I had the great fortune this past Easter long weekend to go for three park walks with my daughter. Not only was I getting some valuable mom-daughter time in, I was also beating stress. I share how you can too in the above video.

It’s National Take a Walk in a Park day. A great day to get out and about, even if it’s not all that nice where you live. I do love a walk in the rain and snow.

There is a lot of research that backs up the amazing benefits we get from walking in nature. Never mind that for now though. Think back on the last time you took a walk. How much better did you feel after walking than you did before you started? If you’re like me, you’ll have felt an incredible difference.

Now to the research:

  • Walking in nature lowers stress levels and blood pressure.
  • Simply living close to nature reduces your stress hormone levels. (source)

And if you don’t live or work near nature, you can still use greenery to reduce your stress and have better brain function.

  • Find the greenery that you can in the environment around you: planter boxes, trees, gardens, lawns, a park. Your memory and attention will be better than if you walked through a busy street.
  • Look at pictures of nature. We more quickly recover from a stressful task after looking at naturescapes.
  • The sounds of nature are incredibly helpful as well. Listening to nature can help us recover from a stressful task faster. (source)

So what are you waiting for? Get on out there!