Time in nature for mental health

Hello, it’s Dan here again. I hope you’re good. Once again I am out in the forest, same T-shirt, different day. Beautiful day here. Feel a bit out of breath. Been for a seven and a half mile bike ride with my daughter, and now a five mile run. Will probably do nothing else today and be quite satisfied with that.

Being out in nature absolutely brilliant for your mental health. Research shows that, if you were to test your stress hormones, biologically they get reduced from spending 10-20 minutes in nature. But not only that you get away from everything. It’s a very mindful kind of experience in that, for example I’ve just been down there, two herds of horses doing a complete standoff. Absolutely awesome to watch, the silence as they just kind of stared each other out, kind of wanting territory over the water down there on a hot day like this. Amazing little ponies there, they kind of chased me down the path. Perhaps they weren’t after me after all, they were just running away from the other herd. It seemed to me like the horses were kind of pretty much following me keeping me on my toes.

So, really all I want to say – I wish I had a forest on my doorstep like this, it’s absolutely awesome, brilliant for your mental health, brilliant for reducing stress, brilliant for your well-being, reducing anxiety, making you just feel better in yourself, particularly on a lovely day like this, it’s so silent, so awesome, there’s masses of it. I’ve managed not to get lost for a second day in a row so, again, another positive.

But, if you get the time, 10-20 minutes in any kind of natural environment, reduces stress, improves your well-being, makes you feel better, but you get away from everything else, a chance to just kind of being mindful, paying attention to what’s going on around you, and you’ll find yourself feeling better for it. I’ve got about another mile and a half to go – all the way down there. But I will leave you with that.

Please do take time for your mental health, do find that time. It’s very easy when we’re all really busy, to not pay enough attention to ourselves, not to find time for ourselves. If you’ve got kids and a job, and other commitments, sometimes you find yourself at the bottom of the order. So get up earlier, get out, do something, find 10 minutes, arrange it, agree it, get it there a couple of times, two or three times in your  week and you’ll feel a lot better for it. I’m not going to do the whole week backwards, that would be nuts. And I will leave you with that. I know the way from here so I’m not going to get lost.

Take action on your mental health, look after yourselves and I will speak to you very soon. You take care now.

Dan Regan

19th August 2020

Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket