Do you find yourself spending too much time on your phone? Doomscrolling on Twitter or Instagram because of things that are happening in the world is all too common, and sometimes we just need to understand that there’s a world outside of the phone. When looking to help out impending mental illness, you may find that you’re stuck, not knowing how to make things better. However, there’s a simple solution: going outside! Spending some time outside every day has been shown to have significant positive benefits on your mental health

Have you ever gone on a nice walk in the sunshine and felt invigorated, happy, and less anxious? There’s a reason for that! Numerous studies prove that being outside in nature has an incredibly positive effect on your mental health. Even being in a park surrounded by green grass tends to help make your brain less anxious. 

Being outside in nature can:

  • Improve mood
  • Reduce overall feelings of anger or stress
  • Help make you feel more relaxed
  • Improve your overall physical health
  • Improve confidence and self-esteem
  • Help you become more active
  • Help increase your social circle
  • Connect you to your community
  • Reduce loneliness

If you’re looking for specifics, a lot of research has been done into ecotherapy, a form of mental health treatment that involves doing activities in nature and has been shown to help with mild to moderate depression. The simple act of exercising and being out in nature can help perk up a tired and depressed brain. 

If someone has seasonal affective disorder, natural light can be an essential part of helping your mental health, as people’s depression can revolve around the seasons and the amount of sunlight at different points of the year. 

Nature itself has been known to be incredibly soothing. Being outside in nature has been shown to help distract us from mental anguish and discomfort as it’s in our DNA to find trees, plants, water, and other elements of nature calming. 

Not only that, spending time in nature and even seeing pictures of nature has been shown to be associated with a more positive mood, better psychological wellbeing, and even a sense of meaning. It allows us to pay attention to the little things; stopping to smell the roses isn’t all that silly when you think about it.