Get Outside: How Nature Can Boost Your Health & Creativity

Originally published on JOTFORM.COM Your brain needs a break. If you’re like the average adult, you probably spend about six hours a day with digital media. That’s close to half your waking hours. Aside from its many mental health consequences , excessive screen time can also affect our creative lives, hampering our attention span and our ability to form new ideas. Overstimulated by a constant influx of voices and opinions, our distracted minds don’t have any free space to wander, which means even though we’re more connected than ever, we’re also less present and less inspired. For those who don’t need the internet in their back pockets, minimalist “dumb phones” — cellular devices that can only make calls and send texts — may prevent time wasted on mindless scrolling. But exchanging one screen for another doesn’t automatically solve the problem. While the advent of the “dumb phone” might keep you from checking Facebook every 20 minutes, it won’t make up for what you’re missing: real connection with the physical world. One solution for curbing distraction and re-establishing presence? Exchanging your Mac screen for some quality time in nature. If you’re always answering emails or running from meeting to meeting, you might feel productive — but chances are, you’re more anxious and less effective in your work and relationships. The problem is, stress and worry (and, often, our smartphones) keep us focused on either the future or past. Yet inspiration and connection happen in the present moment, away from our screens and conference rooms. Re-orienting ourselves with the physical world — a form of mindfulness called grounding — is the first step back toward the present. Basically, grounding re-establishes our embodied presence through touch, smell, taste, sound, and sight. The good news is, to reap the benefits of mindful grounding, […]

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