A Psychotherapist Explains Why Connection To Nature Is Essential For Mental Health

If you feel more relaxed and recharged after a day at the beach or a hike in the mountains, there is a psychological reason for that. Interacting with the natural world is good not only for our bodies but for our minds and spirits too. 

What we know intuitively—that interacting with the great outdoors is good for us—is now supported by a robust body of research that provides evidence that contact with nature lowers stress, reduces ruminations, and lessens anxiousness. Interacting with nature also fosters creativity, produces states of calm, restores attention fatigue, and can affect pro-social and pro-environmental behaviors.

During the lockdown of the COVID pandemic, we were even more removed from nature and from one another. Health professionals are concerned about a growing epidemic of loneliness—not only among older adults but among young people as well. Recent studies point to loneliness as a major health risk, rivaling smoking. Some researchers suggest that our loneliness may also be rooted in "species loneliness"—our disconnection from other life on the planet. 

One of my favorite activities in the book asks the reader to make it a daily habit to look for your "Nature Gift of the Day." It might be an unexpected rainbow, the melodious song of a wren outside your window, or the glistening of the first snowfall in winter. When we are intentional about noticing nature around us, we experience so much more!

As a species, humans evolved embedded within the natural world, and our bodies and minds are wired to interact with it. We need nature connectedness to feel fully alive. That's why I suggest getting outside and actively noticing (and keeping track of) the gifts that nature gives us daily.