The Healing Power of Nature: 3 Ways the Outdoors Can Improve Your Yoga Practice
The feeling of sunlight on your skin; the chirping of the birds; the smell of a rose or seeing an awe inspiring vista can have an instantaneous positive effect. Science is starting to back-up what humans have known since the dawn of our existence: being in nature helps to heal the mind and body in profound ways, from boosting our mood to lowering our blood pressure and providing us with the essential elements for living with vitality.
It Boosts Your Mood
Starting in the 1940s research into the exact effects of being in nature, particularly forests, began. In one early study, Yoshifumi Miyazaki, a Japanese researcher, found that people who spent 40 minutes walking in a forest had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which is involved in blood pressure and immune-system function, compared with when they spent 40 minutes walking in a lab. This practice of “forest bathing” is now an established treatment in Japanese medicine. Mood boosting vitamin D, which also calm the nervous system and improve issues such as seasonal effective disorder (SAD), is absorbed by you ever time you are in direct sunlight.
It Strengthens Your Spirituality
The exact mechanism of how nature helps mood disorders is unclear, but researchers agree that time in nature tends to lift spirits. The healing power of nature has been used by people for centuries for mental and spiritual well-being. The placement of temples in locations of exceptional beauty to connect us to wonderment and awe, the use of water in baptisms for blessing and spiritually cleansing and the use of fire in rituals are just a few of the numerous ways that the Earth has been incorporated into spiritual practices.
Nature is a source of positive images that can be used for therapeutic meditation. At it’s essence, connecting with nature encourages you to be in the present moment, to quiet your mind and take in the sights, sounds and smells that surround you that you may not have noticed in a while. Mindfulness meditation, bringing your attention to the present (rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future), is a well researched therapy for minimizing stress and anxiety.
It Builds Immunity
Researcher, Dr. Qing Li, found that trees and plants emit aromatic compounds that, when inhaled, can change the blood in ways that are associated with protection against cancer, better immunity and lower blood pressure. Besides promoting positive moods, vitamin D also promotes calcium absorption in the body. Getting the proper amount of calcium can help your body minimize the risk of hypertension, as well as, fight cancer and certain autoimmune diseases. Multi-disciplinary research has revealed that contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth, called grounding or earthing, produces intriguing effects on our physical health. Such effects relate to inflammation, immune responses, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Specifically, grounding produces measurable differences in the concentrations of white blood cells, and other molecules involved in the inflammatory response according to researcher James Oschman.
How to Get Your Daily Dose of Nature
Write yourself a prescription for more time in nature! Spend time planting in your garden, or sunbathing in your backyard (midday is when you can get the most vitamin D). Exercise outdoors more, like doing your yoga routine in the park or your backyard and walk on a nature trail instead of on a treadmill. You can also bring a touch of the outdoors inside. Adding indoor plants to your home or office space can keep your indoor air cleaning while being proven to reduce headaches and fatigue. Hearing the sound of running water by having a small water fountain in your home or office can add a calming effect to your life.
This article first appeared at www.yogatoday.com