Connect With Nature

My intake form includes asking my new patients "what activities do you engage in that positively impact your health?".

Recently, a patient wrote "regularly connect with nature". That put a huge smile in my face. It's a concept I promote, but in almost 10 years of practice, have not seen anyone answer the question remotely like this.

Urbanization, dependency on technology, and lifestyle changes have reduced the possibilities for human contact with nature. Often this connection is looked at with ambivalence, and if a connection is made at all, it's negative. Extreme weather and geological events injure or kill people, often en mass.

Yet what about the fact that people can't live without clean air and water, nutrient rich food, and other resources provided by the natural environment?

It has been found that contact with nature positively relates to health in several ways including:

• Air quality.

• Physical activity.

• Social cohesion.

• Stress reduction.

Connecting with nature doesn't necessarily mean taking a person out of an urban environment and plopping them in the middle of the forest. It can be in a building as indoor plants, or community gardens.

Let's get creative. One example is the town of Bend, Oregon. They are in close proximity to the wild, but city planners have still taken steps to nurture this connection, like building this river wave. It is an example of making this connection with nature interesting and accessible for everyone. Here's a few photos I took of surfer Kohl testing it out while in town for the Big Wave Challenge.

Dr. Cristina Allen ND