If your idea of a nature walk is crossing your lawn to take out the garbage, you may want to start spending more time outdoors. Research from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry touted the benefits of exercising outside: it's associated with "greater feelings of revitalization, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression."
And you don't even have to exercise intensely. Several studies on the Japanese concept "shinrin-yoku" (rough translation: "take a walk in the woods" or "forest bathing") showed that just being in forest environments results in lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, a slower pulse and lower blood pressure.
