YOUR MIND
DE-STRESSES, AND
THAT CAN HAVE
LONG-LASTING
EFFECTS
“We’re wired to coexist with
nature,” says Eva Selhub,
M.D., a resiliency expert and
a coauthor of the book
Your Brain on Nature. “Being
in the environment reduces
the body’s stress-response
reactivity, lowers inflamma-
tion, and improves the
immune system.” Fit in
20 minutes outdoors daily
and, after awhile, you’ll
reduce your body’s knee-jerk
stress response. Indeed,
banking at least 120 minutes
a week in nature, whether in
regular doses or in one long
stretch, is associated with
good health and well-being,
according to a recent study
of nearly 20,000 adults in
the journal Scientific Reports.
We spend up to 97 percent of
our time indoors or in transit,
according to research from
the Harvard T.H. Chan School
of Public Health, so physical
contact with nature—hands
on rock as you boulder, bare
feet in grass—can make us
feel more connected to the
earth. “It opens the brain
centers that make us feel
like we’re part of something
bigger,” Dr. Selhub says.
Feel the awe of looking
at the ocean and, she says,
“that heightening of the
so-called love response—an
increase in dopamine and
serotonin—actually opens
the brain to having bigger
perception and better clarity.”103SHA0520WFITN.indd 103 FINAL CONTENT 3/13/20 12:09 PM