5 things to do in nature to improve your wellbeing

We all know that the past few years have sig­nif­i­cant­ly changed the way we live our lives on a dai­ly basis. And for many peo­ple, that means a whole lot of change, uncer­tain­ty, and unfor­tu­nate­ly, extra stress.

But it’s in life’s most stress­ful moments that tak­ing time out to look after your men­tal health and well­be­ing is most important.

Get­ting a dose of nature could be just what you need. Evi­dence shows that spend­ing time in the great out­doors can help reduce your stress lev­els, improve your con­cen­tra­tion and gen­er­al­ly helps you to feel happier.

But before you think it’s one more thing you don’t have time for, hear us out. All you need to do is step out­side and incor­po­rate any of these sim­ple 5 actions into your day:

1. Con­nect

Con­nect­ing with oth­er peo­ple can be a great way to boost your mood and de-stress. But in recent times con­nect­ing in per­son has become more challenging.

So it’s time to be inno­v­a­tive. We are blessed with some great tech­nol­o­gy so take advan­tage of appli­ca­tions like Face­Time and Face­book Mes­sen­ger and cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect with the peo­ple that mat­ter to you. 

Find a sun­ny spot in your back­yard and soak up some Vit­a­min D and lis­ten to the sounds of nature while you con­nect with fam­i­ly and friends to share how you’re feel­ing, see how they’re doing and ask if they need a hand with anything.

2. Be active

Why not take a break and get active out­doors – it’ll get your endor­phins flow­ing, which will leave you feel­ing a lit­tle more on top of the world. 

Pick some­where pic­turesque for a walk, such as your local nation­al park or sim­ply the streets around your house. 

If you’d rather stick to activ­i­ties at home, try some­thing else like gar­den­ing or yoga, or sim­ply kick­ing a footy in the backyard.

3. Keep learning

Learn­ing new things is a good way to keep your mind active and give you a sense of achieve­ment, which is great for your wellbeing.

Take your learn­ing online or out­doors and try some­thing like grow­ing your own veg­eta­bles, cre­at­ing a wildlife-friend­ly gar­den or nature pho­tog­ra­phy.

4. Take notice

Tru­ly immerse your­self in nature by tak­ing notice of your sur­rounds. Los­ing your­self in the moment can help you feel calm and relaxed, and help you appre­ci­ate the sim­ple things we some­times take for granted.

Find a peace­ful spot and let your sens­es take the lead – lis­ten out for birds and insects, smell the salty sea air, or feel the sand beneath your feet.

If you need a help­ing hand, you might like to try for­est bathing in your local park. 

5. Give

You can’t put a price on the joy you get from giv­ing. Whether it’s shar­ing your home-grown veg­gies with your next-door neigh­bour, or giv­ing back to Moth­er Nature by weed­ing the nature strip on your street, doing some­thing for some­one else or for your com­mu­ni­ty will leave you with the warm and fuzzies.

Mak­ing small changes like these can be just what you need to lift your mood, recharge your bat­ter­ies, and boost your wellbeing.

Look­ing for more ways to immerse your­self in nature? Read our blog 4 ways to relax in nation­al parks.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in 2017 and has been updat­ed with cur­rent information.