Spending time in nature, and bringing the outdoors into your everyday routine can have a positive impact on your mental and physical health and with World Mental Health Day taking place on October 10th, we thought we would provide you with insight, into how you can bring the outdoors into your daily life to help benefit your mental health and wellbeing.
Let’s firstly kick off with the wider impacts and benefits nature can bring to your mental health, it can:- Improve your mood
- Reduce feelings of stress or anger
- Help you take time out and feel more relaxed
- Improve your sleep
- Improve your confidence and self-esteem
Go for a walk
While this may feel like an obvious way to get out into nature, it’s the perfect place to start. Even those of you with a busy schedule, consider how you can make small life changes, such as walking as part of your daily commute, to get your daily nature fix. Walking as an activity alone helps reduce stress, so anything little or large will have a great impact.
Start growing
If going for a daily stroll isn’t your thing, you can still get into nature, by the act of gardening. There’s growing evidence that gardening can be of massive benefit to our mental health. The act of nurturing something, allows you to set aside your daily life and focus on another, providing you with some time to relax and destress from the day.
Go on a bike ride
While usually seen as a means of transport, going for a bike ride can help you unwind as you focus on the open roads. It helps promote means of calm and wellbeing, and with rhythmic breathing and leg movements, it has been said to provide meditative purposes.
Hiking with friends
If you are looking for more of a physical challenge from walking, hiking is your next best thing. While it may need a little more planning, the impact on your health it has is amazing. Not only helping your physical strength but allowing you to unwind in nature for a longer period of time.
Go camping
For those of you who want to dig deep into nature, camping is a great activity to help you connect with the outdoors. It helps you disconnect from your life, as you usually have to compromise on your tech advances as many places have little to no service, making you switch off and appreciate what is around you.
Everyone deals with things differently, and if you want further help and support surrounding mental health, there are some amazing charities out there to help you. We have listed some below:
Mind UK
Nami
Mental Health Europe
