Going Home

Did you know spending time with nature lowers your heart rate, blood pressure, and levels of stress hormones?

Another way of thinking about this is spending time in unnatural environments creates a chronic state characterized by an unnaturally elevated heart rate, an unnaturally elevated blood pressure, and unnaturally elevated levels of stress hormones.

In unnatural environments, your body be like, “What the f***? Where’s all the trees and lakes and s***?”

It’s stressful, and your body responds accordingly by activating your sympathetic nervous system.

All animals, including we humans, have evolved inextricably linked with nature.

Until very recently, nature has undeniably been our home.

These days, most people spend most of their time in sheetrock shells filled with plastic stuff connected by asphalt roads and shiny metal boxes with wheels.

That’s why putting your feet into some grass or a babbling brook feels like heaven.

Every cell in your body, every fiber of your being, does a huge relaxing sigh.

Because spending time with nature is going home.

How could you spend more time with nature?

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.