Enjoy Nature: More Well-being, Less Stress

In contact with nature, our senses recover and awaken. On the other hand, vitamin N deficiency (by nature), as the American writer and journalist Richard Louv calls it, could be responsible for many of the physical and mental ailments that afflict us today: obesity, stress, depression, coronary heart disease, allergies and even cancer.

We connect with the earth and with ourselves

Direct and sensitive contact with living things should be recognized by international treaties as a fundamental human right, as important as access to food or housing, and should be exercised from the moment of birth.

Right here, in the freedom of nature, we can experience what humility, acceptance and respect really mean. It is easier for us to find our place and enjoy the beauty and uniqueness of our existence in a larger whole.

This need for a relationship with nature is felt more strongly in the case of creatures that in the process of growth and development are more sensitive and vulnerable to the characteristics of the environment.

6 ways to enjoy the benefits of nature

To enjoy this reunion, it is not necessary to carry out complicated activities or venture into risky sports that require expensive equipment. Simple but heartfelt acts can have enormous repercussions on our health as well as on our mood and personal growth.

1. Walk barefoot

Our bare feet, on the ground, reconnect us with its magnetic field: we recover our roots, we release tensions and we recharge ourselves with energy. We also feel more inside, immersed in the landscape. Walking without shoes that oppress us represents a great liberation that we can enjoy without fear: human beings have been barefoot throughout practically their entire history and, as long as we do it with some care, they do not represent any danger.

2. Hug a tree

It can be a kind of ritual, a way of greeting the beings of nature when we get to the field. Trees are our brothers. By embracing them, we learn to see, recognize and experience them as the living beings that they are, and not as inert objects. Try to feel its energy, see how you receive it and how you can give it yours. Hear the beat of your heart echoing in the beat of the tree.

3. Art in the landscape

The artistic instinct is as common to all people as language. Nature is a great source of inspiration that makes our artistic instinct emerge spontaneously. It is common that, while we contemplate the landscape in a relaxed way, we take a tree branch or a small sharp stone and begin to draw pictures, scribbles, almost without realizing it. These moments of free personal expression bring security, peace and tranquility.

4. Walk along a watercourse

It has been said many times: water is the source of life. His presence calms us and fills our spirits. Its continuous form of flow, its sound, the freshness and the energetic renewal that it brings wherever it passes, and the numerous plants and animals that come to drink and live in it make it an ideal element to offer us a restful walk.

5. Listen to the silence

One of the main effects of modern life is that the senses are physiologically and psychologically narrowed. Stopping to listen to the life of the forest, with its sounds that grow and multiply as we pay more attention to them, may be the beginning of the reverse path. Putting yourself to the test in this regard is an enriching and surprising experience.

6. Delight in family

We can observe with our children the magic and richness of these spaces full of life. Letting ourselves be infected by the enthusiasm of the little ones allows us to look at the world with different eyes again. Trees and fallen branches are often home to centipedes, worms, or ladybugs. You can also look for footprints on the ground, identify ant mounds, explore abandoned nests …