Optimize Your Health with this "Prescription" for Nature.

These days everyone is all about “optimizing” or “hacking” their way to their best, strongest, or healthiest selves. So how can you do that to reap all of the benefits of being in nature in our very busy lives? Read on to find your “prescription” for nature.

The 20-5-3 RULE

Use this three-number formula to make yourself stronger and happier, thanks to Rachel Hopman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Northeastern University, who shared what she calls the nature pyramid. It is a recommendation for the amount of time you should spend in nature to reduce stress and be healthier.

20 Minutes

That’s the amount of time you should spend outside in nature, like on a tree-lined street, on a nature trail, or in a neighborhood park, three times a week. In Hopman’s study, she concluded that something as painless as a 20-minute stroll through a city botanical garden can boost cognition and memory as well as improve feelings of well-being. In nature, our brains enter a mode called “soft fascination.” Hopman described it as a mindfulness-like state that restores and builds the resources you need to think, create, process information, and execute tasks. It’s mindfulness without the meditation. A short daily nature walk is a great option for people who aren’t keen on sitting and focusing on their breath. But turn off your phone—alerts from it can kick you out of soft-fascination mode. Hopman adds, “we found that people who used their cell phone on the walk saw none of those benefits.” Other research discovered that 20 minutes outside three times a week is the dose of nature that had the greatest effect on reducing an urban dweller’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

5 Hours

The minimum length of time each month you should spend in semi-wild nature, like a forested state park. “Spending more time in wilder spaces does seem to give you more benefits,” said Hopman.

A 2005 survey conducted in Finland found the city dwellers felt better with at least five hours of nature a month, with benefits increasing at higher exposures. They were also more likely to be happier and less stressed in their everyday lives. The Finnish government later funded another study in 2014 where scientists dropped people into a city center, a city park, and a forested state park. To no great surprise, the two parks felt more Zen-like than the city center. However, those walking in a state park had an advantage over the city-park people. Those in the state park felt even more relaxed and restored. The takeaway: The wilder the nature, the better.

“Nature has these effects on the mind and body because it stimulates and soothes us in unusual and unique ways. For instance, in nature, you are engulfed in fractals, suggested Hopman. Fractals are complex patterns that repeat over and over in different sizes and scales and make up the design of the universe. Think trees (big branch to smaller branch to smaller branch and so on), river systems (big river to smaller river to stream and so on), mountain ranges, clouds, seashells. “Cities don’t have fractals,” said Hopman. “Imagine a typical building. It’s usually flat, with right angles. It’s painted some dull color.” Fractals are organized chaos, which our brains apparently dig. In fact, scientists at the University of Oregon discovered that Jackson Pollock’s booze-and-jazz-fueled paintings are made up of fractals. This may explain why they speak to humans at such a core level.”

Nature lifts us in other ways, too: It utilizes all of our senses, imagine all of the sensory input of touch and sensation on the skin (the feeling of the sun’s rays, a cool breeze, surfaces you are in contact with or walking on), smells (flowers, mowed lawn, decaying leaves, nearby water or the ocean) and sounds (birds, leaves rustling in the wind, crickets, frogs, dogs)., in addition to all of the sights. “It’s probably a mix of a lot of things,” said Hopman. Environments like cities, with their frenetic pace, right angles, loud noises, rotten smells, pinging phones, and to-do lists, don’t offer this”.

"In nature, our brains enter a mode ....a mindfulness-like state that restores and builds the resources you need to think, create, process information, and execute tasks. It’s mindfulness without the meditation."

3 Days

This is the top of the pyramid. Three is the number of days you should spend each year fully engulfed in nature: hiking, fishing, camping, or renting a cabin -alone or with friends –or make some new ones! These are the spaces where you are likely to see wild animals and are removed from the hustle and bustle of daily life: TVs, laptops, cell phones. “This dose of the wildest nature is sort of like an extended meditation retreat. Except talking is allowed and there are no gurus. It causes your brain to ride alpha waves, the same waves that increase during meditation or when you lapse into a flow state. They can reset your thinking, boost creativity, tame burnout, and just make you feel better”.

This is likely why one study found that three days in the wild boosts creativity and problem-solving abilities, and another found that U. S. military vets who spent four days white-water rafting were still buzzing off the wild a week later. Their PTSD symptoms and stress levels were down 29 and 21 percent, respectively. Their relationships, happiness, and general satisfaction with their lives all improved as well.

In short, nature heals. It may reduce mortality, restore your energy, soothe pain, improve your mood, memory, and psychological well-being, and foster a stronger connection to others - and to the world. And best of all it is available to ANYONE - and it’s free!

If you are looking for fun ways to get out in nature more, or would like to connect with a walking buddy, check out the schedule for "Yoga in Nature" classes, here, or join/subscribe to our Members Group (free!) where we will post groups walks and even sneak in future group hikes, excursions, and retreats, as well as share healthy recipes, tips, recommendations, etc.

Parts of this story were excerpted from the June 2021 issue of Men's Health with the title The 20-5-3 Nature Cure.

#yogainnature #natureheals #prescriptionfornature #loweranxiety #conquerdepression #connectwithothers #ahealingjourney #yoga #naturecure #yogatherapy #loweryourbloodpressure #mindfulness #meditation