Self-care Tip #10 – Walk In Nature

A walk in nature.

Well.

I clearly should have read ahead in my self-care list. This week’s tip about going for a walk in nature is very similar to last weeks, exercise. The examples I wrote about last week were exercising in nature, particularly taking a walk at the end of the day.

But being me, I wanted to know a little more about why being in nature is such a mood booster. There is this fascinating article from the APA (American Psychological Association) about the reasons that nature is beneficial, and the studies behind them. I started the article feeling inspired to go walk amongst the trees more, towards the middle I began to feel like I was failing everything, and I need to restructure my entire day to spend decent time outside (and no, I’m not exaggerating. The self-induced stress was real.). By the time I got to the part where a researcher stated that 120 minutes outdoors, spread out over an entire week, was enough to reap the several benefits of nature, I started to calm down a bit.

(And if you thought that was an intense reaction to information that is supposed to help me, you are correct. This is how my brain works, and this is the reason for this blog. To fight the well-meaning, information overwhelm! *raises fist to the sky!!*)

Something that was quite interesting, and spoken about in this article, is that isolation can be improved by going outdoors. Even if you aren’t specially talking to or being around people, that crippling sense of loneliness can be lightened by spending time in green spaces. Which yes, I felt that. Coming home to an empty house, with no one there, and no energy to message friends, is just plain heavy. Going for a walk made me forget that for a while, and the effects lasted into the evening. I felt good for having moved my body, and it made for some peaceful nights.

So once again, this self-care tip is going on my list as extremely worthwhile.