Have you ever felt that little spark of excitement when seeing a beautiful butterfly or your favourite rose bloom? You’re not alone. Science shows that exploring the natural world using our five senses has a powerful effect on us. Helping soothe our stress and boosting our focus. Join me as we explore the amazing ways our senses connect us to the healing power of nature. To help bring a dose of calm into our busy lives.
Nature’s Canvas: Where Beauty Soothes Your Soul
Looking at the beauty of the natural world can reduce anxiety and stress. As well as shorten hospital stays, lower heart rate, and increase directed attention. Even viewing virtual nature with natural sounds can help decrease stress. This can help reduce the stress levels of people who are bedridden or who can’t get out into nature easily.
Nature’s design calms us in every way. We see this in the curves and contrasts of a forest and its beautiful colour palette.
I love going on walks around a little slice of forest close to my house. Every time I go I like to find something new, that I’ve never seen before. It makes me focus and calms the constant chatter in my head. When I’m walking with my phone, I’ll take photos of the birds, bees, insects and plants. Photography brings me joy and then I like to draw them into my nature journal. Where I talk about the type of organisms that it is, what it was doing, and where I saw it. This brings me lots of joy when looking at nature.
The Six-Minute Birdsong Cure: Nature’s Antidote to Anxiety
The sounds of wind, water and animals help to soothe us. This is why we generally feel more peaceful in rural areas, forests or botanic gardens. Away from the harsh human-caused sounds of car horns, machines and planes. Listening to a high diversity of birdsong for just six minutes can help reduce anxiety and paranoia.
Even if you live in a big city, you can get your daily dose of nature. You can try listening to YouTube or Spotify playlists containing nature sounds. You can choose from sounds like your local birdsong, waves on a beach or rain droplets in a forest. Listening to nature allows us to feel more connected to nature. It also gives us a break from the constant anthropogenic sounds we hear in our daily lives.
Feel the Difference: Nature’s Textures and Your Well-being
Touch is extremely important as it is the first sense we all develop while in utero. It helps reduce blood pressure and heart rate which is a result of stress release. Touch helps with bonding and relationships.
A Cuddle a Day: Nature’s Prescription for a Longer, Healthier Life (with Fur!)
Having pets can increase your pain tolerance, decrease loneliness and increase your recovery from stress. If you own a pet, you are more likely to have a higher survival rate. Also with lower heart rate and blood pressure. Whether you have a dog, turtle or bunny you will be receiving the benefits. So come back to reading after you give your pet a big cuddle.
Ground Yourself in Nature
Get Your Hands Dirty, Feel the Joy: The Soil-Gut Connection
Humans and soils share many of the same microbes found in our gut. Touching soil via barefoot walking or gardening can help increase your gut microbiome. Because our skin and gut microbiome are connected.
Because of the increase in sanitation and living indoors, we have decreased our exposure to microbes. Microbes are very important in our guts as they regulate our central nervous system. Increasing the exposure we have to soil, increases our microbe exposure. This helps increase cognition, and positive emotional effects and can help digestion and absorption of nutrients.
So go outside and have fun with your kids.
Barefoot Bliss for Body & Mind
Touching real grass can reduce blood pressure, and anxiety and can change your brainwaves improving meditation. It can also make you more relaxed. So, try it today. Grab your favourite book, take off your shoes and go find a nice tree to lie under.
The Peace of Flowing Water
I love going down to a stream and putting my hands in the flow of fresh water. The feeling of going for a swim in the ocean at sunrise is also wonderful. When I fully or partially immerse myself in water, it gives me a sense of peace and connection to nature.
Swimming in natural water sources can increase mental well-being and physical health, especially for people aged over 65. Swimming gives you more opportunities for social interactions and connection with nature.
Nature’s Joy on Your Plate
Tasting food can connect us to nature as we know where our food comes from. Eating can reduce anxiety and improve positive emotions of satisfaction, desire and enjoyment.
Grow Happiness in Your Garden
Gardening develops new skills and increases your happiness and connection to nature. Because you grow your food, you won’t have to visit the supermarket as much. The food also tastes better and is of higher quality. Growing food can bring the community together and increase social equality. It also positively affects your mental and physical health. Additionally, traditional diets increase physical health and give people feelings of comfort, safety and tradition.
The Fragrance of Calm
Natural smells can increase positive emotions. From smelling a rose in a beautiful garden, to the fresh air in a forest or the warm sea breeze. When you are in a lovely blooming garden this can increase your sense of calm, mood and alertness e.g. finding a little bug or a bird chirping in the tree.
Inhale Serenity: Nature Aromatherapy
Phytoncides are compounds that plants use for defence. But as we inhale them, they give off the many lovely smells we know from certain plants. The smell of pine trees, lavender, eucalyptus and citrus. Can help us relax, improve our sleep, immunity and has antimicrobial effects.
The Unseen Energy of Nature: Discovering Its Hidden Benefits
Nature’s Invisible Mood Lift
Remember that breath of fresh air at the beach that instantly calmed you? There’s a reason why that particular fresh air feels so good. It is abundant in what scientists call negative ions.
A negatively charged ion is an oxygen ion that has gained an electron. Thunderstorms, waterfalls and ocean waves crashing on the beach produce these types of ions. This is why the air feels so nice in one of these conditions as negative ion levels are high. In contrast, negative ion levels are low in homes, businesses and polluted cities.
The higher the negative ions the lower the depression ratings and there were positive responses to learning, performance and mood. Negative ions reduced uncomfortable headaches by 50% and decreased feelings of nausea and dizziness.
So if you work inside, open up your windows and get some fresh air. Then go for a walk in your breaks, to get your dose of negative ions.
Thank you for reading!
As you seek more calm and joy in your life, please leave a comment below. To share with me what sense you want to use more in nature. Will you stop to smell the roses or will you go and play with your kids barefoot on the grass?
Georgia xo
