Feeling sluggish? Unmotivated? Stressed? Depressed or anxious? Before you reach for medication, consider a remedy that exists just beyond your front door: nature and nature therapy! Compelling scientific evidence shows the less time children and adults spend in nature, the greater the detriment to our well-being.

So how can spending time in nature transform your health? Here’s a closer look at “nature-deficit disorder” and the health benefits of being out in the natural world — plus, 6 great ideas for getting out into nature more.

Lack of Time in Nature is Killing Us Slowly

Evidence suggests that nature deficiency contributes to the following health issues:

• increased stress
• trouble maintaining focus/attention
• diminished emotional expression and resilience
• deficits in creative thinking and reasoning
• reduced capacity for forming healthy social relationships
• increased risk / worsening of chronic illness
• loss of connectedness to the natural world and one’s responsibility for it

Even though nature-deficit disorder is not yet regarded as a medical condition, both conventional and holistic health practitioners recognize the detrimental effects from lack of contact with nature as significant. These practitioners view nature-deficit as a nonclinical syndrome that can impair the emotional, cognitive, and physical functioning of adults and children.

Health Benefits Provided by Mother Nature

Spending time in nature has tremendous health benefits and can reverse the effects of nature-deficiency by stimulating underused neuro-sensory pathways (the pathways to and from the sense organs and the brain/mind). Additionally, pathways that have been over-stimulated by use of technology are revitalized; we experience a refreshing change to our disconnected psyches, shifting from “urban-zombie” to being ecologically aware and re-connected to the natural world.

Even as our lives have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts have urged us to get outside, in wide open spaces. This was not only for social distancing purposes. If you are still mostly indoors, experience the benefit of letting nature into your living space: Open windows to bring in fresh air. Sit near a window and meditate on the natural elements within your view. Grow potted plants indoors. Do whatever you can to enhance your wellbeing by immersing yourself in natural environments. Some benefits, like stress relief, can be noticed immediately while others happen over time:

• reduced stress symptoms, blood pressure and heart rate
• improved cognitive functioning (focus, attention, problem solving)
• enhanced self-awareness and feelings of peace, relaxation
• reduced anxiety, depression, and cognitive dissonance
• enhanced self-esteem, personal and social relationships
• reduction in delinquent behavior among teens
• expansion of one’s sense of time, which can reduce stress and worry

These findings come from studies that have looked at the effects of nature experiences such as wilderness therapy excursions, recreational hiking and camping, or simply spending time sitting in a park or garden.