Research indicates spending 120 minutes a week outdoors engaged in physical activities improves health and overall well-being. It may include 2 half-hour brisk walks, meditative moments noticing the landscape and its inhabitants, and playing a sport, game, or participating in a physical activity with family or friends. Riding bikes, picnicking, or tending a community garden each week are just a few leisure time activities that encourage optimal health and happiness.
This post has been updated 5/28/25
A simple, refreshing way to take in the good vibes of the great outdoors is with a one minute grounding meditation. This one is from Mindful.org, and was written by Cara Bradley, who also is in a video that goes along with it.
Want to absorb the refreshing energy of nature? Use your imagination to see the colors of nature. Then, look at the collage below.
Green energy creates balance, harmony, self-compassion, and rejuvenation. Read Use Energy from Green to Refresh You and Your Home.
Gold, rust, amber, scarlet, and browns of autumn leaves and soil remind us of transitions. These colors provide grounding energy and connection to Mother Earth. Get suggestions for outdoor activities that are fun for the whole family here.
If you prefer, dream about a place where there's a broad expanse of sea, sand, and sky or picture it in your mind's eye.
Aquamarine and the green blue colors of a waterfall, ocean, lakes, or stream are colors that create a sense of expansiveness and tranquility. Sea blues of azure and sapphire remind our body and intuition to "go with the flow." This energy shift helps reduce tension and attachment to outcomes.
It's surprising how many ways nature impacts well-being. It reduces stress, anger, fear, physical aches, and emotional pain including depression or anxiety.
Notice how easily natural surroundings awaken awe and wonder in you.
A large-scale nature engagement study conducted by the Wildlife Trust in the UK showed its participants, over a 30 day span, took greater notice of nature's beauty, their own physiological and emotional responses to nature, and felt an interconnectedness to their surroundings that led to improved happiness, health, and conservation behaviors.
Use your senses to tune into the sights, sounds, aromas, textures, and pace of nature. When you bring mindfulness to the time you spend in nature, it reduces stress, heals, and renews enthusiasm in you.
When you take a break in nature, it shifts your perspective. Getting outdoors away from screens and other electronic devices, helps you relax.
You'll notice down time helps you feel refreshed and improves your ability to concentrate, once you resume your work.
In fact, one recent study conducted at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston shows women may live longer in green environments.
Make time to get outside for even a few minutes a day. Enjoy relaxing or exercising outdoors, get a healthy dose of sunlight for Vitamin D, and give thanks for this inexpensive, fun way to enrich daily living.
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What outdoor activities do you enjoy participating in and why?
Do you feel physically, mentally, and spiritually uplifted when you see a sunset, sunrise, the first snow, a deer in the woods, or a majestic mountain? Explain. What natural wonder makes your heart sing?
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