The European Centre for Environment and Human Health conducted a study on a team of 20,000 people led by Mathew White at the University of Exeter. It revealed that the people who spent 2 hours (either all at once or in several intervals) amid natural green spaces in a week, are more likely to report good health and psychological welfare than the ones who don’t.
Those days were different when people went out, saw new faces, indulged in various outdoor activities and life was lit and buzzing, but the pandemic hit world has changed the social dynamics. People are isolated, hooked on same routines within the confines of their homes and this is turning out to be a bit problematic as far as their health is concerned.
Health on various levels, be it physical, mental, or emotional, has been impacted from pre-to-post-outbreak. Amidst all this frenzy, one can adopt a nature inclusive lifestyle to inject some freshness and positivity in their daily lives and fasten the process of healing.
Embracing the Nordic concept of ‘friluftsliv’ which is all about getting outdoors to strengthen one’s mental and physical abilities, might not be possible during the lockdown. Yes, it does sound tempting, we definitely can make a lifestyle switch from all indoorsy to reaching out for outdoorsy, given the circumstances.
A passion for nature cuts to the heart of what Scandinavians call friluftsliv (pronounced free-loofts-liv). The expression literally translates as ‘open-air living.’
According to the recent finding in the journal Scientific Report, just spending 120 minutes in the nature per week, increases your scope of have good health or ‘high well-being’ as compared to weeks that go without spending quality time in the open. The Nordic concept of friluftsliv is everything your body, mind and soul needs right now – getting outdoor and taking in nature’s life-boosting benefits. Though some countries are under a lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic, we can try to reconnect with nature from our humble abodes.
Listed below are some tips for bracing up your raw alfresco side:
- Workout out of your living room, up in the roof or somewhere in the open.
- Don’t think of nature as geographically unreachable, take up on the greens close to you, go for those refreshing walks in the parks and lawns (post lockdown for parks).
- Next time when it rains, don’t slide into the kitchen to make pakoras, go and take a nice rain bath, let each cell in your body reverberate to the music of that natural shower.
- Take some of the rituals outside. Maybe drink your morning coffee out in the open and make use of this technique-habit stacking. As per a Japanese research, your mood boosts and blood pressure drops in a mere 15 minutes of nature facetime.
- Clear up that space in your home to roam around. Be active and do get some sunlight as it keeps depression away.
- Calm your senses with the natural high of life. It is a scientifically proven fact the sound of water, wind and birds affects your brain in a comforting and rejuvenating way.
Out we go in the open and we shall find all that our body and mind have been craving in these pandemic-stricken days.
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