The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause you to feel anxious, sad, or powerless. This agitation, in turn, can enhance your blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension, leading to a suppressed immune system and a weak body. However, a pleasing environment reverses these problems.
We have a symbiotic relationship with nature: we reap the benefits of nature. But we, in turn, also have to nurture nature. We see this clearly with animals. And we should also work to nurture nature and the environment.
When it comes to focusing your time, investing in nature, and spending time in green spaces is the best option to keep your mind poised and stay in a state of serenity.
This article will discuss how nature can make us more physically healthy and promote our mental well-being. We will take a deep dive into nature’s benefits and why it is crucial to nurture nature.
How investing in nature benefits you.
Nature heals
Being in nature or viewing nature scenes can reduce anger, tension, and stress and increase positive vibes. Exposure to nature makes you feel better emotionally and contributes to your physical well-being.
Nature can help heal our bodies and our minds. There are numerous benefits that nature offers to your body. Being in a green environment can positively impact your body and even rejuvenate your mind.
Surrounding yourself with nature helps you achieve lower levels of blood pressure, heart rate, muscle stress, and much more. According to scientists such as public health researchers Stamatakis and Mitchell, being around nature can even lead to a long life.
Some research conducted in hospitals, offices, and schools has found that even a simple plant in your surroundings can positively impact stress and anxiety.
Nature connects
According to several field studies led by Kuo and Coley at the Human-Environment Research Lab, spending time in nature connects people to one another and the larger world.
Furthermore, another research concluded that residents in Chicago public housing with trees and green spaces around their building reported knowing more people and having positive feelings of harmony with their neighbours. They were also reported to be more concerned with helping and supporting one another and having stronger feelings of belonging than compared to the tenants in buildings without any nature around their environment.
In addition to having this grander sense of community, the tenets experienced a reduced risk of street crime, diminished levels of violence and rage between domestic partners, and a better ability to handle life’s demands, especially the stresses of living in poverty.
To explain it scientifically, when people see scenes of nature, the parts of the brain associated with empathy and compassion lite up. However, when they see urban surroundings, the parts of the brain associated with stress and anxiety get activated. Thus, nature encourages feelings that connect us to each other and with our environment.
Nature soothes
Nature can also help in dealing with pain and trauma. As a species, we are genetically inclined to find trees, plants, water, and other elements of nature. We absorb these scenes that make us feel peaceful and calm and distract us from our distress and turmoil.
None of us is stranger to the magical effects of a walk in the forest, spending our day on a lake, or even simply strolling down a leafy street on our way home. These simple things can heal our minds by disconnecting us from our thoughts and giving us a feeling of serenity and calm.
While a city or urban environment can drive negative thoughts and a sense of stress, nature, on the other hand, engages the mind differently. When we are in the city, our mind gets flooded with inputs. It gets busy keeping track of moving vehicles, loud sounds, and traffic lights.
However, when we are In nature, we don’t need to think and evaluate every little detail of our surroundings as we do in the city. Nature simply welcomes us and allows us to relax and decompress all our stress and tension. Instead of always alerting, nature lets us breathe in the fresh air and find composure.
Being around nature has also been proven to help those suffering from low mood or severe depression. Access to green spaces and natural surroundings can remedy the many hours we all spend in front of screens.
Even according to a study conducted in 2012, scientists discovered that people with access to more green space in their area maintained lower levels of the stress hormone “cortisol” in their saliva. Moreover, patients reported feeling less stressed than patients with lower access to green spaces.
Nature helps in coping with trauma.
The healing and connecting qualities that nature possesses also make it a great place to find solace in nature in the time of grieving or the trauma of losing a loved one.
The ability of natural landscapes to grab our attention, ease our severe emotions, and make us feel closer to others can significantly help people cope with the loss of someone. Nature allows many of us to feel like part of a larger world than us. This quality can be incredibly comforting during the grieving process.
The process of grieving can be a long one and can even lead to severe depression, PTSD, anxiety, and in some cases, chronic grief. To cope with such intense emotions and grief, choosing to spend time in nature can be an excellent option for processing these emotions in peace and finding some sense of clarity.
Final thoughts
Every day, a rut has cornered us in a spot, and large metropolitan cities have cut us off from nature. Daily life is stressful, but connecting back with nature allows us to maintain our body and soul.
Our everlasting connection with nature exhibits that we have to nurture nature. Taking care of our natural surroundings is now more critical than ever. The first and foremost step you can take is to live as sustainably as possible.
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