5 Reasons to Spend More Time in Nature
You just moved into your new home with the help of Black Tie Moving and noticed a park right across the street from your new place. You’re so excited to live somewhere that isn’t surrounded by high rises and businesses. You can finally spend more time connecting with nature.
Nature is incredibly healing, and that’s why we’re offering 5 reasons to spend more time in nature.
Decrease Stress and Anxiety
Researchers have shown that spending as little as 20 minutes in nature can drastically reduce your cortisol levels. In case you didn’t know, cortisol is a hormone that our body releases that makes us feel stressed or alert. Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone. Nature’s ability to decrease our cortisol levels is why we so often feel calmer or more at peace during and after we spend some time outside.
Increase Happiness
Spending time in nature not only helps with stress and anxiety, it also can make you feel happier and more energetic. As your cortisol levels drop, you begin to welcome in more positive emotions and thoughts. This is why you’ll often feel more at ease and joyful when you’re out adventuring in nature.
Better Sleep
If you find that you struggle to get a good night’s sleep, you might consider spending more time in nature. Researchers have found a correlation that people who increased their time in nature found their sleep quality improved. As we know, quality sleep is paramount when it comes to our health and wellbeing. Should you find it difficult to sleep well at night, increasing your time outside could be just what the doctor ordered!
Good for Physical Health
Nature is a great ally to our physical health. Prolonged stress or anxiety can have a negative impact on our overall well being leading to disease or serious mental health issues. Spending time in nature has also been linked to a reduction in blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate. You’re also much more likely to want to be active when you’re spending time outside. It’s easy to look back at how much you move when you’re outside compared to when you’re inside. In turn, this makes it more likely that you’ll be physically active which is important to our overall health.
More Present in Life
It’s hard to not be present when you’re spending time in nature. Nature is full of wonder and life that isn’t accessible to us when we’re stuck inside scrolling on our phones or watching TV. So often, we get absorbed in what we’re doing that we forget there’s an entire world just outside our doorstep. If you find that you spend a lot of time mindlessly distracting yourself, you should consider going on a 10 to 20-minute nature walk to make you more connected and present with the world around you.
The Rundown
Nature soothes the soul, body, and mind. With so much technology, people are spending less and less time outside. If you’re wanting to improve your overall well being, try and get outside for at least 20 minutes a day. Your body and mind will thank you for it!