There is no better place than the great outdoors. But most of us don’t live that way. More than half of US adults spend five hours or less per week in nature. That means we spend too much time separated from the environment God created us to thrive in.

The National Recreation and Park Association estimates that American kids play outside 35 percent less than their parents did. In 2018, kids went on 15 percent fewer outings than they did in 2012. The average kid spends 4 to 7 minutes a day playing outside and over 7 hours a day in front of a screen.

In the 1980s, Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson created the term biophilia, which means humans are instinctively drawn toward their natural surroundings. Wilson also believed our call to be in nature competes with our evolutionary desire to control our environment. And our desire for control is so strong that most of us never want to leave the safety of our thermostats.

Our propensity for spending time indoors has reached such an extreme level that it now has a name: nature-deficit disorder. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, tells the story of interviewing a child who told him he liked playing indoors “’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”

We are wired to be in nature and connect with living things. If we don’t spend time outdoors, we go a little (maybe even a lot) haywire. E. O. Wilson believed that “nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction.”

In the 1980s, Japan’s forest agency created a nature-based wellness program. They started using the term forest bathing: making contact with and taking in the atmosphere of the forest. The Japanese government created parks throughout the country and encouraged their citizens to sit or walk in the woods, “taking in nature.”

Japanese scientists set out to study the effectiveness of the government-funded program. One of those studies involved 280 subjects who spent 15 minutes sitting in and walking through nature. The results showed that the forest environment promoted lower cortisol levels, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure.

A study published in February 2023 provided evidence of forest bathing as a cost-effective strategy to promote and restore psychological well-being after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study saw a significant reduction in anxiety in the 86 adults who spent time hiking in the forest.

In another study, people with the highest levels of stress felt a significant drop in depression after only two hours in the woods.

In 2016, Rachel Hopman, a graduate student at the University of Utah, led a study that found that a 20-minute walk through a park can cause profound changes in the neurological structure of our brains. This leaves us feeling calmer and with sharper, more productive, and more creative minds. The study also revealed that people who used their cellphone on the walk saw none of the benefits.

Twenty minutes seems to be the magic number. A study at the University of Michigan confirmed that a 20-minute dose of nature, three times a week, efficiently dropped levels of stress hormones. The catch to the study—the participants couldn’t take their phones with them.

These studies seem to imply a conflict between technology and nature. If you think about it logically, technology is the opposite of nature. Technology is the opposite of what we were created to thrive in.

When you spend time in nature, your brain enters a mode called “soft fascination.” The term refers to the fact that when you’re in nature, you lightly focus outwardly on the world around you. This is the opposite of what your brain does most of the time when it focuses inwardly.

Brain scans show that soft fascination is a lot like meditation. So, people who don’t like sitting and focusing on their breath can get similar results from a walk in the woods.

Reaping the benefits of nature doesn’t have to be complicated. Just passing by some trees as you walk to lunch has benefits. Hopman says that “almost immediately when people are in nature or even see nature, they report feeling better and their behavior changes.”

Just having plants in your office will increase your productivity. One study found having plants in the office increased work productivity by 15 percent. The study also found that people liked their jobs more when they had plants in their office.

Even having a view of nature from a hospital window helps people recover more quickly. A study published in Science in 1984 found that hospital patients with window views had fewer complications, complained less, and didn’t need to take as many pain pills.

Find a place to spend time in nature. Even 10 minutes can make a difference. But if you really want to lower your stress level, and maybe even your blood pressure, take time to get outside for 20 minutes, 3 times a week.

Oh, and leave your phone behind.

Stay Strong,

Bo Railey