We at The Rivers Path feel strongly about the holistic powers of nature. In this post, we want to highlight some of the major benefits and how just 15 minutes in nature a day, can change your entire life! We all have heard that being outside is good for us, but few of us actually know why this is. The healing powers of the natural world are endless but hopefully, this post will help you get a better feel of why exactly this is.

 

The Sun

To start off with, the sun gives off enough energy in an hour to power 2,880 Trillion light bulbs for the entire life span of the average person. Let’s take a moment to count each bulb in our head to get a true appreciation of how much power this.

From this power is something called Vitamin D. Vitamin D is most known for skin cell growth, repair, and metabolism although it has many other health benefits. A little-known fact about Vitamin D is that it’s actually not a vitamin at all, it’s a hormone. Your body produces about 90% of its own Vitamin D. The sun plays a crucial role in making sure your body produces a healthy amount of this hormone.

 

Eye Health

All your devices produce large amounts of blue light, which can be damaging to your eyes. Being outside allows your eyes to relax and distress which, can be huge if you spend long periods of time behind a computer. Going outside for only 15 minutes a day has been proven to drastically reduce your chances of getting computer vision syndrome.

This artificial light also has other detrimental effects to your eyes. The natural coloring of the sun will help reduce other common side effects including near sightedness.

 

Psychological Health

The prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain located at the front of the frontal lobe. It is implicated in a variety of complex behaviors, including planning, and greatly contributes to personality development. Your prefrontal cortex is greatly affected by the constant notifications we receive on a daily basis. We receive texts, emails, phone calls, social notifications and much more. Due to this sensory overload, your prefrontal cortex is working at about 85% most of the time. The small demands drain attention resources, making us more distracted and cognitively fatigued. When we are immersed in natured the pre frontal cortex is less active and in a state of “rest” which allows it to charge back up to 100%. This helps restore attention and brain functions that are fatigued from all these notifications.

This, in turn, has many other benefits that include increased cognitive thinking and boosted creativity. Relaxing in nature for as little as 15 minutes a day will also your serotonin, a feel good neurotransmitter. Combined with higher levels of serotonin you will also experience lower levels of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that is used as a marker for stress, so the lower the better!

The End

While all of these things may not show immediate results, you will see drastic improvements in your life overall by just taking a few minutes to step outside. It can be a walk through a park, a quick hike in the mountains, a canoe trip on the river and everything in between!

 

“A walk in nature walks the soul back home”

Get your time outside with a relaxing canoe trip. Visit www.TheRiversPath.org for more information