What are the benefits of outdoor recreation in terms of social
Did you know that just looking at pictures of nature can lower your blood pressure and reduce stress and mental fatigue?
It turns out that exercising outside has more benefits than you might think.
Here are seven ways that exercising outdoors can help your mind and body.
1. Vitamin D
With exposure to the sun, vitamin D levels increase. Studies have shown that vitamin D may offer protection against osteoporosis, depression, cancer, heart attacks, and stroke.
"The benefits of outdoor recreation in terms of social"
2. Natural Killer Cells
The disease-fighting cells in your body (called NK or Natural Killer cells) can increase by up to 50% after spending time outdoors.
3. Mood improves and stress is reduced.
Exposure to natural light has been shown to elevate a person’s mood.
In other words: “Let the sunshine in”. Studies have also documented a boost in self-esteem.
4. Concentration improves.
Studies have shown that children with ADHD scored higher on tests of concentration after a walk through a Pain decreases and healing improves.
A 2005 study of spinal surgery patients showed that patients exposed to natural light while exercising experienced reduced pain which affected patient recovery.
6. Activity increases.
Children have been shown to be twice as active if playing or exercising outdoors, which may also apply to adults.
7. More social interaction.
People who exercise outdoors often have more social relationships.
Whether walking with a friend or participating on a team, social interactions help develop lasting friendships that are important to developing feelings of connectedness and overall mental health.
More Social Interaction
Although exercising indoors gets you moving, it’s clear that exercising outdoors when possible has added benefits for both the mind and body.
So why take as little as 30 minutes to get outside for fresh air and exercise?
At UMR, we want to support you on your journey to wellness. Regular physical activity can help you lose excess weight and ensure that your body continues to be fit and strong. Taking the time to care for your mind and body is an essential step in promoting the health and wellness of you and your family.
FAQ: What are the benefits of outdoor recreation in terms of social
| Q: How might outdoor activities improve social health? |
A: By encouraging interpersonal interactions, offering chances for social contact, and boosting emotional wellbeing through supportive partnerships, outdoor recreation enhances social health. |
| Q: Can outdoor activities assist with stress and anxiety reduction? |
| A: Yes, spending time outside and participating in outdoor activities helps reduce stress and anxiety levels, hence enhancing social and mental well-being. |
| Q: Are outdoor recreational activities accessible to communities of all backgrounds? |
A: Yes, outdoor activities may help various groups interact, increasing social inclusion and enhancing everyone's sense of well-being. |
Physical benefits of walking and hiking
The physical benefits of walking and hiking are fairly obvious to people but most people don't recognize that there are mental health benefits of walking just in itself has been shown to reduce levels of anxiety and depression and actually can be preventative in some cases of depression but there is even more evidence now that's doing it in nature and natural surroundings improve that those results even further something about being in nature is calming to humans, we seek environments that seem calming and protective to us and so people they've actually started to show that people's brains work differently when they're in nature compared to when they're in an urban setting so it's thought that being in a natural setting can change the way that we think and that affects our emotions and it reduces our anxiety levels and our stress levels.
when you're in nature there's a thought that different parts of your brain are activating the parts that are related to being on edge they're being calmed down and so that leads to physical changes too so reductions in your blood pressure reductions in your heart rate and again it's calming those areas of your brain that are related to stress and anxiety.
You certainly do not have to go climb a mountain to get the mental health benefits of hiking going to a park going to a green space any amount of time that you can spend outside in nature in an environment that is comfortable to you is worth it even if it's just ten minutes on your lunch break getting outside stretching your legs.
You know seeing the sunshine all of those things can be helpful for people you know mental health benefits can impact anyone it doesn't have to be someone who's depressed or anxious at baseline that's gonna get benefits from this it's anyone on any given day who you know a little bit stressed out maybe they've got a deadline coming up you're gonna get that benefit from getting out in the nature even just for a little bit of amount of time.
It’s probably no surprise that nature is beneficial to our mental health.
From hitting the beach to taking a long stroll through the park, multiple studies have shown that there’s something about nature that helps us feel happier, more focused, or just generally better. But why that happens is trickier to figure out. From what psychologists can tell, though, it’s not just about getting in some sunshine and Vitamin D. Instead, it might have to do with our sense of belonging.
The idea that nature is healing isn’t a new one and exposure to natural environments has been an important part of mental health treatments for a long time. As early as the Middle Ages, monasteries for those with mental illnesses created so-called restorative gardens.
And in the 1800s, people designing mental hospitals would try and make sure their buildings were surrounded by acres of natural land. So far, modern research really supports this idea, too. Studies have shown that being exposed to nature — whether it’s a wilderness preserve or a tree-lined city street — can improve well-being in a bunch of ways, both in those with and without clinical conditions.
For example, a 2011 meta-analysis looked at studies involving a total of almost 850 participants— mostly students.
It found that exercising in a natural environment resulted in higher feelings of revitalization then doing the same exercise indoors.And another study from 2012 found that walking through nature for 50 minutes provided a mood boost and other cognitive benefits for twenty participants with depression.
There’s also evidence to suggest that those with schizophrenia, ADHD, and a whole host of other illnesses experience similar benefits from just taking in a little scenery.
So far, there are several factors that have been floated around as possible explanations for this.
One is that nature allows us to recover from stress and attention fatigue. This is the idea that urban environments have too many things competing for our attention. Other studies suggest that nature offers exercise opportunities, facilitation of social interaction and development, and opportunities for personal development in general. But a lot of these factors haven’t been investigated in rigorous depth. They also don’t really explain the mechanisms of how we gain psychological benefits just from existing in nature, rather than running around in nature, chilling with friends with nature.
In fact, most research on the subject seems to describe the mechanisms as ‘elusive’. Which is what psychologists speak for, “We dunno. We’re working on it.”
Still, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a hypothesis or two. Some researchers argue that these positive effects, at least in part, come about because of an increased sense of connectedness to the natural world. One significant experiment on this was published in 2009 in Environment and Behavior, and it looked at the effect of exposure to nature on mood and problem-solving.
In this study, 76 students were asked to complete questionnaires on mood, along with the Connectedness with Nature Scale – or CNS – which measures pretty much what the name implies. It asks participants to rate how they feel about some vaguely hippy-ish stuff, like ‘Right now I’m feeling a sense of oneness with the natural world. Or ‘I’m feeling like the natural world is a community to which I belong’.
After rating 13 of those peace and love statements, the students were split into two groups and bundled onto buses for a field trip.
They took a 20-minute drive to either a nature reserve or a downtown parking lot. Then, they spent around 15 minutes silently walking, sitting, and taking in the scenery before filling out those questionnaires again.
The results showed that participants who went to the nature reserve reported significantly more of a mood boost from their trip. Their feelings of being connected to nature were also higher than those who took a stroll in the parking lot.
Now, this in itself isn’t massively surprising.
You can imagine it’s probably hard to feel at one with the universe standing on a stretch of concrete.
What was more interesting is that the CNS survey results seemed to mediate the effects of the environment.
More specifically, when people reported that they felt part of nature, their mood boost tended to be bigger.
So it wasn’t just about seeing nature; it was about feeling like they are part of it. The scientists behind this experiment argue that it’s that sense of connectedness that causes all those positive benefits.
And they cite something called the biophilia hypothesis as a possible mechanism for this.
The hypothesis theorizes that since, evolutionarily speaking, we’re used to living in natural environments, we all have some innate urge to seek out nature.
The researchers suggest that we need to see ourselves as part of it, belonging to the same group as the various plant and wildlife species we share our planet with. It can be hard to prove evolutionary hypotheses like this, especially when they’re as abstract as this one.
But the concept that we need to belong to groups to stay mentally healthy is one of the main principles of social psychology research.
In fact, it’s such an important concept that has a sense of belonging with other people is seen as a core human need in some models. Not having this sense of belonging can lead to things like lowered immune response, and poorer sleep quality.
And, conveniently, those are exactly the kind of functions researchers have seen improve when we’re exposed to natural environments. So it’s not that huge of a stretch to think that maybe we need to feel like we belong extends beyond human interactions, to see ourselves as part of the wider ecosystem on our planet.
It’s a plausible idea for What are the benefits of outdoor recreation in terms of social, and the results of this study certainly support it.
But like with a lot of other big ideas, it would help to have more research to be sure. If nothing else, though, studies do suggest that time in nature is really good for you.
So even if we don’t totally know why, it’s probably worth visiting your local park sometime.
Your brain — and your mood — will thank you...