Miscellaneous
This time of year sees many of us in Australia able to enjoy some time off, and the beautiful weather makes for an additional encouragement to get outdoors. Most of us have observed how great we feel after a day at the beach, camping, going bush or hiking through forests – but the benefits are not limited to lifting our mood: time in nature has proven health benefits! Join me as we talk forest-bathing, earthing and beachtime. Show Notes Transcript Hi everyone and happy holidays - Happy New Year!! It's the summer holidays here in Australia, and it's a time of year that sees many of us able to enjoy some more time off - and we've got beautiful weather, which makes for additional encouragement to get outside. Most of us have observed how amazing we feel after a day at the beach, or camping, going bush or hiking through forests - but the benefits are not limited to just lifting our mood. Time in nature has proven health benefits, with lots of exciting research and the adoption of progressive medical practices around the world. So let's get into it! The past several hundred years or so have seen greater and greater technological advancements that have offered many undoubted benefits. But at the same time, these same advancements have created a greater degree of separation between us and the natural world around us - and its cycles and seasons. We humans evolved from a close relationship with nature, and despite the shiny, technologically-advanced modern lives that we lead, we still remain connected to - and affected by - Mother Nature and her cycles. For example, our biochemistry fluctuates with the diurnal rhythms of light, between night and day, and the weather has been shown to have an impact on pain levels. For example, a recent study by scientists at the University of Manchester looked at the impact of the weather on arthritis (and other pain conditions) with their excellently named app, "Cloudy with a chance of pain". On a side note, Chinese Medicine has long referred to arthritis and other similar pain conditions as "Damp Obstruction" or "Cold Obstruction", which relates with the contemporary findings of a greater incidence of these pain patterns in damp weather - or cold weather for some people. This understanding of our interdependence on, and our connectedness with, nature is at the foundation of Chinese Medicine philosophy. We're all connected and we impact each other. So it's exciting to see this recognized in research, and to see it carried through into prescribing practices. One place where this is happening is in Scotland, where GPs, since last year have been able to start prescribing time in nature to their patients. They do this in an effort to reduce blood pressure, anxiety and to increase happiness for those living with diabetes and mental illness, stress and heart disease and so on. What the doctors can actually do is issue patients with a little brochure that has some great connecting-with-nature practices: these are seasonal practices that encourage the patients to get out there and just connect with the seasons and cycles of nature, and the magic of nature that's all around us. I've included the link to the brochure in my show notes, but there's some really awesome seasonal activities like, making beach art from natural materials, or borrow a dog and take it for a walk, touch the sea, make a bug hotel, bury your face in the grass, lots of beautiful ideas! Appreciate a cloud, talk to a pony and feed the birds in your garden - all activities that encourage us to slow down, take a breath and just appreciate the natural beauty that surrounds us. This exciting directive builds on earlier work and studies throughout the world, for example, some work in America that showed that patients recovering from surgery recovered faster and went home quicker if they had a view of trees outside their window. Other similar studies showed that a reduction in pain was available...