Nature affects mental health and has a positive effect on the mind. It can ease a troubled mind and lift your spirit with its healing powers. It is well-researched and documented that spending time in the natural world reduces stress, boosts your mood, and calms the entire human system—body and brain!
The benefits of nature on your mind, its ability to improve mental and physical health, are proven. Simply being exposed to a natural environment reduces stress. Green spaces encourage more positive moods. Your body and brain calm down in nature, whether you are in the woods, on or near water, or sitting on a park bench. Nature has magical powers where mental health is concerned!
Oh, how I needed that this week in the wake of a heavy morning. I was so sad, my mind was troubled and my body felt as if it was filled with lead. Perhaps you can relate. It’s a feeling of being weighed down, and it can literally feel hard to move. It takes twice the effort to walk. Heavy. Weighty. Lead-body.
I needed nature to ease my troubled mind and lift my mood.
It doesn’t really matter why I felt so heavy. My purpose here is to suggest a solution to the heaviness we all feel during times of emotional duress. We all have life-struggles that cause us to feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Sometimes it is for a moment, sometimes a season. The point is a troubled mind, from time to time, is a universal human condition. Nature can help!
I’m gonna be honest. In the wake of the heavy morning, and about an hour past noon, my first thought was to park myself on the deck at home and drink a glass of wine. Quick remedy for my troubled mind. But I knew day drinking, or any drinking to relieve stress, wasn’t a good remedy. Too many negative consequences of that one, and not a sustainable solution. I decided to save the potential glass of wine for later, after a long hike through a wooded area.
I laced up my Merrell® hiking shoes and headed for some woods where sugar maples and autumn colors were abundant. It was a sunny afternoon. An extended warm season in Minnesota, the temperature was cool enough to be pleasant and warm enough that I didn’t need a heavy jacket. Just a zip-up sweatshirt. It was about 60° and sunny.
The area I walked had paved trails—a lot of them. With many miles and loops to choose from, I decided to wander at will and not follow any planned direction.
At first, I was keenly aware of the lead feeling in my body as I walked along, looking at the yellow, terracotta, and blazing red leaves of the maples. Most of them were yellow, so a splash of pale orange to vibrant red mixed in made a nice landscape. In time, my eyes began to pick up other colors—remaining greens on the forest floor, brown leaves, tan grass from nearby wetlands and some deep wine-red clusters of sumac berries. That the sumac color reminded me of a full-bodied wine, the very thing I passed up when I decided a walk was a better choice, made me smile (and think again about enjoying some Pinot Noir later on the deck!).
Eventually, something began to happen during that walk. While my heart still felt heavy, the rest of my body began to feel lighter. My mind began to feel a bit less troubled. The weight was lifting from me, and I was enjoying what nature had to offer. Fresh air. Beauty. Color. Wonder.
I was outside with no purpose other than let nature do its work to lighten up my heavy day, and I began to let more of the world into my mind. More than just my troubling morning, my problems and worries. My woes. While they didn’t fade completely, they moved over and made room for more of life to enter.
I found myself enjoying many things outside, including all of the nature and the people who were enjoying it with me. There were others present in those lovely woods.
A brisk wind blew through the trees, causing colors to swirl on the ground and in the air. So many leaves falling and being lifted and dancing in the whirlwind. I thought about those leaves for a while. They were dead, or dying, and falling to the ground where they would decompose. It seemed so final, but I knew better. What appeared to be an end was really another phase of existence for those leaves. One job they had as they settled on the earth was to provide shelter, cover, for the upcoming winter. Various animals, like wood frogs and caterpillars, take cover beneath decaying leaves during a cold, Midwestern winter.
Another job those fallen leaves were tasked with was to add nutrients to the soil. When decomposed leaves and other organic matter decay, nutrients and energy produce a healthy environment for new life to emerge in springtime. Renewal and new life come out of death. I love that about nature!
Other things I enjoyed on my walk were various rock formations that presented themselves. On a human-made paved path, I enjoyed the juxtaposition of nature’s solid rocks, misshaped and artistic, and human-made trails. While I adore tromping through woods that are not groomed by people, I appreciate a good path as well. It invites more people to enjoy nature. I saw what looked like grandparents pushing a stroller with, perhaps, the cutest baby ever. I enjoyed a young dad on his bike that had a double kid-seat where he had fastened two little bodies in colorful sweaters, one with a black helmet and one sparkly pink.
I also saw many leashed dogs and joggers and lovers holding hands on that paved path. It was a community of humans enjoying what nature had to offer on a beautiful autumn afternoon. What a blessing! What a wonderful treat and a great time of enjoyment I shared with people I didn’t know. We were all partaking in the beauty nature had to offer. I wondered if they, too, had sought solace for troubled minds.
As the path veered toward a wetland, I decided to check out the cattails. The marsh-loving plants are a nice addition to the landscape. The flower part of a cattail looks like a cigar. This time of year, the “cigars” begin to break apart, looking fuzzy, and seeds fall to the ground. More future life from death. Nature doesn’t waste anything!
A long time ago I read the flower part of the cattail, a.k.a. “cigar,” is edible. Most other parts of the plant are edible as well. I’ve never tried one, but I’d be open to doing it sometime. I like the idea of wild foods that are available for consumption. One never knows when hunger might strike!
I was able to get a few feet into the wetland without getting wet. Yes, it has been a dry fall. I’ve learned the hard way that the appearance of “dry” in a wetland doesn’t always mean it is dry (not that I’m opposed to getting my feet wet). I’ve stepped into some deep and muddy areas that fooled me. This time, the dry-looking part didn’t lie.
The only animal life (besides dogs) I saw were a few squirrels. I tried to sit still and convince them I meant no harm, but the rodents were wary of me. One of them was scampering around with a large object in its mouth. Walnut? I didn’t get a close look, but it was cute the way it carried the food-treasure. I wondered if it was going to be stored in an underground pantry. I read squirrels would pretend to bury food if they think they’re being watched. Tricky! And smart!
After squirrel-watching, I realized it was getting late in the day. Rather, the sun was showing how late in the season it was getting by sinking long before my suppertime. The remainder of daylight shone through the woods, casting beautiful shadows and streaks of light across the forest floor. The light of nature highlighted colorful leaves and grasses in the woods. An autumn gift.
On the way to my car, I passed a brook. The addition of water noises pushed me deeper into a state of calm, and I smiled, watching the water. A favorite song, “The Sound of Music,” came to mind. In it the lyrics “To laugh like a brook as it trips and falls over stones on its way” perfectly describe the flowing water. Happy. Clumsy, yet with a purpose, a destination. Sometimes I think of life that way. Clumsy. Purposeful (hopefully). And with an (unknown) destination as it flows onward.
I think those lyrics are the best description of a brook I have ever come across. (Trust me when I say I’ve looked for many ways to describe a brook!)
When I left the woods, I knew I had made a good choice. Nature.
And while the events of the morning were still present, they had been flooded out by the things I saw and enjoyed on my walk through the woods.
Looking back at the many times I’ve gone outside to ease what was happening inside me, I marvel at the solace nature has brought. Nature never fails to show up for me. It never fails to lift my spirit. It never fails to provide another perspective or other things to think about.
Nature never fails to ease my troubled mind and lighten up a heavy day.
