Benefits of nature and walking

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope all your wishes for 2018 may come true. The good thing is, depending on your wishes, it might be possible to influence them or not. The best example is our quality of life.

As you can read in “About”, I grew up in a family that was often out for walking and hiking. Short walks in the nearer surrounding, extended hikes in the mountains. All year round. Through fields, forests and meadows.

Remember the benefits of nature

When I started this blog, I had already suffered a long time from a skin disease which isn’t only based on inheritance but also influenced by stress patterns. I tried to find out, how I can positively influence my way of life to bring me back to a normal private and work life. I’ve read so many and tried even more, added to the prescribed drugs, but nothing brought a sweeping success. But I remembered at some point, what I miss here in Ireland, and what might help to regain at least a feeling of peace, freedom and well-being. During this process a few other thoughts came up:

Our workplaces have changed over the last 30 years. The kind of work we are doing has changed, too. In recent researches, it is proven that nature can give us a relief from all the stress we are facing. When I was talking to people, I found out, we simply have forgotten about the benefit of nature and how we can use it, to make us feel better. We prefer to buy expensive remedies, rather than to use the free benefits that are available:

A walk in the park, a hike in the forests, a chat with a friend or with other people, that might experience the same concerns as we have.

Using nature as stress relief

And if you are unsure, if it might help to go for a walk, it might be helpful to read parts of this article. I haven’t translated the whole article into English, but the most important paragraphs. The link to the full German article is at the end of the translation:

The kick for the head

And now have a look back to 2017. Sound some of the following questions familiar to you?

• You feel stressed or extremely tired?
• You want to have a valuable time with your partner and your children and enjoy the day together?
• You miss your family because your family lives in a different country?
• Your social life takes place in one of the pubs, because where else can you meet other people?
• You can meet with loads of colleagues, but the main subject you are talking about is again work related?
• You don’t have a car and that keeps you away from going walking on your own?

If only one of these questions sounds familiar, then let’s change something!