How can you easily reduce stress, improve your self esteem and lift your mood? Well the answer is: with green exercise. Uh huh! What’s that?

Before I tell you what green exercise is I can tell you it has benefits. Evidence shows it leads to positive short and long-term health outcomes, reduces stress, bolsters your self-esteem and elevates your mood. So if it’s easy to get health benefits with green exercise, I want to know more.

Research from ten UK studies involving 1252 participants shows it pays to do things, some form of exercise, outside in the garden or in the park, any place that has green living plants. And, this multi-study analysis assessed the best dose of acute exposure to “green exercise” required to improve self-esteem and mood.

Dr Jo Barton and Professor Jules Pretty said, “Dose responses for both intensity and duration showed large benefits from short engagements in green exercise, and then diminishing but still positive returns.
– Every green environment improved both self-esteem and mood; the presence of water generated greater effects.
– Both men and women had similar improvements in self-esteem after green exercise, though men showed a difference for mood.
– Age groups: for self-esteem, the greatest change was in the youngest, with diminishing effects with age;
– for mood, the least change was in the young and old.
– The mentally ill had one of the greatest self-esteem improvements.
This study confirms that the environment provides an important health service.”

So we can thank the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Essex, Colchester in the UK for that research project.

Being a keen gardener I would have thought the benefits of being outside in fresh air, among the plants that deliver oxygen to us, would be obvious to all. But it seems not every likes to have their nose in the bushes.

The psychologists at Essex University have shown that just a small dose of nature, just five minutes, every day creates health benefits in measurable quantity.

There are days every one of us needs a pick me up. Lunch in the park and five minutes of walking can make all the difference for having a productive afternoon at home or at work. The greatest improvements in self-esteem were found in young children and people with mental illness and every age group did benefit across the board.

So a walk in the park is just what the doctor could prescribe in the future to reduce stress, improve self-esteem and lift your mood when you are feeling low. And pushing a pram, kicking a ball, skipping, riding a bike, fishing, boating, horse riding, gardening, doing farm work or any out door activity give endless scope to suit everyone. This is one form of self-medication that may be condoned and even encouraged in the future.

Sounds like common sense to me. What do you reckon?
Cheers
Anna