You may be familiar with the term “green spaces,” referring to places within urban environments filled with vegetation, including potted plants, trees, landscaped walkways, and grass growing on roofs. Spending time in green spaces has been shown to reduce stress, uplift spirits, and improve overall mood.
If you happen to live near wooded areas or forests, you know how magical even ten minutes among the trees can be.
Similar mood enhancers can be gleaned from spending time in “blue spaces” which sound like what they are: places with water. Rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans all count. So do city fountains and landscaping with water features.
We humans are wired to respond well to these kinds of places. Too many of us don’t get enough time in them for a million different reasons.
Recent world events including Rob and Michelle Reiner’s murder; the shootings in Australia on the first day of Hannukah; and the shooting at Brown University — on top of the relentless holiday pressures that come with this time of year — has many of us carrying extra emotional, mental, and spiritual weight.
I won’t make the writing portion of this week’s post long. My video carries my message. But I will remind you of some simple truths worth keeping top of mind as another year comes to a close:
-No matter where you live, chances are excellent that you are never far from a green or blue space. Double points if you can get the two together.
-You don’t have to venture for hours to reap the benefits a change of scene can give you. Even ten minutes is enough to change your physiology for the better.
-If you have at least one person on your contact list in your phone, you have at least one person you can reach out to via text or a call to let them know you’re thinking about them and that they matter.
-And you can always reach out to me here, responding directly to this post, even if it’s just to say a quick hello.
More than ever, we need each other to move toward and build a better tomorrow that involves more time in more blue and green spaces, not to mention with each other in real life. A new year is soon to commence, and with it the promise of brightness and lightness that will do us all good.
Until then, see about finding a green or blue space this week and make a point of spending some time in it.
