Nature: The Most Natural Stress Reliever!

Head throbbing, stomach turning, can’t sleep, and you keep saying you need a vacation. Do you recognize these symptoms? Of course you do, but you are probably asking yourself why do you recognize them. Or perhaps your symptoms are slightly different, but the cause is still the same. Every human being experiences this dreaded and growing phenomena. Do you experience it often or just once in a while? Do you feel better after say a weekend up at your cabin? Well if you do there is a reason; a scientifically proven reason that might surprise you. Or perhaps you are already clued into everything I have said so far, but if not I believe it is time that I enlighten you.

Many things can cause the symptoms described above, but the one I will specifically be discussing is stress. Stress gives people headaches, can cause ulcers and tummy problems, can enlist the help of insomnia and above all reminds people that they need to take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It has been proven that our indoor type of lifestyles causes an increase of stress and it is a growing epidemic in our world. Who wants to spend their days stressed and therefore depressed?

So if you are human at this point you are probably wondering how can you prevent this stress. If you are not human, I believe you are on the wrong website. But to my fellow stressed human beings I have good news for you. There is an easy way to reduce stress in an enjoyable manner. I wonder if you have guessed it yet. It is one word, one easy word that describes our world around us. Nature. That is right! In order to reduce stress you only need to involve nature in your life for 15 minutes a day.

The best solution is to go outside and breath the wonderful fresh air. Maybe chase the kids around, or play Frisbee with your dog. You could even combine the natural world with something you enjoy like doing yoga or cooking. How easy would it be to set the grill in a manner that allows you to view the backyard? Still if it is not possible for you to get outside or you really just do not enjoy the beauty of nature surrounding you there is an alternate option. You can just look at it!

It has even been proven that if there is a natural picture or a window with a natural view that a sick person will heal faster. Hospitals can put these pictures up on the wall and with out doing any more work their patients will heal faster than with something like a piece of art. If they are healing faster from just looking at a picture then doesn’t it seem quite easy to add nature into your lifestyle? You can do it however works for you, but the thing is: Just Do It!!

Here are some examples of how I added nature into my life. For one thing almost all of my pictures on the walls are of nature except those with family or loved ones depicted. Another thing I did was my calendar every year is nature based. I personally look at my calendar almost every day. My bathroom is even decorated in a beach/ocean theme with a sunset beach shower curtain that I close when I am not using the shower. Even walking into the bathroom can relax somebody! Everyday I also make sure to open all of my curtains so that no matter what I do in the house I have a beautiful view outside! Sometimes the beautiful view even inspires me enough that I will go do my yoga outside. Furthermore my background and screen saver on my computer is compiled of all nature pictures. One last thing I do is that I make sure I have a few plants in the house randomly. Sometimes it is just a flower in a vase, but other times I actually have a green plant. Unfortunately I tend to kill my plants and so my boyfriend always gives them to his mother, but when we have them it keeps the house fresh and alive with the wonderful aura of nature.

Those are the ways I try to add nature into my life. I hope it gives you a few ideas as well! The reasons are simple. A less stressed life helps you live happier, healthier, and longer lives! So many solutions to reduce stress are complicated and sometimes difficult to fit into your busy life, but adding nature to your life is easy and well worth the effort. After all if stress relief is not enough of a reason you can always just enjoy the look of nature as well because it is quite pretty when you take a second to look at it. Now before I go I do have to warn you that just because nature can help reduce stress does not mean it will eliminate it! So all you fellow humans out there I hope we have learned a valuable lesson today! Life is stressful, so sit back and look outside once in a while because the caves we live in just add to our already stressful lives and we all want to be happy and healthy!