Nature: Good as Gold

Along our trail

          "The year was in its yellowing time, and the face of Nature a study in old gold."
                                                                                                                  Grahame

 I was watching an episode of The Nature of Things with David Suzuki and one section of the show tweaked my interest.  It talked about studies at the Japanese Society for Forest Medicine that are proving time spent in the outdoors, what they term 'forest bathing', is medicinally good for your body.
 It seems a little strange that we would have to be told this.  I think of the tuberculosis patients fifty years ago who were sent to the country side and made to spend a portion of each day outside in the fresh air as part of their treatment.  I hadn't known that fresh air had so fallen out of favour as a good thing that now we need studies and such to prove its usefulness as a tonic.  But I guess I can see why when I think of how the urban areas have grown and how little time people and children today are really spending out doors.  With such busy lives, it is mostly a run from the house to the car for many.
Anyway, the work in Japan proves scientifically that spending as little as ten minutes a day in a nature setting can lower your cortisol levels and help boost the all important immune system.
This is good news for us country folk.  I spend time every day outside usually walking around the property, sometimes just meandering with my camera, but often  trying to get a little exercise in.
Now if only it would help with insomnia.