Nature Immersion!

Over my lifetime I have taken a lot of pictures of shadows, leaves, trees, mushrooms, mountains, you get it — a lot of nature pictures. I've traveled across the United States and Canada by car more than a few times. I also have a lot of pictures of cities because mostly I live in cities. But even when I'm in the city I find the nature that is right next to me. Sun, trees, flowers, etc. It’s all beautiful.

That said, I still love to go out into an area where I am the only person — stand and let the nature surround me. And drop on me.

I have loved doing this as long as I can remember and now people suggest you go out into the forest for your health. Physicians are even prescribing going out into nature as a remedy for a lot of issues.

And while I was writing this and uploading a video clip to YouTube so it can be seen below — I found this article:

Quite simply, exercising out in the wind reduces stress and is a common activity in the Netherlands. It’s called uitwaaien.

The above clip is an unedited video. It's me holding a camera basically doing a backbend while the leaves were falling down around me. I wasn't quite exercising unless you can count almost doing that backbend.

I guess I was doing the Dutch exercise without knowing I was doing an exercise that a whole country seems to like. But then I've always liked being outside.

Above is a less windy take on the same day. I was actually enjoying having the leaves come down on me. I haven't done that in years because I had lived out West in an area that had fewer trees and although that area had a fall it is not the kind of fall that you get on the East Coast. And where I now live has a lot of oak trees — so these are oak leaves that are falling down around me. I really enjoyed the experience.

And I realized that I do enjoy the wind and many of my recent photos that I've used on my social media sites for me with wind blowing in my face. There's even one at the top here but I'll put it down here too.

So nature, especially windy nature, is good for reducing stress. Being out in nature itself without exercising and without the wind is also a way to reduce stress. For myself, I know looking at water is very peaceful but I no longer live where I can see a major river or stream. There is a pool which I guess counts — but it's closed because it's coming on winter.

I'll let you know next spring and summer if seeing a pool is the same kind of stress reducing phenomenon as looking at a river.

The wooded areas near me have lost probably 99% of their leaves so I can't have them falling on me anymore — but they're on the ground and so instead of forest showering I am forest wading. It still feels healthy.

As a kid I loved jumping in leaf piles and there are more leaves here than I have ever had in my entire life because there's more property and more trees.

There are leaves to crunch — there are leaves to freeze — there is ground to freeze — there are nice shadows on the leaves — and soon there will be shadows on the snow. And I will enjoy all of it — and be healthier!

And although this nature bathing showering walking crunching is great for me — I can't forget to tell you about my dog who is thrilled that we can just open the door and go out and chase tennis balls.

This is my happy dog on her recent 10th birthday!