There Are So Many Health Benefits in Nature!
There are so many ways in which nature can help us to become healthier.
Here are just a handful as a starting off point!
1. Just the scent of lemon peel can help to alleviate those symptoms of asthma and inflammation of the lungs. Studies have found that the effect of smelling and hearing certain plants and natural sounds can trigger measurable (and even long lasting) positive physical and mental health changes for us.
2. Lavender aromas are said to relax us and improve sleep while the scent of rosemary and peppermint can help us to feel and be more alert, helping you to focus.
3. Patients in a hospital bed said to recover more quickly if they can see trees and other signs of nature through their window. The smell of pine trees can make your heart beat slowly, leading to a calmer and more relaxed you.
4. Having indoor plants can help to improve the microbial density in the air for the benefit of your gut health.
5. Students in school are said to do better in tests if they can look out of the window at nature and green spaces, focusing better and becoming less stressed. Children who can see green views from their window have better directed attention and recover faster from raised levels of stress. All our cognitive functioning improves when we look at natural scenes.
6. When out walking in nature, try to spend a minimum of twenty to thirty minutes for maximum benefits. These benefits will increase if you manage to take extra time to sit down during that walk!
7. Enjoy the sounds of water in nature for improving your mood while birdsong is ideal to reduce stress. The sound of wind in the trees is another source of restorative properties.
8. Touching and/or stroking untreated wooden surfaces - for example the trunk of a tree - is said to lower your blood pressure, making you feel calmer.
9. Some easy ways to improve gut health include encouraging your children to play in soil in the garden rather than plastics and concrete. This can result in a significant impact on their gut microbiome as well as an increase in the children's blood markers, meaning their having gained enhanced immunoregulatory pathways.
10. Another suggestion is that office workers have a green wall in their space and for us all to have something as simple as a spider plant in our environment.
Kathy Willis who is a professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford and author of Good Nature says:
"The time to make nature a more central part of our life is now."
"We must stop thinking of nature as nice to have and instead, see it as an essential aspect of providing health and wellbeing."
SOURCES:
Good Nature by Kathy Willis published by Bloomsbury
Written by Jane Chitty
Jane writes for Healing Natural Oils, a producer and retailer of high-quality, all-natural treatments for a variety of conditions as well as a range of beauty products. Apart from writing about those various conditions, she also covers general health, environmental and other subjects of interest. She has lived in Kenya as well as Cape Town, South Africa and spent time in San Diego, USA. She now lives in Somerset, England with regular visits from her far-flung children and grandchildren. She is a keen gardener and enjoys growing fresh fruit and vegetables with her husband on their joint allotment. As a result, there is something available to use in the kitchen virtually all year round. Her regular posts can be found on our blog.