Did you ever think that taking a 20-minute break could make you more productive? Study after study has shown that we need to take a breath, think more and do less. Our 24/7 connected lives are taxing our systems and making us less productive, not more. We need to take a break to get more done.
This is why a retreat into nature helps us ‘Slow down to speed up’.
Here are four reasons spending time in nature will make you more productive and creative.
• It’s natural aromatherapy
Trees contain essential oils that release into the forest air. When we walk under and among trees, we breathe in these near-magical oils, and that does a world of good for our health. Right away, our energy levels increase by more than 30 percent. We sleep better and longer too; a two-hour walk among trees increases the amount of sleep by an average of 15 percent.
• The health benefits carry back to the workplace
Studies show that healthy workers tend to be more productive, a concept that is behind a growing trend in real estate to create offices with measurable wellness benefits. One frequently cited Harvard study showed that improving air quality caused mental cognition to soar.
• You’ll live longer and healthier
The practice of Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, was developed in Japan, where life expectancy is among the highest in the world. It has become a foundation of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. Forest bathing creates calming neuropsychological effects through changes in the nervous system, reducing the stress hormone cortisol and boosting the immune system. After just 15 minutes of forest bathing, blood pressure drops, stress levels reduce and concentration and mental clarity improve.
In nature, one has the opportunity and focus to think longer term, more intuitively and deeper – think about the things that will really make a difference, not what gets checked off our to-do list. We find the motivation and inspiration to do the hard work that will create a meaningful, purposeful legacy.
• Even tech CEOs say it’s important to get away from tech
In a letter to his daughter, Marc Zuckerberg wrote: “The world can be a serious place. That’s why it’s important to make time to go outside and play.”
Sean Parker admitted about technology, “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.” James Williams, a former Google employee and winner of its prestigious Founder’s Award, said, “The dynamics of the attention economy are structurally set up to undermine the human will. If politics is an expression of our human will, on individual and collective levels, then the attention economy is directly undermining the assumptions that democracy rests on.”
