Recreate Outdoors
Benefits of the Body
Improves Mood and Focus
Focusing on more important factors in our lives and taking our minds off of societal pressures can exponentially improve our mood. We easily get caught up in our everyday lives, forgetting about the value of community, the world we live in, and the crucial relationships we possess. The natural world helps restore the mental drainage from the stress and labor we take part in. Even taking a short five minute break from our work to step outside and get a breath of fresh air can immensely increase our focus.
Lowers Blood Pressue and Stress
Spending time outside simply lowers adrenaline and cortisol levels as well as blood pressure.
"A further effect associated with the reduction in adrenaline is the improved immune function in the form of increased natural killer cell activity. Natural killer cell activity increased for up to 30 days after a three-day trip to a forest for males but only seven days for females [52]. This suggests that the interaction with nature does not have to be extreme to gain wide-ranging physiological health benefits."(Gladwell, Brown, Wood, Sandercock, & Barton,2013) The natural light relaxes our brain and cheers us up.
Boosts Immune System and Vitamin D levels
It is proven that inhaling phytoncides boosts the amount of white blood cells in our bodies. By doing this, our immune system is stronger and has an easier time fighting infectious diseases. Vitamin D absorbs our body's calcium while reducing any inflammation. We obtain 90% of our daily Vitamin D levels by sunlight exposure.