- Dadding
- Posts
- Just 5 Mins of This...
Good morning, this week we trudged through a dense forest, turning over dead leaves and dirty ground, to forage, for you, one handpicked morsel.
🍄This week's morsel is about self-care: Just 5 Mins of This Can Boost Your Body’s Natural Drug🍄
It’s no secret that we Americans spend a lot of time indoors…
Look at this eye-opening statistic from the EPA:
“Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors.”
This isn’t our fault.
Some of us live way up north, where a leisurely lunchtime stroll is practically torture half of the year.
For the rest of us, we are busy!
That, combined with a national infrastructure built for cars means that here in the states, we must make a concerted effort to go walking.
But, what are the benefits…
The Benefits
To start, a daily walk of any sort is an excellent way to keep the blood flowing.
Second, let’s look at our homie Vitamin D: a daily walk outside gives us enough Vitamin D to help fight depression and even some forms of cancer.
Here is a quote from Lisa Nisbet, a professor of Psychology at Trent University:
“Generally the research tells us that when people are exposed to the natural environment and natural features, they tend to have a reduced stress response. When you are out in nature you have lower blood pressure, better heart rate variability, better mood”
Finally, it boosts our body’s natural drug, Serotonin, which has heaps of benefits (make you feel good and sleep better).
How To Get Your Nature Boost ASAP
In all of the previous research, if you dig deep, you will notice that these studies are based on more prolonged periods of exposure to nature: One Hour, 30 Minutes, etc…
What if I told you 5 minutes was you all needed to get most of the benefits?
In a study by Jo Barton at the University of Essex, the vast majority of benefits received from time spent in nature happen in the first five minutes.
And this includes urban nature like parks also!
So, what does this mean for you, busy dad?
If you want to receive the multitude of benefits of time spent in nature, but don’t know where to start, give yourself five minutes a day!
Or, if you are already a nature lover, but don’t have time that day for a huge hike, know that popping outside for 5 minutes is way better than nothing…
Go look at a tree or something, man!
This Week's Dad Joke:
I accidentally gave my wife a glue stick
instead of her lipstick.She still isn't talking to me.
— Dad Jokes (@Dadsaysjokes)
9:45 PM • Sep 23, 2022
Other Radical Dadding Topics:
Connecting: Conflict and Why It's Important
P.S. Some of my spoils from this spring
