What are the Health Benefits of Spending time in Nature and Mindfulness Meditation?
Benefits of The Great Outdoors &
Mindfulness Meditation
When people hear Mindfulness Meditation they may think of the distant, out of reach experiences of Buddhist monks and monasteries in a mysterious land far away. Individuals may never give meditation a chance because it does not fit into their belief system of normative experience. This reality is not their reality, so they pass on the experience.
There are however, many people who are giving this new approach to life a try as the health, wellness, and medical industries are popularizing the practice. Organizations such as UCSD Center for Mindfulness are combining research, medicine, and mindfulness to further findings of the multiple health benefits of Mindfulness Meditation. Some of these benefits include; improved stress management, improved focus, improved emotion regulation, reduced impulsiveness, improved conflict resolution, increased empathy, increased resilience, improved physical well-being, improved creativity and collaboration, and improved expression of the self.
For those individuals who find Mindful Meditation too foreign or extreme in belief, there is nature as an alternative. Mindfulness happens naturally when surrounded by beauty in nature. Engaging the body in awareness activities such as hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing, skiing, rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, bird watching, or simply picnicking in nature brings many of the same benefits as Mindfulness Meditation. In fact, many physicians and therapists are prescribing nature as medicine for this reason.
-Anna Marie Hallows
