Resources: Nature Heals

American Psychological Association: Nurtured by Nature

Climate for Health: Restoring Nature = Restoring Ourselves

National Wildlife Federation: The Dirt on Dirt: How Getting Dirty Outdoors Benefits Kids

University of Maryland: 10 Minutes in Nature Has Measurable Impacts on Mental Health

OPB: How the smells of nature can affect human well-being

BBC Sky at Night Magazine: Stargazing and mental health

Michigan State University: Green exercise can improve physical and mental health

Society of American Florists: The emotional impact of flowers study

Pew’s Trend Magazine: Nature: A Key Ingredient for Mental Health

CBS News: How nature can be therapy for kids

The Guardian: Blue spaces and happiness

Berkley News: Nature is proving to be awesome medicine for PTSD

Audubon Society: Birding with Benefits

NPR: ‘Black Nature:’ Poems of Promise & Survival

Healthline: Ecotherapy and the Healing Power of Nature

Outside: How nature helped me recover from an eating disorder

Research articles:

Cultivating Reciprocity – the Nature and Health Challenge

American College of Lifestyle Medicine: Lifestyle Medicine Prescriptions for Personal and Planetary Health

Nature-based interventions for physical health conditions: a systemic review and meta-analysis (Struthers et al, 2024)

Physiological benefits of viewing nature (Jo et al, 2019)

Nature Exposure, Even as Little as 10 Minutes, is Likely to Yield Short-Term Benefits for Adults with Mental Illness: A Meta Analysis (Bettmann et al, 2024)

Physical activity in natural settings: an opportunity for lifestyle medicine (Maddock et al, 2024)

The benefits of nearby nature in cities for older adults – Nature Sacred

The connectedness to nature scale: A measure of individuals’ feeling in community with nature

Daily exposure to virtual nature reduces symptoms of anxiety in college students (Browning et al, 2023)

National Library of Medicine: Ecotherapy – A Forgotten Ecosystem Service: A Review

University of Washington: Health benefits of contact with nature

Outdoor daylight exposure and well-being (Korman et al, 2021)

Noticing nature: Individual and social benefits of a two-week intervention (Passmore & Holder, 2016)

The effect of nature sounds (Van Hedger et al, 2019)

Multisensory, nature-based recharge rooms (Putrino et al, 2020)

Hope, health, and the climate crisis (Frumkin, 2022)

View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery (Ulrich, 1984)