June 4
Check in
The Great Outdoors: Nature’s Benefit for our Mental Health
Just being outdoors can improve your mood greatly. This can mean moving your workout outdoors, talking a walk with family, or simply studying outside for an hour or so. One study in 2015 showed that people who took a walk in nature had lower activity in a particular region in the brain responsible for repetitive negative thoughts; this means that being in nature helped them slow down that loop of negativity that anxiety, stress, and depression usually perpetrates. This article talks more about your brain and nature if you’re interested.
Today’s questions:
What is your favorite place to be? What kind of emotions do you feel when you remember or be in that place?
Remember you can send us and post your responses to the Board with the ‘Post’ Button below!
Send us a photo of the outdoors that you took recently. Or if you don’t have right now, send us a photo of nature if you try going for a mindfulness walk today (explained in the mindfulness resources)! You can email the file to us at decompress.reminders@gmail.com. Mention in the email if you’d like us to post it to the Community Board :)
Activities
photo by Aaron Burden (Unsplash)
Studying Outdoors
Studies show that studying outdoors can reduce your stress and improve mood and productivity. It’s also nice to get a change of scenery from being indoors too much. If you are unable to be outside, studying near a window or in natural sunlight can help your productivity too!
photo by Kevin Lanceplaine (Unsplash)
Appreciate Earth :)
Students spend a lot of time indoors at school, doing homework, studying for tests, etc. Sometimes we can forget how amazing our earth is. Check out this playlist called Earth, Appreciated to see how our earth sustains us and how we need to protect it.
Mindfulness Resources
Mindful Walking
Try listening to this video while walking outside. Being outside can boost your mood, even during a short walk!
Mindful Walking Meditation (Relieve Stress) - MyLife
Link to Mindful: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkB9zEEqnP9kMIf5VChd99Q
Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09EO9IJgOiI
Headspace - Mindful Walking
Sometimes sitting still during meditation doesn’t work; in the moments when you have too much energy but still wish to meditate, try this short mindful walking exercise by Headspace.
Sunday Scaries | Take a Mindful Walk - Headspace
Link to Headspace: https://www.headspace.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Getsomeheadspace
Direct Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwbRERIzt6c