Forests play a crucial role in our environment and being outside certainly makes us feel so much better. As well as lifting our mood there are many benefits of forest exploration for our health and wellbeing. There is a certain draw to us to spend time outdoors and forests are one of my favourite places. Below I’m sharing five of these benefits of forests and how they benefit on our health.
Improves our mental health
There is scientific evidence that proves that exposure to forests are good for our mental health. Being out in the forest can improve our stress levels, improve fatigue and our overall mood. I definitely feel more relaxed whilst amongst the trees and listening to nature. There is definitely a sort of peace I feel in forests that I don’t feel anywhere else.
Benefits physical health
As well as benefiting our mental health forests benefit our physical health too. Forest visits help to strengthen our immune system and of course a benefit of forest exploring is physical exercise from walking and other physical activities such as climbing, jumping and cycling.
Provides us with oxygen
Trees provide us with oxygen for our lungs and is one of the important benefits. When they make glucose from sunlight, trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
Trees help mitigate the effects of climate change
As mentioned above trees provide us with oxygen however forests also absorb carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a odourless and colourless gas found in the atmosphere. Absorbing this gas means that forests help less carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere. How this is done is during photosynthesis the gases are absorbed and stored in wood, leaves and the soil.
Helps with learning
Forests are great for children as they learn better from doing. Forests are a great way for children and adults to learn new skills which are valuable examples include practical skills such as building dens and lighting fires as well as problem solving and resilience.
Author of this guest post
This article was written by a guest author Joanna Victoria who is a popular parenting and lifestyle blogger in the UK.
Forests are wonderful areas for a refreshing and reviving walk with pets and family.