Outdoor Activities: Your Natural Remedy for Mental Health

Being outside increases physical health, thanks to the sunlight and fresh air we lack when indoors. The sun boosts immune function, prevents brittle bones, and helps you sleep. Oxygen clears toxins from your lungs, aids digestion, and lowers blood pressure. Spending time outside also has several mental health benefits, so let’s take a look at the most common improvements.

One way outdoor activities boost mental health is by altering mood. Being indoors often involves working or unlimited screen time. Over time, we become bored, irritable, or lonely, even if others are watching television or playing video games with us.

When we’re outside, we experience a connection to nature that affects how we feel. Senses engage while smelling flowers, listening to songbirds, touching dirt or plants, or sampling garden fruit or veggies. These experiences induce positive emotions, boosting mood, increasing creativity, and lowering depression and anxiety.

When stressed, your mental health suffers. You experience anxiety, sadness, depression, anger, restlessness, loss of focus, and memory issues. The longer your body isn’t relaxed, the worse these symptoms become.

Studies show immersion in nature reduces the symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety. The participants engaged in forest, wilderness, and gardening therapies, and all showed improvements with minimal negative effects. The more time spent involved in outdoor activities, the more relaxed you become.

Studies show that engaging in outdoor activities, especially physical ones, decreases negativity. They indicate that anger and hostility are reduced in natural environments. Positivity increases, as does calmness and tranquility, so you can handle those unexpected issues that arise with greater ease.

When trapped inside or in urban environments devoid of natural elements, we’re more negative than usual. We’re absorbed in work, and when at home, we’re focused on manufactured pleasures instead of real ones.

Short resting periods save energy, but a sedentary lifestyle has the opposite effect. When sitting too much, your body loses strength, costing you future energy. Your mental health also suffers since activity boosts positive hormone levels. When lacking these benefits, mental vitality levels drop.

To keep your brain active, experts recommend outdoor activities. Natural environments force your brain to engage in your surroundings, even if only visually. Studies show viewing trees, mountains, and lakes lowers fatigue and enhances mental vitality. When physically active, energy levels show higher improvements, especially when you’re having fun with others.

Resources:

1. Select Health, 7 Health Benefits of Sunlight
   https://selecthealth.org/blog/2020/07/7-health-benefits-of-sunlight
2. Active North Tyneside, Dec. 8, 2020, Five benefits of fresh air and spending time outdoors
   https://www.activenorthtyneside.org.uk/news/five-benefits-of-fresh-air-and-spending-time-outdoors
3. Mental Health Foundation, Nature: How connecting with nature benefits our mental health
   https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/research/nature-how-connecting-nature-benefits-our-mental-health
4. Mayo Clinic, Stress symptoms: Effects on your body and behavior
5. PubMed Central, Oct. 2021, Nature-based outdoor activities for mental and physical health
   https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8498096/
6. Journals of Environmental Psychology, Vitalizing effects of being outdoors and in nature
   https://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2010_RyanWeinstenEtAl_JEVP.pdf
7. PubMed Central, March 2022, Psychological benefits of outdoor physical activity in natural versus urban environments: A systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies
   https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9544808/