According to a 2019 study, spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. So, we’re rounding up some of the most joyful and unusual ways to pass the time outdoors

“Nature is fuel for the soul,” Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said.

In Professor Ryan’s study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, 537 college students were split into five separate experiments. In one, the students were taken on a 15-minute walk either through indoor hallways or along a tree-lined riverside path. In another, they looked at photos of buildings or landscapes. And in the last, they were asked to imagine themselves in active and sedentary situations, both inside and outside, and with others and without.

When the results of the study were in, the students reported that their energy and vitality levels were lifted by being outside, or even just from imagining that they were, and the researchers came to a conclusion: that being in nature makes people feel more alive.

And to get more specific, a separate study, published in Scientific Reports, revealed that 120 minutes per week is the optimal amount of time to spend in nature if you’re looking to improve your health and wellbeing. So, all there’s left to do now is to decide what to do with the time you’re given – and we have some ideas…

Add a quick two-step into your walk

Walking and dancing: two things that have been shown time and time again to improve our mood and our wellbeing. But add them both together? Now you’re talking. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General found that walkers who moved fluidly, and waved their arms in a sort of improvised dance, generated more ideas than those who walked normally. Breaking out of our usual patterns of behaviour is shown to help us think more creatively, making this a great tool for blowing away brain fog. It doesn’t have to be a full-on moonwalk – a hop, skip, or spin here and there, or even just moving your arms rhythmically could do the trick. Not brave enough to go at it alone? Bring a friend along, or the whole family, and you’ll soon leave any self-conscious feelings behind.

Feel the ground beneath your feet

Here’s a fact you might not have been expecting to read: feet have nearly twice as many nerve endings as penises (more than 7,000 in each foot, compared to 4,000, in case you were wondering). For this reason, feeling the ground beneath your bare feet invites intense and fascinating sensations. Soft soil and dewy grass, warm, cool, tickly, smooth – there is so much to experience. And all these experiences come together to ground us in the moment, forcing us to connect with the environment and the body that we’re in.

Find and create natural aromatherapy spots

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Being at one with the world around us, and harnessing the power of the outdoors, has countless wellbeing benefits. So, why not make the most of this natural resource when supporting your mental health? Here, we’re exploring nature therapy, and exactly what you can expect from it

When you imagine a therapy session, what do you see? A calm office interior, or a quiet consulting room? While this may indeed be the typical set up for counselling, many therapists are now offering alternative environments to support their clients. And stepping outside of these traditional expectations, enables professionals to bring the human/nature connection into the present.

Nature therapy – also known as walking therapy, wilderness therapy, and eco-therapy – is the practice of being outside surrounded by nature. This can be in any open space, whether that be in a garden, a park, or the countryside, and is usually facilitated by a therapist who will be there to support and help the growth of the client.

Of course, this concept is nothing new, although it is now gaining more popularity. Nature and the natural world is a wonderful resource, which has always been available to us, and it offers us the opportunity for a connection to enable us to gain clarity, create perspective, feel inner calm, and to aid growth and healing.

Trees, plants, animals, birds, the elements, and not forgetting the cycle of the seasons – all of these can be our teachers. They can mirror our feelings, and offer us the opportunity to increase our self-awareness.

Try nature therapy for yourself

Take a moment today to step outside – if you have a garden, you could head there, or to a local park if there’s one nearby. Even if this isn’t possible, simply being outside in the fresh air can be a good starting point. Once outside, close your eyes and take several deep breaths.

Focus on listening to the sounds around you, and feel your body relaxing and responding to your breath.

By removing ourselves from the confines and brick boundaries of a building, and instead transporting ourselves outside into an open space and filling our lungs with fresh air, we can immediately feel the benefit and a sense of wellbeing.

With various activities available such as walking, observing, and meditating, we are able to involve all of our senses, which then helps us to develop our connection to the natural world that surrounds us – of which we are an intricate part of. Often this is something we forget, or indeed we believe our busy lifestyles do not allow for.

The next time you are out, perhaps for a walk or just sitting on a bench, you can make a conscious effort to notice the beauty of nature by listening to a bird sing, or maybe touch the trunk of an ancient tree; both these experiences connect our emotional attachment to that which surrounds us in nature.

This experience of connection may be further explained by studies that have been done using fMRI