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7 Scientifically-Backed Benefits of Spending Time in Nature

We’ve all heard that spending time outdoors is good for you. There are the obvious benefits of getting more vitamin D, breathing in some fresh air and getting your blood flowing with a brisk walk or jog.

But what if I told you that those benefits are just the tip of the iceberg?

Researchers are gathering a growing body of evidence proving that nature provides significant mental and physical benefits beyond the obvious ones.

In this post, I’m going to tell you about 7 scientifically-backed benefits that make a compelling case for all us to spend more time in nature.

Before we get started, I want to make a confession. I’ve spent most of my life avoiding the outdoors. I was happy to go to a park on a warm sunny day, but it seemed pointless when the weather was cold, wet or gloomy.

And maybe that wouldn’t have been a problem if I lived in a warm climate with plenty of sunshine. But I live in the Seattle area; a place that on average, gets 226 days of heavy cloud a year with plenty of rain.

These days, I get outside every single day rain or shine. I go for walks or I just sit quietly and take in the sights and sounds of nature. It’s almost become like a drug for me. I feel better and happier the more time I spend in nature.

Here are the benefits of nature that convinced me to get outside more often.

Benefits of Spending Time In Nature

1. Boost Your Creativity & Problem Solving Skills

Want to boost your creativity? Put your phone away and get into nature.

Most of us want to be more creative. We want to build a more successful business, get promoted at work or be a better parent. A creative mind can mean the difference between mediocre and outstanding results in life.

Creativity can also help you with problem-solving. The more creative you are, the more likely you are to come up with fresh and innovative solutions.

You may be thinking “I’m just not a very creative person”.

No matter what your current creativity level, nature holds the answer to how you can boost your creativity and problem-solving skills.

In 2012, a team of cognitive neuroscientists conducted a study with hikers who went out for 4 days of immersion in nature. The study found that hikers showed a 50% improvement in creativity and problem-solving tasks after 4 days.

The hikers were also disconnected from technology during that time, which the researchers believed was also a factor behind their improved performance.

In other words, you’ll see better benefits of being in nature if you turn off your phone and disconnect from technology for a while.

The next time you’re struggling with a problem, get into nature and take a long aimless walk. You may just solve your problem by the time you get back.

2. Reduce Your Stress Levels

Stress can wreak havoc on your physical and mental health.

Elevated levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, can make you feel anxious, irritable and even lead to depression. And in the long-term, it can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity (just to name a few issues).

Spending time in nature can help to lower stress levels.

In a 2014 study in Japan, researchers conducted an experiment involving 420 people across 35 different forests. After spending time in these natural surroundings, the participants showed a 12.4% decrease in cortisol levels.

Additionally, the participants in the study also enhanced their parasympathetic nervous activity by 55%, indicating that the subjects in the forest were a lot more relaxed than their urban counterparts.

It’s not clear how nature helps to reduce stress levels, but there’s compelling evidence that nature helps people to feel less stressed.

Next time you feel stressed, just spend some quiet time sitting in a garden or park. It might be the smartest and healthiest way to reduce your stress.

3. Become Happier

Not only can nature help reduce stress levels, it can make you happier.

The rapid increase in urban populations across the world is seen as a potential threat to mental health and wellbeing.

Could it be that living in urban areas is making us unhappier?

In 2013, a study in the United Kingdom looked at 10,000 individuals to explore the relationship between urban green areas and mental health. The study found that on average, people had fewer mental health issues and were happier when living in urban areas with more green space.

But that doesn’t mean we need to pack our belongings and move to a forest. We just need to find more ways to connect with nature every day.

In 2015, The Wildlife Trusts in partnership with the University of Derby ran a “30 Days Wild” campaign which 12,400 people signed up for.

The participants were asked to do “something wild” for 30 consecutive days. It could be as simple as having a meeting outdoors, turning off electronic devices while outdoors or walking barefoot on grass.

The study found that people who took part had increased levels of happiness and a better connection to nature.

No matter where you live, there are probably simple ways that you can also do “something wild’ every day – even if it’s just for 5 minutes.

Starting your own “30 Days Wild” challenge might just make you happier.

4. Improve Your Cognitive Functioning

Remember the last time you had an ‘aha’ moment?

You were just washing the dishes and suddenly you had a great idea or came up with a solution to a problem you’d been struggling with for days?

The prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain right behind your forehead. It is responsible for higher cognitive functions such as planning, decision-making and producing your ‘aha’ moments of insight.

A 2015 study at Stanford had two groups of participants walk for 90 minutes. One group walked in a green nature area while the other group walked along a busy road.

At the end of the walk, the researchers found little difference in physiological conditions but noticed significant changes in the brain.

The participants who walked in a green nature area showed reduced neural activity in the subgenus prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that’s linked to negative emotions and mental health illness.

Spending time in nature can be like a vacation for your prefrontal cortex. And your brain will thank you for that in more ways than we can probably imagine.

5. Increase Your Energy Levels

Want more energy? Just imagine yourself in nature.

We all know intuitively that spending time in nature can help us feel better. We usually feel energized after a nice walk or run.

But did you know that you can increase your energy levels just by thinking about nature? Sounds hard to believe right?

A study by the University of Rochester, sampled the effects of nature on 537 students. In one experiment they had students take a 15-minute walk either indoor or outside along a river. A second experiment had students just look at pictures of either buildings or landscapes. And a third experiment had students just imagine themselves in a variety of indoor or outdoor situations.

The study found that students who spent time outdoors or simply imagined themselves in nature had higher energy levels.

According to the researchers, spending just 20 minutes a day outdoors can boost your energy levels.

6. Get a Better Night’s Sleep

How many nights of poor sleep did you get last month?

A lack of sleep can be a bigger problem than just feeling tired. In the short term, it can affect your mood and make you feel irritable. But if left unchecked, a lack of sleep over the long term can lead to all kinds of health problems such weight gain, high blood pressure, cardiovascular sleep, and depression.

If you’re getting poor sleep, you may be spending too much time indoors.

A study by the University of Illinois looked at 255,171 US adults to learn if there was a connection between insufficient sleep and access to green space.

The study found people who reported over 21 days of poor sleep in a month, consistently had less access to green space and nature compared to people who reported less than one week of poor sleep.

Spending time nature might be just what you need to get a better night’s sleep.

7. Improve Your Healing Potential

Imagine if there was a pill for disease prevention and healing your body.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could take pop that pill every day and improve your chances of better health and wellbeing?

There is such a pill and it’s called nature.

A study published in 1984 in the journal Science, demonstrated that looking at nature can sometimes speed up the healing process from surgery.

The researchers reviewed medical records of surgery patients in a Pennsylvania hospital. The found that patients assigned rooms with windows that looked out on a natural scene, recovered faster than patients who had similar rooms but with windows facing a brick building.

It’s unlikely that spending time in nature will cure a disease, but there is plenty of evidence that it can boost your immune system and reduce stress.

Even if these findings seem a far-fetched to you, ask yourself this one question:

Is there a downside to spending a few minutes in nature every day?

Worst case, you’ll get more vitamin D, take in some fresh air and feel better.

That’s a downside I can happily live with.

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As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to spending time in nature. If you don’t have access to nature on your doorstep, then it’s worth making time to walk or drive to a local park.

Create a habit of getting of getting into nature every day, rain or shine. Once you get into it, you may even learn to love the wet gloomy days like I did.

Try gardening, walking, hiking or biking. Or just sit outside for a few minutes every day and notice the greenery around you, even if it’s just a single flower.

You have nothing to lose and a potentially a lot to gain.

How has connecting with nature helped to improve the quality of your life?

Forget Magic Pills, Take Small Daily Actions Towards Success

By Omer

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”
– Lao Tzu

Whatever you want to accomplish in your life, no matter how big, always comes down to small daily actions. And then continuing to take small actions consistently.

So here are 5 points to help you move towards your goals every day:

1. Forget ‘magic pills’, focus on long-term results

Don’t look for ‘magic pills’ that promise to solve your problems overnight. We all want to get results as quickly as possible. But as a result we often set ourselves up for failure by having unrealistically high expectations of ourselves. And then we are frustrated when we don’t see the results that we want. Instead, of looking for ‘magic pills’, focus on taking small action every single day that will guarantee results in the long term.

2. Review & visualize your vision statements daily

Every day spend a few minutes reviewing the vision statements of your ideal life. As you read each statement, close your eyes for a few seconds and imagine how great you would feel if your vision was a reality today. This daily process will keep you motivated and provide a daily reminder of what’s really important in your life.

3. Identify your top 3 small daily actions

Always start your day by identifying your top 3 actions for the day. Ideally, you should focus on actions that move you towards your most important goal. This won’t always be possible, since we also have to deal with the daily demands of our work and personal lives. But at the very least, make sure that one of your 3 big daily actions will help you get closer to one of your goals. Do this every single day without fail and you will be amazed how much progress you will make over time.

4. Work on one new habit at a time

Every month pick one new habit to work on — just one. Don’t try to do more than that. I spent years trying to build lots of new habits all at the same time, but failed over and over again. It was the same story every time. I would make a list of several new habits that I wanted to build and would get started working on ALL of them immediately. I would do great for a few days, but after a week or two, I’d find myself falling back to my old habits. If you want to succeed then do less and focus on building one habit at a time.

For example, I’ve always hated eating vegetables. Last year, I decided that I wanted to start drinking green veggie juice every day. I decided that this was the only habit I would focus on for the next 30 days. It’s now been over 6 months and not only do I still drink green juice every day, I actually love it. I wish I had decided to to adopt this principle of “just one habit at a time” decades ago. But it’s never too late to start.

5. Take small actions consistently on a daily basis

Many people want to get results really fast and sometimes believe that big actions will result in overnight success. But long term and sustainable results come from taking small and consistent daily actions over the long term and slowly turning those daily actions into daily habits.

For example, you could decide that you want to improve your health. Even if you could go running for 7 hours today, it’s very unlikely that you’d get your desired results overnight. Instead you could decide to run for just 15 minutes every day for the next month and be far more likely to improve your health and also build the habit of running every day. And those 15 minutes could easily turn into 30 minutes or more if you continued running every day.

What one simple action will you take today and for the next 30 days that moves you towards you goals?

Craft Your 90 Day Plan to Start Turning Your Dreams to Reality

By Omer

“A goal without a plan is just a wish”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Do you often get frustrated that you’re not making enough progress on your goals? Firstly, if you have written goals then you are already way ahead of most people. But even having written goals, doesn’t guarantee that you’ll actually achieve those goals.

I’ve been setting annual goals for most of my life. Every year, I spend time reflecting on the previous year, thinking about what’s most important in my life and then writing down my goals for the coming year. It’s a process that I really enjoy.

Despite having developed the discipline of goal setting, I still found that year after year, I struggled making progress on many of my goals. I’d write down a goal at the start of the year and then before I knew it, the year was over and I was wondering how I couldn’t even have made a little progress on that goal in the last 12 months. Life just caught up with me and I kind of forgot about the goal until it was time to set my annual goals again.

What I lacked was a plan.

A 90 day plan is simply a way to breakdown your major goals into smaller sub-goals. It’s a way for you to create smaller milestones for yourself and to identify the key tasks that you need to complete in the next 90 days to keep you focused and moving towards your major goals.

How do I create a 90 day plan?

It’s quite simple to create a 90 day plan and should take you less than 1 hour. We’re all busy, so I know that even an hour can sound like a long time. But I’d suggest that you try it out at least once and see for yourself how much more progress you’re able to make on your goals in the next 90 days.

And once you see results, you’ll be hooked just like me! So grab a blank sheet of paper and let’s get started.

1. What did I achieve in the last 90 days?

Make a list of all your accomplishments in the last 90 days towards your major goals e.g. if your major goal is to lose 20 lb. this year, then what did you do in the last 90 days to make progress on that goal e.g. started jogging, stopped drinking soda, started counting calories etc.? Write down any accomplishments, no matter how big or small. Allow yourself to have some ‘mini victories’ so that you feel good about making progress towards your goal – even if it’s small progress, it’s still progress.

2. What are my top 5 goals for the next 90 days?

Then for each of your top 5 major goals, write down a sub-goal that you will focus on achieving in the next 90 days e.g. if one of your major goals is to grow your business, then a 90 day sub-goal could be to create a marketing plan to attract new customers. Try to make your sub-goals as SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time bound) as possible.

3. What are 3 key activities for each of my goals?

Finally, write down 3 key activities that you will complete for each of the 5 sub-goals i.e. 15 key activities in the next 90 days. These will be specific actions that you will take in order to accomplish your sub-goals e.g. if your goal is to be a better husband, your sub-goal could be to create more romance in your marriage in the next 90 days. And your 3 key activities could include:

Give your wife a hug every day.
Surprise your wife once every week e.g. buy flowers.
Organize a romantic dinner once a week.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. But you do have to be willing to identify and follow through on these activities. I would often avoid doing the things that pushed me out of my comfort zone, even though I knew that I needed to do those things.

So be honest with yourself. Are you really willing to do what it takes to accomplish your goals or not? If you want to create the body of your dreams, but are unwilling to do any regular exercise and change your diet, then it just isn’t going to happen.

Are you willing to do what it takes? If you are, then create that 90 day plan today and start turning your dreams into reality.

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Set Your Sights On Your Most Important Goal

By Omer

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus”
– Mark Twain

What’s the one thing that you can do to dramatically improve your chances of successfully achieving your goals? Focus on just one goal at a time. If you’re anything like me, then you’ll be asking “How can I possibly pick just one goal? They’re all important!”. Because, in order to be successful with our goals, we need to focus. Hopefully, you’ve already clarified your top values and have clear written goals. Just those things alone, will put you ahead of the majority of people out there who never set goals, let alone write them down.

Sure, you can have 5 or 10 big goals and try to make progress on all of them at the same time. But the chances are that you’ll struggle and won’t be able to give each goal the time and energy that it deserves. I made that mistake for years and then ended up getting frustrated because I wasn’t making the progress that I wanted. Then finally, I gave up my mission to ‘do it all’ and picked just one goal to focus on. It felt uncomfortable at first. But eventually that’s when I started to see breakthroughs in my life.

Focusing on one big goal doesn’t mean that you ignore all your other goals. It just means that you make a decision on what your most important goal is and where you are going to spend the bulk of your available time and energy. For example, if my #1 goal was to launch a new business, I would want to focus most of my energy on that. But that doesn’t mean that I would ignore my #2 goal of improving my health and do no exercise at all. It’s just a question of what’s most important to you at this moment and where do you want or need to make a breakthrough in your life first?

How To Identify Your Most Important Goal

So how do you identify your most important goal? Well, some of you may already know the answer to that. It may be glaringly obvious to you. It’s the one that you think about all the time. It’s the one that you have the most hunger for. It’s the first one that comes to mind when you think about creating a better life for yourself. And if you’re not sure, then ask yourself – which one of your goals would have the most positive impact in your life and is clearly aligned with your values? It might be hard to pick just one goal, but trust your inner self and make that decision.

1. Write Down a DUMB Vision or Ideal Outcome

On a blank sheet of paper, write down the vision statement for your single most important goal. What’s the ideal outcome for this goal (even if that might take months or years to realize)? Does that statement excite you? If not, then this might be a good time to rewrite that vision statement so that you get really pumped every time you read and visualize that statement as if it were already a reality. Make your vision statement as DUMB (dreaming, uplifting, motivating and bold) as possible.

2. Write Down a SMART Goal

Next write down what you want to accomplish with that goal in the next 12 months. Can you realize that vision in 12 months? If not, the what could you achieve in the next 12 months? What’s the specific goal that you want to set for yourself? Try to make that goal as SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time bound) as you can.

3. Find Your “Strong Enough Why”

Then make a list of all the reasons why you absolutely must accomplish that goal. As Tony Robbins says, you need a “strong enough why” if you want to succeed at anything. So spend 5 minutes brainstorming a list of all the reasons why you MUST achieve this goal. Think about how much better your life will be if you accomplish this goal and think about what your life will be like if you don’t. Put as much emotion as possible into this process and you will also find your “strong enough why”.

4. Commit to 3 Next Actions Today

Now identify 3 next actions that you can take immediately or very soon that will help you move towards this goal. I’d make these actions relatively easy e.g. send an email, buy something, make a list etc. The purpose of these actions is to start building some momentum towards your goal. So come up with actions that you can easily commit to. And then complete those actions as soon as possible.

5. Choose a Simple Daily Habit

And finally, identify one simple habit that you will commit to on a daily basis to make progress towards your goal. This needs to be something really simple that you can do for less than 5 minutes every day, and easy enough that you WILL do it every day e.g. read for 5 minutes, run for 5 minutes etc. Make it so easy that you just can’t fail. Building that daily habit will fuel success and before you know it, those 5 minutes could turn into something even more significant that also becomes a daily habit without you even having having to make that much of an effort.

So now you have a simple one-page roadmap for your most important goal. The key is to complete those 3 next actions as soon as you can and start following through on your daily 5 minute habit every day. These simple steps alone will help to make significant progress towards your most important goal.

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Dare to Dream & Create a Compelling Future for Yourself

By Omer

“Why live an ordinary life, when you can live an extraordinary one”
– Anthony Robbins

What’s the one piece of goal setting advice that you shouldn’t listen to? It’s when people tell you that your goals are too big or unrealistic. They tell you that if you want to achieve your goals, then you have to set realistic ones. They mean well. They want you to have a better shot at achieving your goals. But when you make your goals ‘more realistic’, you settle for less than you truly desire and you take the passion out of your dreams. Don’t listen to that advice anymore.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that you should set completely unrealistic goals and somehow you will magically achieve them. Life doesn’t work that way – both you and I know that.

What I am suggesting is that you create a compelling vision for your future that inspires and motivates you. And then deconstruct that vision into manageable goals that help drive you towards your vision.

You may not get there this year. It may take several years to realize your vision, but you will have a ‘roadmap’ on what your ideal outcome looks like and how you will get there. That’s far more compelling and motivating than a ‘realistic goal’ with no vision e.g. ‘lose a few pounds this year’ vs. ‘create the body of my dreams in 3 years’.

Unfortunately, most people don’t want to wait that long. We live in a culture of instant gratification. We want to have everything now. We want the body of our dreams in 90 days. We want to make more money tomorrow etc.

But the truth is, that people who successfully achieve big goals, don’t do it overnight. They do it by having a compelling vision of their ideal outcome. And then they take small and consistent steps i.e. regular daily action towards their vision and goals.

How to Create a Compelling Future

Let’s walk through the process together:

1. Identify Your Focus Areas

These are the areas of your life that you consider to be most important. We all have focus areas – whether we know it or not. So start by reviewing the list of suggested focus areas below and select your top 5.

Business
Career
Contribution
Faith/Spiritual
Family
Financial
Fun & Adventure
Health & Fitness
Personal Development
Personal Life
Relationships
Social & Community

2. Write a Vision for Each Focus Area

Now take a few minutes to write a short vision statement for each of your 5 focus areas. You should keep each of these statements to the point i.e. a few sentences at most works well. Next, you should focus on the positive i.e. what you want and not what do you don’t want. You should write these statements in the present tense i.e. as if you have already achieved this vision. And finally, you should include some passion words in the statements.

For example: a poor vision statement could be something like: “I don’t want to be over weight anymore”.

A much better vision statement could be something like: “I am so happy that I now weigh 130 lb. and have incredible health & vitality”.

It’s not always easy to come up with the right vision statements. So this is where you really need to put on your ‘creative hat’ and suspend reality for a few minutes. What do you really want? What if failure wasn’t an option? If you knew with absolute certainty that you couldn’t fail, then what would your perfect life look like?

If when you read your vision statements, you feel excited, then you are probably on the right track. If you feel so sense of excitement or maybe even negative when you read that vision statement, then you need to go back and see if that vision aligns with your top 5 values. Or you might need to go back and be more creative with brainstorming your ideal outcome for each focus area.

3. Brainstorm a List of Goals

Now it’s time to brainstorm your top 1 year goals. You have your top 5 values list and your vision statements for each of your top 5 focus areas.

Now you need to start thinking about what you want to accomplish this year within each of your 5 focus areas. If your financial vision is to double your income, then how much progress could you make on that this year? Could you increase your income by 20%?

Don’t worry if you don’t know at this stage how you’re going to accomplish that goal. The key is to identify the goals that align with your values, move you towards a compelling vision for your life and ensure that you don’t settle for less than you deserve.

In the next post, we’ll discuss how to ground those goals and to systematically break them down into daily actions and habits you can build that move you towards your ideal vision.

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