What is Nature Therapy, and How Can You Practice It to Boost Your Health?

Humans have evolved alongside nature and have a natural affinity for spending time in natural green spaces. You have likely noticed that you feel more relaxed or energized after being outdoors, and science backs up this observation. Hundreds of studies show the health benefits of spending time in nature for children and adults. 

Nature therapy is focused on using exposure to natural environments to benefit mental and physical health. This type of approach is also known as ecotherapy or green treatment and has been defined as “a set of practices aimed at achieving ‘preventive medical effects’ through exposure to natural stimuli that render a state of physiological relaxation and boost the weakened immune functions to prevent diseases.”

To help you gain an understanding of nature therapy, this article will explore the rising popularity of encouraging exposure to nature to improve mental and physical health and practical ways that you can incorporate nature therapy into your everyday life!

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Defining Nature Therapy

In general, nature therapy involves being in nature in various ways that help to boost physical and mental health. This approach to health and healing is also called ecotherapy, green therapy, green care, green exercise, or horticulture therapy. These healing approaches offer less intrusive and more cost-effective means of supporting health.

There are many examples of specific nature therapy programs and various forms that nature therapy can take. All of these healing approaches involve a natural environment that encourages the appreciation and exploration of nature. Sometimes, this is done with the guidance of a trained practitioner like a therapist, and/or time in nature is combined with other modalities like arts and crafts or meditation.

For example, the Japanese describe the concept of shinrin-yoku or forest bathing, bathing in the forest atmosphere, or taking in the forest through our senses. This idea refers to simply being in natural forest settings and connecting with them through your sense of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Spending time in natural settings like forests has been shown to improve many markers of health and reduce feelings of hostility, depression, and anxiety among adults with acute and chronic stress.

Other types of nature therapy fall under the category of Green Care, which includes therapeutic approaches like animal-assisted therapy, horticultural therapy, and farm-based therapy. These modalities include caring for and/or interacting with various animals or plant-life. For example, equine-assisted therapy or hippotherapy has been shown to help children and adolescents develop healthier emotional, social, and behavioral functioning. 

The Science Behind Nature Therapy

The health benefits of nature therapy are clear and impact many aspects of health, including reduced stress, improved mood, and enhanced cognitive function. Science has demonstrated concrete physiological changes that back up these health benefits of nature therapy. 

Scientific research on nature therapy has provided insights into some of the physiologic mechanisms for these benefits. Two significant theories are used to describe how nature benefits health. 

The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) explains how spending time in natural environments helps people overcome the mental drain and fatigue associated with modern life that results from a diminished capacity to direct attention.

An additional theory, the Stress Reduction Theory (SRT), explores how time spent in nature impacts feelings or emotions by activating parasympathetic nervous system responses. This part of the autonomic nervous system helps your body shift into a rest and digest mode where arousal and stress decrease.

For example, exposure to natural environments helps reduce cortisol levels, one of the key biological markers of stress released into your body when the sympathetic nervous system is activated. Evidence shows that cortisol levels decrease when people are exposed to a natural environment. Similarly, salivary cortisol levels are lower after mild to moderate exercise in a natural environment compared to activity performed in an urban environment. Science has also found that people have higher tonic vagal tone when spending time in natural environments, a measure of heart rate variability and your ability to regulate stress.

Exposure to nature, even when just viewed through a window or when looking at plants in your home, can have profound impacts on the brain and body. Studies show that simply looking at natural plants can alter brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that plays an essential role in emotional regulation.

Nature Therapy and Mental Health

Nature therapy has been extensively studied for its benefits on mental health, sleep, and stress. Your brain and nervous system benefit from interacting with nature. Spending time immersed in natural settings or viewing pictures of nature can enhance your attention, mood, and cognitive functioning.

Nature can mitigate many of the negative impacts of stress and help you regulate and manage chronic stress. A systematic review of over 40 experimental studies demonstrated that physiologic measures of stress, including heart rate and blood pressure, are reduced by exposure to nature and outdoor environments.

Exposure to nature also improves your sense of wellbeing, mood, and cognition. Studies show that taking a walk in nature compared to in an urban setting results in decreased anxiety, diminished rumination, improved mood, and increased working memory performance. 

One of the ways that spending time in outdoor natural spaces can benefit health is by providing opportunities that facilitate social contact. Natural environments and green spaces help build a greater sense of community by offering increased contact with others.

Nature exposure also helps the body more easily shift into a resting parasympathetic state and improves sleep. 

These mental health benefits of nature have been looked at for specific populations. For example, nature-based therapy positively impacts veterans living with post-traumatic stress (PTSD). It is more well-tolerated by those who have difficulty following other treatment programs or find them unhelpful.

Physical Health Benefits of Nature Therapy

In addition to the numerous mental and psychological benefits of spending time in nature, nature therapy has many physical health benefits. Increased exposure to natural settings is associated with increased physical activity, improved cardiovascular health, better metabolism, and more balanced immune function.

Natural spaces offer safe spaces for physical activity. Natural environments often offer suitable rooms for outdoor exercise, like walking and playing, with people who live near natural areas engaging in more frequent and extensive physical activity. This results in lower levels of obesity and improved physical and mental health. 

They also help mitigate harmful environmental exposures like air pollution, noise, and heat that can affect health.  

In addition to nature's favorable impacts on stress levels and your ability to regulate parasympathetic nervous system function, these benefits contribute to nature’s ability to reduce blood pressure and heart rate, helping to prevent high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart diseases. For example, viewing forest landscapes for ten minutes significantly increased a physiologic relaxation response in middle-aged men with hypertension, reducing their heart rates. 

These benefits of nature therapy on weight and stress levels also contribute to improving metabolic health. Studies suggest that spending time in nature, such as forest bathing, can beneficially impact adiponectin. This hormone is produced by fat tissue and is associated with metabolic disorders, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. 

Nature therapy also favorably impacts the immune system. Studies show that forest bathing improves immune system function and may help to prevent cancers by increasing natural killer (NK) activity, the number of NK cells, and levels of anti-cancer proteins. This seems to be due, at least in part, to breathing in volatile organic substances released from trees. These substances, known as phytoncides such as α-pinene and limonene, significantly increase human NK activity and decrease stress hormone levels that normally suppress immune function.

Incorporating Nature Therapy into Your Routine

Many of the benefits of nature therapy can be garnered no matter where you live or what your lifestyle entails. Many simple and cost-effective ways exist to integrate nature therapy into daily life. 

For example, daily activities like regular walks or bike rides in your local park, gardening in your backyard or rooftop or balcony, meditating outdoors, or hiking in a nearby forest or mountain area can all benefit your health. 

When incorporating more natural elements into your day, see if you can bring some of your routine outside or closer to nature. Sit outside in your garden or on a bench in the park to read a book. Pack a picnic and enjoy a meal in a natural setting. Pay attention to little pieces of nature that pop up even in urban environments, like a wildflower on the sidewalk or a songbird singing in the background.

Doing these activities with greater mindfulness of your natural surroundings enhances the benefits. Experiment with different ways to reflect on and connect more deeply with your time in nature. Meditate, journal, or draw about your experience. Try taking a gratitude walk and paying attention to things you are grateful for as you look around. 

If you are more of a night owl, you can still benefit from nature therapy. Dark nature activities like stargazing, moon gardening, camping, and noticing the wildlife around you at night offer similar benefits to daytime nature exposure. Try replacing some of your evening T.V. streaming with gazing at the night sky and reap the benefits of an enhanced connection to nature. 

Overcoming Barriers to Accessing Nature

Solutions that make nature more accessible and readily available in a variety of settings are cost-effective and offer significant public health benefits. Research shows that populations who have access to nature nearby gain significant mental health benefits that result in decreased physical and financial costs.

Environmental policies designed to increase urban green space are essential public health measures that can have sustainable benefits for urban dwellers. Longitudinal benefits have been found for exposure to nature throughout one's lifespan. For example, the U.S.-based Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) found that increased exposure to greenness around the home contributed to a lower risk of depression.  

People who cannot participate in outdoor activities due to various limitations or barriers can still benefit from modified versions of nature therapy. Virtual reality has successfully been used to bring nature to those who cannot venture into the outdoors. Virtual reality can deliver interactive nature-based content that allows users to engage with a simulated natural environment. This is a cost-effective, noninvasive, and non-pharmaceutical approach to improve older adults’ well-being.

There are other ways to bring the healing benefits of nature indoors as well. Adding plants or flowers to your space, opening blinds and curtains to let more natural light in, opening windows for fresh air, and hanging artwork that features natural views can all benefit your health. You can add small glimpses of nature to your living space by growing herbs on your window sill or placing a photograph of a beautiful natural scene on your desk.

Nature Therapy for Children and Families

Nature therapy benefits people of all ages, and studies have explored many positive benefits that spending time in nature can have for children and families. The biophilia hypothesis explains how green spaces allow children to expand their creativity and discover new ways of learning, risk-taking, mastery, and control. Engaging with the world in this way positively encourages various aspects of brain development.

Regular access to green spaces improves children’s and teens’ overall health, mental well-being, cognitive development, and psychological distress. Increased green space exposure helps to improve behavior and symptoms of ADHD and results in higher standardized test scores. These benefits of being in nature as a child persist throughout life, with children who experience higher levels of continuous green space presence during childhood having a lower risk of various psychiatric disorders later in life.

Designing spaces to incorporate more green and natural features can improve well-being and health for all. When natural features like forests, grasslands, and tree canopies are incorporated near schools, preschoolers show an improvement in socio-emotional competencies and lower levels of autism.

Exposure to the outdoors and green spaces is especially beneficial for family dynamics and healing. Science supports the use of nature-based family rehabilitation practices and adventure therapy methods with families to provide them with empowering experiences of succeeding together against challenges, improving communication between family members, and enacting sustainable, systemic change. 

Family-friendly nature therapy activities can be as simple as spending time playing freely in green spaces like parks or beaches or more extensive camping trips in the mountains. Outdoor activities for children, like cloud watching and mindful walks to explore the different textures of bark or leaves or taking time to smell flowers in bloom, can create memorable traditions and benefit the whole family.

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Nature Therapy For Health: Key Takeaways

Your environment can have immense impacts on your health. Nature therapy incorporates the synergistic benefits of spending time in green spaces to benefit mental and physical health. This form of evidence-based preventive medicine offers immense benefits by encouraging people to be more active, more relaxed, healthier, and happier with reduced stress and reduced risk of disease.

You can take simple steps to incorporate nature therapy into your daily life that can have potent health benefits. Daily habits like taking a walk in your local park or gardening in your backyard are accessible and practical tools for improving your health and wellbeing.

As you start increasing the time you spend in nature and your appreciation of green spaces near you, you will enjoy embracing nature therapy for wellbeing!