How to Relieve Anxiety and Stress with a Nature Pill

How about taking a Nature Pill to relieve your stress? A new study shows that 20 to 30 minutes of being in nature (even just sitting in a nature setting in the middle of a city) reduces stress and anxiety. 

What's In This Post

What is a Nature Pill?

A nature pill is a name some have given to spending time in nature in a way that has health benefits.  

Many studies have shown that being in nature improves both physical and mental health. Researchers from the University of Michigan set out to define what would make the ideal guidance for health care practitioners who see value in prescribing nature pills to their patients and clients. (1)

How Nature Improves Mental Health Study

Thirty-six adults in good health completed the 8-week study. 

Study participants were instructed to get Nature Exposure (NE) three times a week. The NE could be anywhere outside that, in the opinion of the participant, included a sufficiency of natural elements to feel like a nature interaction. They could choose the place, time during daylight hours, and duration of the experience.

So the study could isolate the effect of being in nature, participants were told not to include aerobic exercise beyond walking and to avoid the use of electronic devices, conversation, and reading. They were told to note the type of activity as: sitting, sitting and walking, or walking. 

Participants provided saliva samples before and after their nature exposure four times during the 8 weeks: at the end of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th weeks. The saliva was tested from the stress markers cortisol and amylase. 

How Nature Helps Mental Health Study Results

"Both stress biomarkers indicated a reduction in stress in response to a NE."

There was an impressive 20%/hr drop in cortisol and 28%/hr drop in amylase attributed to the participants' nature exposure. (Natural drops in these biochemicals pertaining to the time of day were compensated for in the calculations.)

The most efficient stress reduction occurred when the Nature Exposure was 20 to 30 minutes long. After 30 minutes there were more stress reduction gains but they accrued at a slower rate. 

The type of activity (sitting, sitting & walking, walking) didn't affect the cortisol drop. It did affect the amylase results. The amylase drop was the same for "sitting" and "sitting & walking". These two low-exertion activity groups showed the robust amylase drops. In contrast, walking resulted in a basically unchanged amylase level. 

The Nature Pill Prescription

To reduce stress and anxiety: spend 20 to 30 minutes in nature, even a green area in the middle of a city, several times a week.

Anxiety Books and Recordings for Stress Relief

Anxiety has long been one of my counseling specialties. I've helped hundreds of clients relieve everything from a worn-out stressed feeling to general anxiety to fear of flying. I've also dealt with anxiety myself. 

My particular mix of academic study of the topic, work experience, and personal experience gives me unique insight into what anxiety feels like, what it’s all about, and how to reduce it.

Along the way, I've written self-help/therapist-help books and created anxiety-relieving hypnosis recordings so that more people like you can benefit with what I've learned. 

Anxiety Books

My anxiety books explain anxiety in a simple easy-to-understand way and offer anti-anxiety tips and techniques. 

Feed Your Calm: Anti-Anxiety Anti-Stress Diet and Supplement Tips for Stress Resilience

A quick look at Anxiety: Simple Powerful Anti-Anxiety Tips for Stress, Anxiety, and Panic Attack Relief

Becoming Calm: Silver Lining Anxiety and Stress Resilience Workbook and Journal

Anti-Anxiety Hypnosis Recording

Hypnosis is a perfect match for reducing anxiety: it's great for healing root causes of anxiety, helping your subconscious pick up anti-anxiety techniques, and it gives you the opposite of anxiety: it helps you relax.

My Discover Calm Anti-Anxiety mp3 downloadable recording can be listened to any time you have a half-hour to relax, or as you are going to sleep. Most people who listen to it as they are going to sleep find that they go to sleep more easily and get a more refreshing sleep. 

For Therapists and Hypnotherapists: Check out my downloadable pdf hypnosis script for helping people deal with past trauma and emotional pain, Release and Refresh; and anti-anxiety hypnosis script pdf download for anxiety: Discover Calm.

References

1. MaryCarol R. Hunter, Brenda W. Gillespie, Sophie Yu-Pu Chen. Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers. Frontiers in Psychology, 2019; 10 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00722

To see a pdf of the  study: 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00722/full 

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