Rainy Days

It's early morning and I'm listening to the soothing sound of rain thrumming on the tin roof. The birds are chirping happy sounds, I look out to a sea of green fecundity. Natural life is abounding, trees seem to grow half a metre per day. I'm in the suburbs and yet I hear no urban sounds, I feel at peace.

I've been reading an article on PositivePsychology.com site about The Positive Effects of Nature on your Mental Wellbeing. In it, Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury, cites research to highlight the human connection to nature, both being in natural settings and looking at images of nature. This excerpt helps explain why Mindsettle is effective:

A large-scale experiment conducted on 120 subjects ascertained the ‘nature-connection’ in stress reduction and coping. Each participant observed visuals of either a natural landscape or an urban environment. The data obtained from this survey revealed that participants who looked at the picture of natural setting had low scores on stress scales and had better heartbeat and pulse counts.

Furthermore, investigators also found that the stress recovery rate was much higher in participants who got a natural exposure than the ones who saw urbanized ambiances. The flow of this study strongly indicated the role nature plays in improving our general mental health conditions including stress (Ulrich et al., 1991).

It's easy to test these theories for yourself, on a day when you're feeling sub-optimal go for a walk in the bush or parklands or simply sit by a body of water and notice if you feel calmer afterwards. It works for me, this morning I woke with a headache and now it is gone.