The great outdoors can boost your energy, improve your mental health and reduce your blood pressure. Here’s how to get more out of it — no matter how busy you are. You may have noticed that you’re often in a better mood when you’re outside. Maybe you breathe the flower-scented air, watch leaves sway in the breeze, or listen to waves lap against the shore. It’s soothing, right?
But nature is more than just a relaxation tool. It may also help improve your health in many other ways. Spending time outdoors can lead to lower blood pressure, reduced anxiety, and less stress.
Spending time in nature, you get both psychological and physiological improvements to your well-being. Sit quietly with the trees Put your phone away and find a park bench. Or head to the woods and rest against a tree trunk. Now breathe deeply and relax. It’s that simple.
“There are health benefits from having a connection with nature and being able to unplug from high-stress technology,” says Derrick Sebree Jr., PsyD. He’s a core faculty member at the Michigan School of Psychology. “We have that moment when we are more in our natural state.”
The research on spending time with trees is impressive. It clears your head, and it also improves your immune response, and makes you less likely to get sick. That’s according to a 2021 review of 13 studies that looked at forest therapy programs.
In some of the studies, the subjects spent several days in the woods. In others, they meditated, did yoga, or walked for 2 hours. In most cases, the researchers found that spending time in nature improved markers of immune function.
“When researchers took blood samples from people who had engaged in ‘forest bathing,’ they found elevated levels of the T cells that are part of the body’s immune system,” says Sebree.
Get your hands dirty
The health benefits of gardening go far beyond the fruits and vegetables you grow. The act itself — putting your hands in the dirt and nurturing plants to health — can have a positive impact.
In one analysis, researchers examined 22 gardening studies, many from the U.S. They found that gardeners were thinner, less likely to be depressed or anxious, and happier with life overall. They suggested that health experts should begin recommending gardening as an alternative to traditional exercise.
One reason for the benefit: dirt. According to the University of Vermont, microbes in soil can improve your immune system, reduce your allergies and activate brain chemicals associated with happiness.
“Just putting your bare feet on the ground, where there are a lot of different organisms that are active in the soil, can help,” says Sebree.
Put a plant on your desk
Since you can’t spend all your time in the garden or a forest, put plants in places where you’ll see them often. It could help you feel less stressed throughout the day. For a study published in the journal Hort Technology, researchers asked busy office workers to take 3-minute breaks throughout their shifts. For the first part of the study, the workers took breaks at their usual desks. For the second part, they were given a small plant and taught to care for it.
As it turns out, the plant made a measurable impact. Using a questionnaire and the workers’ pulse rates, the researchers found that stress levels dropped faster when the workers had plants.
Take a hike
Research presented at a conference for the American College of Cardiology found a direct link between the number of steps a person takes and their blood pressure.
For every 1,000 steps you take each day, expect your blood pressure to fall by nearly half a point. But if you take those steps outside, you may feel even better. Walking in nature reduces the stress hormone cortisol more than walking on a treadmill does, according to a study in the journal Environment and Behavior.
Plus, being outdoors exposes you to rays of sunlight that can lead to stronger bones. Light from the sun helps your body make vitamin D, which improves calcium absorption. Just don’t overdo the direct sunlight. Too much can damage your skin. The Harvard Medical School recommends getting 5 to 30 minutes of direct sunlight (without sunscreen) twice a week, sometime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. (If you have fair skin that burns easily, limit your sun exposure to 10 minutes, max.)
Visit the outdoors virtually
Thanks to new technology, people who are bedridden, immobile, or otherwise stuck inside can experience the outdoors even while inside. Viewing nature through a virtual reality (VR) headset has been shown to have some of the same effects as the real thing.
A study from researchers in Germany found that after people viewed forests and waterfalls in VR, they performed better on a test that looked at their ability to focus. (The test involved doing math in their head.) The subjects also had lower levels of depression and fatigue. It seems that humans are just wired to respond positively to nature. No matter how you get your green fix, know that adding a bit of green to your life can be a major boost for health.
