We are so lucky to live in Vancouver, a city surrounded by nature - endless coastlines, lush rainforests, and impressive mountains, in which we can enjoy a variety of outdoor activities!
If that isn’t reason enough to get outside, there are also a host of mental and physical health benefits that come along with spending time in nature.
Here’s why you should be getting a little more Vitamin N in your life.
Emotional Well-Being
Studies have shown that spending just a few hours each week in nature has a host of mental health benefits. Probably the most significant is the reduction of stress and anxiety, which is unsurprising since we evolved to be more relaxed in natural spaces. Furthermore, people who spent more time in natural spaces were overall happier and experienced less symptoms of depression.
Improved Cognitive Performance
The time you spend in nature can also improve your cognitive performance with improved attention span, short term memory and overall problem solving/ creativity. Part of the reason is because when we are in natural environments, we are able to take a break from attention overload and relieves attention fatigue from our phones, computers and daily modern life in general. As a result, we are able to rest that part of our brain and allow it time for restoration.
Improved Health
So it is clear that being in nature has significant benefits to our mental health, but what about our physical health? It turns out that being surrounded by plants and trees, specifically in a forest, helps to boost our immune system by inhaling Phytoncides, which are airborne chemicals produced by plants. These have antifungal and antibacterial properties that increase the number and activity of natural killer cells, which lasted for several days.
As previously mentioned, being in nature (both green spaces and blue spaces) helps to reduce stress and lower blood pressure. Stress is very damaging to our bodies and is related to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and obesity. Therefore a reduction of stress is very important for maintaining overall health and wellbeing.
Next time you are heading out for a run, ride or walk, consider doing it in a natural environment to get all the extra benefits of spending time in nature!
