Quick Take
To get your 2022 off to a healthy start, Sempervirens Fund has partnered with AllTrails lead medical director, Dr. Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller, to share the top 10 tips for getting healthy in nature.
Spending time in nature is one of the best ways to boost your health. To help get your 2022 started right, Sempervirens Fund partnered with AllTrails lead medical director, Dr. Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller, to share the top 10 ways you can get healthy in nature.
The new year often brings contemplation, motivation and resolution for greater health and happiness. Lists of life hacks, vitality secrets and weight loss tricks abound. In 2022, consider adding nature to your list of evidence-based wellness interventions. Nature encounters can be big, bold adventures, or family-friendly and free. There is something for everyone in our list of ten reasons, doctor’s orders, to opt outdoors this year.
Here are a few to get you started:
2. Reach Your Fitness Goals
Not only did a review of eleven studies by Thompson Coons, et al. find that outdoor exercise led to greater feelings of revitalization, increased energy, a greater sense of satisfaction and increased likelihood of repeating the activity as compared to indoor exercise, but outdoor exercise was also found in a 2013 study by Richard Mitchell to improve mental health over exercise in other types of environments. So, forego the gym, dress for the weather, and plan your next exercise activity outdoors.
3. Enhance Your Memory, Attention Span and Productivity
A study by Kate Lee and colleagues found that students who took 40-second microbreaks to gaze at a screensaver of nature images had improved attention spans and fewer errors in completing a task after the break. This is among the many studies suggesting that simply gazing at nature images is good for our health when it is not practical or possible to step outdoors.
6. Lower Your Blood Pressure
Office workers participating in a one-day forest therapy program were found to have significantly lower blood pressure for five full days following their experience, in a study by Song, et al. in 2017. Find a certified forest therapy guide near you to explore the practice of Shinrin-yoku, or Japanese Forest Bathing.
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Sign up for Sempervirens Fund EmailsYou can also join Dr. Hackenmiller in our first Under the Redwoods of 2022, a free webinar on health benefits of opting outdoors! Sign up for our email list to stay up to date on this and other free webinars as our 2022 Under the Redwoods series as they are announced.