Both physical activity and spending time in nature have positive effects on physical and mental health. A combination of both has particularly promising effects. So, it is worth rediscovering nature and using it for sporting purposes.
In today’s society, especially in the western world, you can observe a decreasing trend of physical activity and especially outdoor activities. The main reasons for this are technical advances and the digital revolution. At the same time, also in the context of urbanization, the focus has shifted to indoor sports. Thus, people also spend less time in nature in their free time. Both physical activity and spending time in nature have been proven to have surprising positive effects on physical and mental health. Therefore, a combination of both is all the more recommendable.
Unfortunately, more and more people are becoming less attached to nature. People pass this on from generation to generation. This distance from nature leads to various problems such as attention disorders and behavioral problems as well as a range of mental and physical illnesses. The reason for this is the increasing discrepancy between your current lifestyle and the environmental conditions for which humans were actually physically and psychologically genetically programmed in the course of evolution. Your original habitat is nature and a distance from it inevitably leads to a kind of “longing”. This is already clear from the fact that you usually go into nature on vacation to get energy again.
The term “green exercise” has been established to describe the advantages of exercise in the great outdoors. Even the simple encounter with nature, such as looking out of the window, is said to have therapeutic effects. You can increase this in connection with movement. For example, the “green movement” has positive influences on blood pressure, general mood and alertness. These effects are based both on the effect of the color green itself on people and on your original closeness to nature. But other factors such as oxygen, rest and essential fragrances also play a crucial role.
You can mainly find all these in the forest. This is why it is a very special place for health. In this context, they make term “forest bathing” popular. You simply go into the forest and let it work its magic on you. Forest bathing is already part of holistic health care in Japan.