We find ourselves stuck behind the wheel on our way to work, only to be stuck behind a desk all day. Then it is behind the wheel again to go home just to find that there is little to no time to spend outdoors.
Americans are spending less time outside and it is killing us! Urban and suburban sprawl is choking out nature. Modern technology and conveniences are excusing any need to step outside.
According to the 2010 US Census, 80% of American families live in urban areas.1 People are also spending 25% less time outside than they were 20 years ago.2
We are not taking advantage of the vast healing benefits that nature has to offer. Yet chronic illness is on the rise and more people are medicated than ever before.
I have always felt an unrelenting drive to be outdoors. As a kid, I rarely had to be told to go outside. Some of my most fond and vivid memories were outside experiencing nature. My granddad and I would often take off on back roads looking for bridges so we could simply throw rocks into the creeks and rivers below.
Now, I feel very blessed to expand on those memories by having the same experience with my kids. We call it “dirt roadin’” (dropping the “g” not only makes it more fun to say, I think it heightens the experience as well!).
We all hop into my truck, roll the windows down, and head east towards the Flint Hills in search of rocks to throw, or to take in the beauty of the wildflowers in bloom. There’s no music playing and no worries to be had. We love it!
This simple act does our mind3, our immune system, and our spirit a lot of good.
It turns out throwing those rocks, and taking the world in with all my senses, actually helps develop and heal my brain. The frontal lobe (the captain or “Jean-Luc Picard” of our brain) regulates our executive function. Interactions with nature help stimulate this lobe, which strengthens our memory, decision-making, problem solving and planning/organizing. This makes for a great remedy to combat brain fog.
By stimulating our senses in nature with sights, sounds, smells, and tactile feelings, our parietal lobe can get a good dose of healing. This may help reduce the signaling our brain perceives from the pain signals in our body.
Nature can also significantly boost our immune system. Plants and trees produce compounds called phytoncides. These products of their immune system fight off insects and rot. We can breathe these compounds in and charge up our own immunity.
Phytoncides support our immunity through modulating our efficient cancer and infection killers called natural killer cells.4 In some cases, this effect can last as long as a month!
I don’t know about you, but I am a fan of taking as few supplements as I can. A free immune supplement from nature is fine by me.
For some reason, fear has crept into our culture and holds its sway over what used to be common sense. The emerging “helicopter” style of parenting today consists of hovering over our children and “protecting” them from as much harm as possible.
This overcompensation by parents will actually weaken their child’s development, rather than help. Pair this with the fact that everyone is spending more time in front of screens; young people today are devoting around seven hours per day to screen time.
While our devices may be helping our productivity, they are not doing our health any favors. Too much screen time can be deadly!5
Negative or positive, when we encounter and interact with God’s creation it helps us to better know Him and His identity for us.
Sure, we can get banged up, bit, or exposed to all sorts of things in the natural world. But the upside is that we can get banged up, bit, or exposed to all sort of things in the natural world.
Our bodies and our brains develop and thrive by our direct contact with nature. By reducing our time outdoors, we are shorting ourselves a major part of the human experience.
Author Michael Hyatt says, “God made us human beings, not human doings.” God gave us the natural world and there is much that we can gain from our interaction with it.
Most of all, immersion in nature gives us a way to shut off our minds and be still. For when we sit quietly in nature, we can feel His presence and know His power.
For my own interaction with nature, I gained inspiration for this quote from Mother Teresa:
“We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
I’ve found that sitting on my front porch and listening to the world wake up at sunrise is the perfect way to set my intentions for the day – studying Scripture, praying, and just remembering to breathe. This way I can start my day with a fresh mind and unburden myself from the stress of daily life.
I encourage you to find your own experiences and the benefits that await you.
References:
- https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2016/comm/acs-rural-urban.html
- PNAS February 19, 2008, 105 (7): 2295-2300.
- https://www.uofmhealth.org/news/archive/201409/walking-depression-and-beating-stress-outdoors-nature-group.
- J Biol Regul Homeost Agents 2008 Jan-Mar, 22(1): 44-55.
- J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011 Jan 18; 57(3): 292-9.
