Frequent feelings of sadness or nervousness can take a toll on your mental health, but there are natural ways to improve your outlook. One of the best ways to boost your mental health is by spending more time outdoors to experience a variety of natural benefits. Being outdoors is good for mental health!
All the wonderful benefits of being outdoors may even be enough to quell your mental woes without the need for antidepressants or similar medications.
Being Outdoors Lower Stress
If you’re feeling particularly stressed about life, you may find relief by simply going outside for a while.
The fresh outdoor air can help clear your mind and brighten your perspective.
Being outdoors on a nice day might even encourage you to go jogging or cycling or partake in other types of exercise, which can also be good for lowering your stress levels naturally.
Simply spending some quiet time in a natural setting can also help you refocus and manage the issues that are impacting your mental health better.
A Chance To Make Social Connections
Human interaction is crucial for promoting improved mental health. When facing anxiety and related conditions, knowing that you are not alone makes the journey ahead far less daunting. Experts at Sunnyside Clinic can provide a range of services to help you overcome the symptoms. Simply speaking to them, albeit remotely, will lift a weight from your shoulders.
Spending more time outdoors is another fantastic way to create social connections. It could mean taking walks with your family or using day trips as an excuse to see friends.
Alternatively, you could use this as an opportunity to meet new people. Talking to other dog walkers, joining a sports team, or reaching out to other outdoors-based social clubs will serve you well.
Natural Healing
There is evidence that being outdoors is good for mental health because of the innate desire of humans to connect with nature.
Limiting your time outdoors can make you less resilient to trauma, so it’s advisable to be outside more whenever you find some free time.
If you’ve sustained a lot of mental and emotional pain from being indoors and isolated for long periods because of government-regulated lockdown orders, getting outside may be your best medicine.
You may even experience faster healing in your mental and physical health if you sustained an injury or illness and can be outdoors or at least look through a window throughout much of your day while you recover.
Endorphin & Serotonin Increase
Endorphins, which are natural hormones in the body that can reduce pain and elicit more of a “feel-good” effect, can be increased when you’re outdoors.
Serotonin levels can also increase while you’re outdoors and produce an even more natural feeling of happiness and ease in similar ways that prescribed antidepressants can.
Sunlight is known to increase endorphins and serotonin. You can raise your endorphin and serotonin levels even more by engaging in outdoor exercise.
The Effects Of Beautiful Scenery
The beautiful scenery that you may see while you’re outdoors can make you feel better about life.
A picturesque sunset, lush forest, or grand city skyline that you see in the distance may be enough to boost your mental health and get out of your rut of depression or anxiety.
Experts at Trip Advisor can help you find beautiful attractions in your city. Regardless of where you live on this wonderful planet.
If you have an outdoor swimming pool of your own, you can sit out by your pool for a while as you stare at the calm water and melt away your troubles.
The Chance To Be Part Of Something Greater
Mental anguish often occurs when the world around feels like it’s closing in, and this feeling of confinement can dominate your world and make you miss the bigger picture of life.
Venturing outside to spend time in a natural setting for a while will help you reconnect with nature and feel as though you’re part of something greater than your confined world.
Gazing out over an open field or observing any hills or mountaintops that are around you can leave you feeling awe-inspired and less anxious or depressed about life.
Memory Benefits
Being outdoors is good for mental health and can improve your short memory in different ways, which can also impact the way that you feel about life.
Some of your mental anguish may be caused by an inability to remember things as clearly as you once did, and going outside and observing what’s around you can help combat this problem.
Physiological processes that happen in the body when you’re walking, riding a bike, or moving in some other way and taking in the scenery while you’re outdoors can make your memory sharper.
Plus, the natural decrease in stress that you’ll likely experience in the outdoors can also make your mind function better so that your memory improves.
If you’re looking for a method that has been proven to change people’s thoughts and feelings for the better, being outdoors can offer you a great solution.
Whether you only have a few minutes at a time to spend outdoors or can be outside for longer periods, you’ll likely achieve the results that you want when it comes to improving your mental health.
You can find much more information on living a holistic lifestyle in these free magazines and on our YouTube channel.
About the author: Sierra Powell graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a major in Mass Communications and a minor in Writing. When she’s not writing, she loves to cook, sew, and go hiking with her dogs. For Pool Service in Windermere, Sierra recommends Doc Deans Pools.
