Five Ways Nature Can Improve Your Mental Health

It is perhaps unsurprising that mounting research finds regular contact with nature has important mental health benefits. Given that people have been intricately linked to the Earth for most of human history, it might even be considered presumptuous to think that our modern urban lifestyles, which effectively cut us off from nature, can be anything other than unhealthy.

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Spending time in nature has been associated with greater emotional well-being, happiness, and improved life satisfaction. Nature therapy, also called ecotherapy, is a broad approach to mental health that includes being in nature to improve well-being. Let’s take a look at a few important avenues for improved mental health and how these work.

1. Forest Bathing

Natural environments have been shown to boost mental health and lower stress hormone levels (Antonelli et al., 2019). Simply visiting a forest, looking at the trees, and breathing its air has been shown to have positive effects on the human body. Research conducted in East Asia (Japan, China, South Korea) and Europe (Germany, Iceland, Finland, Spain) shows that “forest bathing” reduces stress, and these effects last from a week to over a month. Further, visiting a forest can benefit immune function in several ways, including by increasing the number and activity of natural killer cells, and this effect can last for more than a month.

2. Exposure to Natural Sunlight

Many people avoid sun exposure due to the risk of skin cancer, but natural sunlight is critically important for mental health. Sunlight helps regulate circadian rhythms, leading to improved sleep quality and duration. In fact, seasonal depressive disorder is attributed in large part to time spent indoors, away from the invigorating and regulating effects of the sun.

Outdoor activities also increase exposure to sunlight, which is a natural source of vitamin D. This is important for bone health, immune function, and reducing inflammation. Exposure to sunlight also protects against hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome (Weller, 2016). Of course, anytime you are in the sun, be sure to wear sunscreen!

3. Touching the Earth

Grounding, also known as earthing, has been shown to reduce inflammation, boost the immune response, accelerate wound healing, and improve the course of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases (Oschman et al., 2015). It also seems to improve sleep quality (Lin et al., 2022). Connecting the body to the Earth enables free electrons from the Earth’s surface to flow into the body, where they can have antioxidant effects.

Simply having prolonged contact with the ground by walking barefoot on the soil or grass causes the grounding effect, but it also works when swimming in the ocean or having contact with the snow on bare skin. Because so many people wear shoes that electrically disconnect them from the ground or spend all day indoors, increasing numbers of people do not benefit from the natural flow of the Earth’s electrons. Gardening, spending time at the beach, or building a snowman are fun ways to ground.

4. Mineral Hot Springs

Bathing in natural hot springs has been a source of healing for mental health problems since the beginning of recorded history. The improvements in mental health from soaking in mineral hot springs involve a combination of physical and psychological mechanisms (Takeda et al., 2023). It’s been found that minerals in the water, such as magnesium, sulfur, and lithium, can have a calming effect on the body. Magnesium, in particular, plays a role in regulating the nervous system and can help with anxiety and depression. Lithium, even in small amounts, has been shown to have mood-stabilizing effects, and larger doses are used therapeutically for mental health problems like bipolar disorder.

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5. Increased Physical Activity

Being in nature often involves physical activities like walking, hiking, swimming, or playing sports, which are beneficial for both mental and physical health. This can include winter sports, too, such as skiing, sledding, riding a snowmobile, or even a snowball fight. Increased activity leads to improved fitness, better weight management, and reduced risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Exercise improves mood and reduces anxiety, stress, and depression through a number of well-established physiological and biochemical mechanisms (Mikkelsen et al., 2017).

Do Yourself a Favor: Get Out!

Spending time outdoors may be one of the smartest things you can do for your mental health. You may not hear as much about these effective and inexpensive paths to mental wellness, as no pharmaceutical company profits when you spend time in nature. But sometimes the best things in life really are free.