I wish lived near something green! I can totally feel how “off” I am by living in the concrete jungle. Guess I need to buy a bunch of pictures for my office

I love this article, thanks!!! I need this reminder to get outside for a walk at the park every day – and now I know I have time to get the benefits. Thanks so much

i am heading out of town this weekend to my family's farm.. after reading this article, i am even more looking forward to spending some time out of the office and in the sunshine.
i wonder if you can store up your 5 mins? lol. this weekend, ill get hours of sun and “green” entertainment, but then I am back in the office next week…will my extra time this weekend keep me calm for the rest of the week? lol..i will let you all know..

Buy some plants! It will help to see them grow and they require your love and attention. Adding a water feature and surrounding it with even some small plants can really create a soothing environment at home or work!

I got ready this morning meaning I dressed, combed hair and made my face for the day. I couldn't eat was was blah. Then I said I would like to walk around the apartments. I just moved from a house in Colorado to an apartment in Georgia. It is beautiful here and I walked around and then went down and around a couple of streets. I came home and had a good breadfast that was good. You hit the nail on the head when you created this article. I don't know if I can do only 5 minutes.

>>I am curious; does anyone already have a 5 minute-a-day nature practice?

I do now ! Thanks for this article, and I love this blog.

Do you remember the scene in “Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts teaches Richard Gere to take his shoes off and walk in the grass? I recently switched from my daily walk in the concrete jungle to actually removing my shoes and walking in a local park (that does not use pesticides). It is so refreshing and invigorating. I feel grounded and I also feel it is a natural exerciser for the feet, kind of a natural reflexology that benefits the whole body!

I walk my dog, mornings & evenings, around the Island where we live, or even in town(s) when not home. It's great for the dog, obviously, but even better for me & my mood. Getting even 5 minutes brisk walk in the fresh air sure beats a treadmill anywhere else.

would that emulation include using a computer to blog on the internet? Luddism is symptom level effort, not solution……

I have always felt more – clear-headed, connected, grounded – after walking outside. I live near a lake, so I walk there. But I always felt I had to explain why (and of course couldn't) – or defend it – since I live in a city after all. I love that there's science explaining why this works. And that 5 minutes is all it takes! I think growing and tending houseplants helps too. For me, science-lover that I am, having the science behind it just inspires me to make sure I make time for nature. Awesome post. Especially useful in today's stressful times – with the economy and job market challenges. This takes little time and it's free!

LOL! No, . . I'm not a Luddite or belong to Green Peace or to that violent, usually demented group proporting to be fighting for animal rights. What I am saying is that as a group, humans have become out of balance with nature, and along with that imbalance, are now suffering all sorts of ailments that are unnecessary. As for social websites, I still don't “get it” since email exists and figure those evolved because people are now physically antisocial since they are glued to their technology be it their computer or iPod, etc. I hadn't thought about this being a Blog until you mentioned it. But now that you have, maybe I'll just continue reading the excellent reports I receive from these people instead of expressing an opinion. Thanks for the heads up on that one.

Or you could do what I did, which is to buy a Toyota Prius Hybrid that gets 50 MPG so it doesn't cost me much to drive out to the country, where the world is beautiful. And the tailpipe doesn't pollute our wonderful planet, as much as a conventional car.

Thirty-six years' ago, whilst sitting in my high school classroom, I wrote a poem about how I felt being in a concrete jungle and looking out the window on yet some more walls of dull, lifelessness. At that age I had pin-pointed what my soul-food was. Apart from a couple of years after I was first married (and everything was new and wonderful and nothing else much mattered [my husband was a surfaholic, so I got plenty of exposure over weekends to the sense-tingling, 'can't quite get enough of' salt air, gentle breezes and the warmth, often through a car window as I sat and read while he was catching that 'just one more wave..']), I've always lived in suburban areas abounding in greenery, the blue sky – just had to walk out the front door, or sight it quite often through a home window – and of course, lots of shrubbery, trees and flowers. And, on a summer's night – or into the early hours of the morning – my utmost soul's delight was to be in the pool, in the quiet of the hour, gazing up at the stars. I've lost that now – recently had to down-size to something more affordable. I geared myself to the change, adapted my mindset to a positive one……BUT, feel (and know it) I've made the worst mistake of my life. I have medical problems (serious back issues) so can't get out and about easily or with a bearable degree of pain, so having my choice and dosage of 'medicine' is important to me. And since moving, I've acknowledged what I knew in my heart of hearts – I'm addicted to that 'medicine' and can't go without it – nor do I want to tho', unfortunately there's very little I can do about it now. At my last home, the numerous windows and sliding glass doors afforded me such a soothing, relaxing, peaceful view from practically just about everywhere in my home – for example, a section of the pool and greenery was captured in the floor-to-ceiling kitchen window. Even a portion of sky was framed. Most days I would take my lunch outside to eat and have more of this beautiful scenery. Often there'd be a CD of my choice for right then, playing whilst I ate and savoured my surroundings – AND the music. The simple sandwich even tasted better. Now that I've moved I don't have all that. I do have a small 'patio' with a pergola which blocks out both the sky and the warmth of the winter sun on my back. My healthy 'feeding time' routine has disintegrated and I no longer get the nutritious body or soul food that I need. I won't go into detail about why various other means of getting my delicious daily dose don't work for me but believe me, being without them, makes a world of difference to my mental, emotional and physiological health. I was quite stunned recently when talking with a social worker to hear her say, “Would you rather be financially secure (the move didn't actually do that, it just made me temporarily more 'secure for a relatively short period) or have a pool?” It was not the 'having' of the pool that was the issue; it was the pleasure – the tranquility, serenity – the filled my soul and worked as a far better medicine than a load of pain killers or anti-depressants. It really bothered me that after an hour's conversation, during which I was describing my best ways of staving off the blues, she would come up with a question like that – and this from a social worker!

So, to get back to the question, yes, I DID have that 5/30 min. a day practice (amongst several others, which were the decorations, if you like, to the building and scenery) – and it benefited me greatly. Since that has gone it is as if my whole existence has gone haywire.

I have always wondered why sitting in my garden always made me feel so much happier and at peace even when I only stayed 5 or 10 minutes. Even when my husband left me, I used to spend nights on a garden chair in the summer and it was the only place I could find some solace.
Now even just looking at the garden and picking a dead head here, a weed there makes me feel so great. I even have food for the birds and when I sit in the backroom not only I see greenery and flowers , I can now witness the birds feeding and singing….. in all of that in the middle of Croydon! Coming from Paris, my first fantastic memory when I arrived in the UK, is to have a small backgarden which I shared with other tenants where I could hear the birds sing in the morning. It was something I had never heard and it was magical.
I would also agree that being displaced from our natural habitat is not good. My father was a country man and when he married my mother they lived in Paris. His mental and physical health suffered so much as he could not deal with the stress and he ended up having a nervous breakdown. All those years later, I thought that leaving the country had had a major impact on him and this article confirmed my instincts.
I for one now, at 52, yearn to leave the city and go to live on the Isle of Wight where I can have the best of both worlds, the sea and the countryside….. Can't wait. Meanwhile I will carry on using my garden as a way to feel good.