How Nature Therapy Helps Your Mental Health

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Is Nature Therapy and Why Do We Need It?The Benefits of Being in NatureHow to Bring Nature IndoorsFinal Thoughts

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

What Is Nature Therapy and Why Do We Need It?

The Benefits of Being in Nature

How to Bring Nature Indoors

Final Thoughts

Close

It’s time to bring nature into our everyday life. While we know intuitively that seeing the birds and squirrels in the local park seems to have a calming effect on us and makes us feel good, empirical evidence is mounting about the benefits of nature therapy.

This article explains what nature therapy involves, how nature therapy can benefit your mental health, and how you can bring nature to you if you happen to be stuck inside.

Nature therapy, which is also called ecotherapy, is based on the concept of using nature to help us heal, especially psychologically.

Generally speaking, we as a society do not spend time outside as much as we did in the past to decompress, let off steam, or recharge. This is also different from how many of us behaved as children: we may no longer bike through a meadow or play games at the lake, for example.

We’ve replaced those leisurely activities with more time spent on social media and video games. Instead of spending time enjoying and benefiting from the natural environment, we arespending more and more time on screens and online. The ramifications of this type of lifestyle are that we are a stressed-out society with a variety of mental health maladies.

Green and Blue Therapy

You might hear nature therapy called “green care,” “green exercise,” or “green therapy.” That is because its powerful benefit lies in spending time ingreen spaces.

But nature therapy also includes time spent near soothing “blue” spaces: oceans, rivers, and lakes. Being near aquatic environments has a psychologically restorative effect.It puts us in good moods.The color blue also represents calm and tranquility.

The Blue Health projectis an organization that has conducted studies about the relationship between blue spaces and health in 18 countries across Europe. After surveying 18,000 people, researchers discovered that people feel better being near waterways.

In fact, evidence showed a positive association between more exposure to outdoor blue spaces and health, particularly in terms of benefits to mental health and well-being.So, researchers have expanded their notion of ecotherapy to include blue spaces as well.

Nature Therapy’s Various Approaches

A host of nature-based therapeutic approaches are available to you without ever having to step inside a therapist’s office. There are relaxed approaches like gardening in the backyard, walking in a field of flowers, or floating on a tube in the river.

Here are some more formalized types of nature therapies:

How Nature Therapy Helps Your Mental Health

What science is showing is that we can reap the healing powers of Mother Nature and gain a host of mental health benefits. The question is: are we partaking in what might be an easy, cost-effective solution to our problems?

The latest research in psychology is furthering our knowledge about how spending time in nature is a low-cost and highly effective way to improve various aspects of our psychological wellness.

Increased Happiness

In a review of extensive previous research, Gregory Bratman, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, helped to chart a course for policymakers. He and his team wanted to create a framework measuring the mental health benefits of nature so city planners could incorporate natural settings into their future plans.

In his 2019 study, published inScience Advances, Bratman and his colleagues found evidence that contact with nature is associated with many benefits, including increases in happiness, a sense of well-being, positive social interactions, and a feeling of meaningfulness in life.

Decreased Anxiety, Stress and Depression

Becauseanxiety, stress, and depression affect U.S. college studentsnow at alarming rates, another study examined 14 already-published studies involving college-aged adults. Nature-rich environments unequivocally helped reduce mental distress.

The study compared those in urban areas with those in natural environments. What it also revealed was how little time it took in nature to impact these students.

It showed that spending a minimum of 10 minutes either sitting or walking in a wide range of natural settings provided a significant and beneficial impact on the participants’ mental health. Scientists used key psychological and physiological markers to measure this.

Uptick in Cognitive Benefits

Our mind likes it when we spend time in nature.We have better focus, which is also described as sharpened cognition. Another 2019 study showed that our exposure to natural environments is good for our brain.It improves performance on our working memory, cognitive flexibility, and attentional control tasks.

Community Gardens Benefit Those with Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Health Issues

If you have limited time or access, perhaps an intense work schedule, or are just not comfortable spending prolonged periods of time in the cold, you can still access nature conveniently.

How do we bring nature’s benefits inside when we are confined to our homes and workplaces? Here are some easy ways:

If you’re feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, try visiting a green or blue space for some nature therapy. If you can’t make it outside, buy a plant or listen to a nature soundscape. Chances are you’ll feel the beneficial effects immediately.

8 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Zhang X, Zhang Y, Zhai J, Wu Y, Mao A.Waterscapes for Promoting Mental Health in the General Population.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 10;18(22):11792. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211792. PMID: 34831547; PMCID: PMC8618438.Gascon M. Zijlema W. Vert C. White M. Nieuwenshuijsen M.Outdoor blue spaces, human health and well-being: A systematic review of quantitative studies.International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220. 2017;1207–1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.08.004Bratman GN, Anderson CB, Berman MG, et al.Nature and mental health: an ecosystem service perspective. 2019;5(7).Meredith GR, Rakow DA, Eldermire ERB.Minimum time-dose in nature to positively impact the mental health of college-aged students, and how to measure it: a scoping review.Front. Psychol.2020.Schertz KE, Berman MG.Understanding Nature and Its Cognitive Benefits.Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2019;28(5):496-502. doi:10.1177/0963721419854100Texas A & M.Health and well-being benefits of plants.van den Berg MM, Maas J, Muller R, et al.Autonomic Nervous System Responses to Viewing Green and Built Settings: Differentiating Between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Activity.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015;12(12):15860-15874. Published 2015 Dec 14. doi:10.3390/ijerph121215026Van Hedger SC, Nusbaum HC, Clohisy L, Jaeggi SM, Buschkuehl M, Berman MG.Of cricket chirps and car horns: the effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2019;52:522-530.

8 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Zhang X, Zhang Y, Zhai J, Wu Y, Mao A.Waterscapes for Promoting Mental Health in the General Population.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 10;18(22):11792. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211792. PMID: 34831547; PMCID: PMC8618438.Gascon M. Zijlema W. Vert C. White M. Nieuwenshuijsen M.Outdoor blue spaces, human health and well-being: A systematic review of quantitative studies.International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220. 2017;1207–1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.08.004Bratman GN, Anderson CB, Berman MG, et al.Nature and mental health: an ecosystem service perspective. 2019;5(7).Meredith GR, Rakow DA, Eldermire ERB.Minimum time-dose in nature to positively impact the mental health of college-aged students, and how to measure it: a scoping review.Front. Psychol.2020.Schertz KE, Berman MG.Understanding Nature and Its Cognitive Benefits.Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2019;28(5):496-502. doi:10.1177/0963721419854100Texas A & M.Health and well-being benefits of plants.van den Berg MM, Maas J, Muller R, et al.Autonomic Nervous System Responses to Viewing Green and Built Settings: Differentiating Between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Activity.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015;12(12):15860-15874. Published 2015 Dec 14. doi:10.3390/ijerph121215026Van Hedger SC, Nusbaum HC, Clohisy L, Jaeggi SM, Buschkuehl M, Berman MG.Of cricket chirps and car horns: the effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2019;52:522-530.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Zhang X, Zhang Y, Zhai J, Wu Y, Mao A.Waterscapes for Promoting Mental Health in the General Population.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 10;18(22):11792. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211792. PMID: 34831547; PMCID: PMC8618438.Gascon M. Zijlema W. Vert C. White M. Nieuwenshuijsen M.Outdoor blue spaces, human health and well-being: A systematic review of quantitative studies.International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220. 2017;1207–1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.08.004Bratman GN, Anderson CB, Berman MG, et al.Nature and mental health: an ecosystem service perspective. 2019;5(7).Meredith GR, Rakow DA, Eldermire ERB.Minimum time-dose in nature to positively impact the mental health of college-aged students, and how to measure it: a scoping review.Front. Psychol.2020.Schertz KE, Berman MG.Understanding Nature and Its Cognitive Benefits.Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2019;28(5):496-502. doi:10.1177/0963721419854100Texas A & M.Health and well-being benefits of plants.van den Berg MM, Maas J, Muller R, et al.Autonomic Nervous System Responses to Viewing Green and Built Settings: Differentiating Between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Activity.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015;12(12):15860-15874. Published 2015 Dec 14. doi:10.3390/ijerph121215026Van Hedger SC, Nusbaum HC, Clohisy L, Jaeggi SM, Buschkuehl M, Berman MG.Of cricket chirps and car horns: the effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2019;52:522-530.

Zhang X, Zhang Y, Zhai J, Wu Y, Mao A.Waterscapes for Promoting Mental Health in the General Population.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 10;18(22):11792. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211792. PMID: 34831547; PMCID: PMC8618438.

Gascon M. Zijlema W. Vert C. White M. Nieuwenshuijsen M.Outdoor blue spaces, human health and well-being: A systematic review of quantitative studies.International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220. 2017;1207–1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.08.004

Bratman GN, Anderson CB, Berman MG, et al.Nature and mental health: an ecosystem service perspective. 2019;5(7).

Meredith GR, Rakow DA, Eldermire ERB.Minimum time-dose in nature to positively impact the mental health of college-aged students, and how to measure it: a scoping review.Front. Psychol.2020.

Schertz KE, Berman MG.Understanding Nature and Its Cognitive Benefits.Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2019;28(5):496-502. doi:10.1177/0963721419854100

Texas A & M.Health and well-being benefits of plants.

van den Berg MM, Maas J, Muller R, et al.Autonomic Nervous System Responses to Viewing Green and Built Settings: Differentiating Between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Activity.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015;12(12):15860-15874. Published 2015 Dec 14. doi:10.3390/ijerph121215026

Van Hedger SC, Nusbaum HC, Clohisy L, Jaeggi SM, Buschkuehl M, Berman MG.Of cricket chirps and car horns: the effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2019;52:522-530.

Hannah Owens, LMSW

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?