How is the Environment Helpful in Taking Away Mental Stress and Calming your Nerves Down!
From reducing stress to help to deal with a panic attack to increasing attention span and concentration, the natural environment around us helps us with everything related to a healthy mind that we can think of. Many studies have shown that spending time with the environment not only helps us psychologically but also physically!
No matter how late I go to bed, I make it a point to get up early and go out for a jog. I know that a proper 6–7 hours sleep at night is absolutely important for immunity and mental well-being, but nothing beats the fresh morning air, chirping birds, the first rays of the sun, and the rustling leaves beneath my shoes before they’re raked. I feel all my stress flows out of my body through my rhythmically swaying ponytail as I run and be one with nature.
Whatever and however we feel is directly related to the physiology of the body; i.e. the things we feel by our senses produce chemical and hormonal reactions in our body which are reflected in our mood. Research claims that being in a pleasant environment helps alter these chemicals and produce those chemicals which make you feel good. And it is a given fact that there is no setting more spiritually and aesthetically pleasing than a natural setting! Any YouTube video when you type ‘music for a peaceful sleep’ will attest to that.
According to a newsletter by the University of Minnesota, “Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical well-being, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. It may even reduce mortality, according to scientists”.
Nature does not only soothe one’s nerves physically, but it also helps one clear the head of irrelevant thoughts and become more focussed. Because we humans are naturally attracted to the greenery around us, we perform better when in an environment that we like. Natural scenes capture one’s attention gently instead of being a toxic attention seeker that snatches it all of a sudden (like a mobile screen, for example) and thus helps to calm the nerves and increasing concentration. Thus, studying or working in natural settings or environments increases efficiency, even if there is just one potted plant inside the room!
Being in a natural environment is associated with vitality and serenity. Many studies have proved that spending time in a natural setting helps one release one’s stress and anxiety and helps in cases of depression. It boosts feelings of happiness and improves one’s mood dramatically. Mental health experts believe that the environment helps in attaining mindfulness and has therapeutic powers. It breaks the monotony of the busy urban life that is more often than not functional on technology and screens and is a soothing medicine for the eyes that have been burdened with stress from those light rays emanating from the screens, apart from the increased oxygen levels that reach one’s brain when in such a setting.
Such is the impact of a natural setting that some companies in the United States have huge gardens and allow frequent breaks to its employees near these spaces to get their creative juices flowing. They claim that such settings help the employees with their interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships and help them connect to one another and to their own selves, thus increasing their productivity and problem-solving capacities.
The environment not only heals and reduces stress in these ways but also provides active ingredients that can be used to relax one’s nerves. Herbal teas or even black teas infused with natural ingredients like ginger, mint, lemongrass, etc. are widely used by people as concoctions to de-stress themselves. Various natural aromas in the form of candles and incense sticks are also popular by people to create a natural environment artificially when they cannot go out to work in a natural setting due to their job requirements.
So, if you have been feeling blue lately, grab your shoes and go for that trek you saw in your local magazine. And if you cannot go out or are in a zone that is prone to the pandemic, check out this blog on 10-things-you-want-to-do-in-your-quarantined-spring-month and bring the outside natural setting right inside your house.
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Originally published at https://www.fuzia.com.