person, not just symptoms.”
There has been quite a bit of research about the benefits of going out in Nature and there have been many doctors in the US and other countries that have been prescribing Nature time. There is a brand-new field of research, and it is called Environmental Neuroscience. Its founder- Marc Berman PhD and psychologist is devoting his life to seeing how Nature affects the human brain and body. He has a new book that will be published August 12, 2025. It is called: Nature and the Mind, and it is available for preorder on Amazon. In a recent article- from Real Simple magazine, June 8, 2025, Jenny Brown interviewed Marc Berman, and he found these 6 ways that being in Nature can help all of us:
- It can improve eyesight. Exposure to natural light benefits the health of our eyes. Reading outside can sharpen the visual areas of the brain. And he has also found that spending at least 2 hours outdoors can help kids and young adults from becoming nearsighted.
- It can increase our attention span and help with our focus.
- It has been found to decrease anxiety and depression, and this has been well documented.
- The risk of heart disease is reduced.
- It can boost the immune system by getting dirty or gardening as it exposes us to beneficial bacteria and other microorganisms in the soil and the air.
- According to Berman- He states that being in Nature, can help in making people a bit kinder, by feeling that they belong to a bigger part of something larger than themselves and it can bring people together.
“No barefooted, tree climbing, frog holding, mud pie baking, cloud spotting, puddle stomping, bird calling, wild foraging, moongazing, firefly chasing, fortbuilding, creek following, rock hunting moment with Mother Nature is ever wasted.” Nicolette Sowder
A FEW FUN FACTS
* Did you know the most calming aromas in the world are released from trees? (Science of Essentials)
* Did you know? Research shows that walking in Nature 3 times a week is associated with:
- 33% lower odds of using anxiety medications and antidepressants
- 36% lower odds of using blood pressure meds
- 26% lower odds of using asthma meds (Science of Essentials)
*When we take a walk in the forest, it significantly increases natural killer cells and their activity for seven days. These are a type of white blood cell that destroy unwanted pathogens such as cells infected with viruses and cancer cells. (NutritionFacts.org)
When I was growing up, just about every Sunday my family and I would take a walk in the woods near us. It was always a fun time! We would take different trails, and we would have fun finding- Lady Slippers which is a beautiful flower that grows in the forest, see who could find the largest pinecones, and try to skip rocks across the ponds. I hope everyone has good times out in Nature! It is never too late to make fun memories with your loved ones! I remember another great experience, last year about early springtime, my husband and I were going to the gym. As we were driving into the parking area, I said let’s not go in, let’s go for a walk in the woods, so we did! It was fantastic! We walked for about an hour and a half and we both felt great afterwards! It had a slight chill in the air, but the sun felt great. The woods were just waking up from winter. We felt refreshed and glad we stayed outside!
Nature as medicine is not a new idea! The Japanese and the Chinese have been using nature as a form of healing and now Western medicine is catching up! In Japan, there is a practice called, “shinrin-yoku” or Forest Bathing, another name is Sylvotherapy and it has existed for centuries! The reason that it is called forest bathing is that you immerse yourself and connect with Nature using all of your five senses! It is a great form of self-care. I am currently in a program to become a certified Forest Bathing guide also known as a Sylvotherapy Practioner. I am learning some fascinating things about trees which I will talk about in future blogs.
One of the frequently asked questions is- how much time is needed in Nature to gain the benefits from it? I am happy to say that in everything I have read the answer is not much time at all! Nature is beneficial even if you only have a few minutes a day. Also, it doesn’t have to be anything strenuous like hiking up a mountain, even if you sit in your own backyard, or a nearby park, you will have benefits! From the Readers Digest article, one of the physicians stated, “Nature gives us long term happiness.”
So, until next time, get outside and look at the simple beauty everywhere!
Ann Marie
A Few Of My Favorite quotes:
Nature, Time and patience are the three great physicians. Chinese Proverb
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. John Burroughs
In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. John Muir
I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees. Henry David Thoreau
Leave a comment