How Nature Heals Your Body And Restores Your Mind

You can experience the therapeutic power of the natural environment

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

We encounter many stressors in daily life and engage in higher-order tasks that require our directed attention.

Directed attention is focus and mental energy invested into a specific task to get it done. For instance, like writing this article, completing an assignment, or having to rush a big proposal.

Working on such activities requires focus and a lot of mental energy. You’ll have to ignore distractions and get the job done.

However, over a long period of time, you can start to feel stressed and tired.

The reason this happens is that our cognitive resources deplete in the course of making decisions and carrying out tasks.

When your mental energy drops, you can’t concentrate and you become less efficient. You’re no longer in the right mental capacity to make decisions and do your best work.

Think of the last time you were stressed out and felt you didn’t have the energy to do anything more. If you wanted to read, you were cocksure it wasn’t going to enter your brain.

I have. And that’s why taking breaks is so critical. But, it’s not just any break — it’s taking a break…