Drinking Tulsi tea and spending time in the great outdoors — it’s a great natural stress reliever.
You work hard to manage your stress. You’re already using your powers of perception to turn the naturally occurring stress in your life into a productive tool. You’re taking time to regenerate by slowing down and adding poetry to your days. But something might still be getting under your skin. Perhaps it’s not what’s inside you but what’s outside you.
Your environment can play a large role in your stress level and can affect your health at an evolutionary level. If your surroundings are always manmade, your mind may sense that you’re in danger and send stress signals regardless of how well you may think you’re managing stress from within. It’s important to make time to commune with nature on your journey to whole body wellness because being in nature is a natural stress reliever.
Biophilia – Our Need to Be in Nature
“Biophilia” is the term used to describe our innate human need for natural surroundings and our desire to focus on life and lifelike processes. Simply put, being in nature, for lack of a better term, is natural.
Through our evolution, humans have developed an environmental preference to be surrounded by green things. Plants are beautiful, and they help us think about the modus and meaning of life. If you’re robbed of your relationship with nature, then your biophilial sensors go off in your brain, and your surroundings can become a stress factor, even unconsciously.
Biophilial levels are different in everyone and are likely shaped by cultural factors as well as individual preferences. Nevertheless, the presence of plants affects the human mind and is a natural stress reliever, reducing stress by appealing to your personal biophilia. Simply put, you’re biologically wired to want to connect with nature.
Your Environment Influences You
Recent experiments regarding stress reactions in various settings show that even a short amount of time spent in a natural environment can reduce stress. The researchers compared a variety of stress indicators, including personal assessments before and after outdoor exposure (as well as a salivary cortisol measurement) to define the stress-reducing properties of four types of environments. The four environments: very natural, mostly natural, mostly built, and very built.
The study concluded that being in nature is a natural stress reliever – even short-term experiences in nature areas can have positive effects on perceived stress relief compared with experiences in a built (manmade) environment.
Natural Stress Reliever: Take a Hike
Picture the peaceful calm you’ve felt when lounging on the beach listening to the waves. Think of the serenity you’ve experienced watching river water slowly flow by. Imagine the tranquil sensations you’ve had while walking in the woods as the sun shines through the canopy. Feel the ground beneath your feet.
Those feelings are all built into you naturally. Communicating with nature reduces stress, as does drinking Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi, Holy Basil) tea to help reduce cortisol. In fact, drinking Tulsi tea before you go outside can help you manage stress levels even before you head out to find some green.
And remember – your mind will thank you when you take time to connect with Mother Nature. Even a stroll through your local park for 15 minutes can be a natural stress reliever. It can be enough to lower your stress levels and improve your overall health.