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Are you an aspiring leader who knows you have more to offer, but you can't seem to get ahead? Do you frequently feel overwhelmed and undersupported, listen to the overcome to become podcast. As we talk about actionable tasks and mindsets that you can apply to begin leading yourself. Hi, my name is Angela Buckley, your host and author of the Strength in Nature Leadership series. I'm a mother, consultant, triathlete and author and overcome to become. I share with you the science fact and experience proven lessons.
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I've learned in my own leadership journey to beat burnout. Thanks for listening.
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Hi everybody. Welcome back to the fifth episode of the second season of overcome to become. My name is Angela Buckley. I am a mother, triathlete, aspiring PhD student, and the author of Strength in Nature's Leadership Series, and today it's one of my absolute favorite topics. We're here to talk about spending time in the woods and how spending time in nature can help you reduce your cortisol level your overall stress and.
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Why we want to do that? So you know, when we're talking about overcome to become and looking at leadership skills, one of the things that we want to do is reduce our personal stress levels so that we are better able to serve the people that are around us. And the way we're going to talk about doing that today is being out in nature.
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Today's episode is brought to us by the ambassadorship that I have with just strong. Just strong is a clothing line dedicated to promoting women. If you're looking for athletic wear that's reasonably priced, comfortable, and empowering, then checked out check out just strong. Not just strong for a girl, just strong. You can find them at www.juststrong.com. That's J-U-S-T-S-T-R-O-N-G.com as always, you can find the links in my show notes and now my speaker website. Also there is a coupon code just for you, then you can use that when you're checking out. It is ANGBUC110, So AngBuc110 and use that when you're checking out for a little extra discount. I appreciate your support. I wear their clothes all the time when I'm out hiking, so I hope you enjoy them as well.
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Time in the woods, what does the science tell us and why? So there have been some fantastic researchers in Japan and they have a culture of forest bathing and that really is exactly what it sounds like. It is all about getting out in nature, getting away from city sounds and using this as a part of self-care, health and healing.
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So some researchers said, OK, great, that sounds very wonderful, but why and what and how do we do it? And how much is too much, as in it's no longer bringing benefit and how much is the minimum that you need? So they did a series of studies.
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Primarily men that were involved in the studies, but they had to be people who were willing to donate blood samples on a regular basis.
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And um.
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These individuals went through effectively what would be a design of experiment. And so they looked at the amount of time that they would spend outdoors. Then they looked at the amount of time they spent in nature outdoors. And then they also looked at if you can't get outside, if you just looked at nature. And they stacked up these types of variables and what they found was.
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That if you are outdoors and you are walking and moving um, your maximum benefits started to taper off at about 20 minutes, so there was reduced cortisol. So your stress hormone in the blood if you walked for 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 20 minutes and after 20 minutes that cortisol level did not significantly drop anymore.
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Then they took another look at if they were walking in city and urban landscape or in natural landscapes. When they looked at people that were taking walks in natural landscapes, they saw an even greater reduction of that stress hormone in the in their blood.
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So they thought this was an interesting thing and not everybody is able to get outdoors all the time. And sometimes, let's be honest, the weather is maybe not so enticing. And so they said fine, but what happens if you just look at nature?
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And so they created green scenes and green spaces and they saw a reduction in cortisol as well. Now the reduction was not as great as when you were walking in nature and the same reduction, the same timeline for the reduction occurred as well. At about 20 minutes, they sort of saw the maximum benefit. That's not to say that there aren't other types of benefits that your body would be going, but for specifically what they were looking for which is cortisol reduction.
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When they were looking, they saw a tapering, a significant tapering at that 20 minute mark. So what do we want to understand for us, the busy people, those of us who have responsibilities at work, those of us who have responsibilities with our children, with care, with day-to-day.
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Really, self-care looks like this. Intentional, repeated and Short term, it does not have to be the endurance athlete. 2 hours running. Of course I like it. That's what I do for fun. But that is not what we're talking about. We're talking about how to reduce stress levels and really focus on self-care so that we can get on to maximizing our leadership skills. And that is that really tapers off. When you're talking about bang for your buck at about 20 minutes, what can you do in 20 minutes?
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Walk the dog. Take your neighbor for a walk. Walk peacefully and reflect on your day. I find that frequently. Thankfully, I have a dog that walks well and listens to me, so I'm able to ponder my day as I take my walk.
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And he demands it. He needs that to happen daily. So this works out well for us, right? But 20 minutes is all the more that we need when we're talking about reducing our stress levels. So that's all I have for you today. It is my absolute favorite, but I think you hear me talk about it on a regular basis.
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When you can get outside. When you can get outside into a green naturescape. And if you can't do that, make sure that you create a scene in your home where you can help yourself reduce those cortisol levels and those stress fight or flight type hormones by having nature in your house, so or in your home and in your office. Thank you so much for listening. I look forward to talking to you again next week. Take a look at the show notes you can find.
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More great resources there as well. And if you feel so moved, I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a second or two swing over to where you love to listen to your podcasts and rate us on A5 scale stars. So thank you so much. Talk to you soon. Have a great weekend.
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You've just concluded an episode of Overcome to Become, a leadership podcast focusing on leading yourself first. Thanks for listening. I'm Angela Buckley with creatively efficient author of the Strength in Nature Leadership series. To learn more about mindsets and leadership, follow me on Instagram @creativelyefficient.
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