Nature Nutures the Mind

Want to work against stressors during a busy work day? Many recent studies on job satisfaction reveal that workers spending more and more time in office environments, often under artificial light in offices in offices or cubicles with no outside view, report reduced job satisfaction and increased stress levels. Nature can make a difference even if you work in a cubicle.

Here are strategies for starters...

Get some sunshine: Take a walk outside during your lunch hour. Sunlight stimulates serotonin production, which enhances your mood and ability to sleep. Try setting your clock an hour early and enjoy the first light of day and the vibrance of dew coated leaves and blossoms. Catch more sun daily, and you'll enhance melatonin levels and find you fall asleep and stay asleep at night. You'll get even more benefits since the vitamin D we get from sun exposure [as we use sunscreen] enhances immune function, reduces hypertension and possibly plays a role in preventing cancer.

Select new plants for your office: If you begin by choosing plants that appeal to you, you'll want to care for them. Believe it or not, you can make as much connection to a plant as you would to an animal. Plants can work similarly to pets as they thrive under nurture, lower stress and "aloneness," and even help extend longevity, Kim Mickenberg, intern at Psychology Today finds.

While some folks prefer violets, which love light, others might choose a peace plant which produces showy blossoms and at the same time thrives where there isn't sunlight. And, it you want to go for class, raising orchids in your office might prove more stimulating.

Take Time to Look Outside Though many workers spend days, months, and years working in cubicles without a view, taking time to look outside's a benefit. Pausing to view nature, helps folks to refocus attention and brings more calm. "When you can't get outside, bring nature in to you," advises Kim Mickenberg, in the August (2008) issue of Psychology Today. Why not plan mini-breaks to drink in the green or reds, and yellows or even white, depending on the season? It enhances your day and your mood. Even better, plan to go outside on your lunch break!

Green Plants Improve Workers' Quality of Life When surveyed about their overall quality of life, Dr.Tina Marie (Waliczek) Cade, Associate Professor of Horticulture at Texas State University, reveals that employees with interior plants in their offices tended to consider themselves happier or more content when compared to employees without plants in their offices. Additionally, the group of employees that did not have either live plants or windows was the only group that stated they were "dissatisfied" with their quality of life.

What about nature after work? Some people make their homes a real natural haven following work. For instance, Dr. Ellen Weber, busy CEO of the MITA International Brain Based Center, recently built a Koi Pond. She discovered...

"To create a koi pond is to discover new life in art and science - embedded in the gentle movement of fish, muted colors of nature's best, and the wonder of waking up to water rushing over rocks at dawn. A koi pond mixes magic moments found in nature, in fish and in humans. How could I have waited so long to build one?"

How does nature nuture you at work or after work?