The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives.
Getting outside may help your child’s happiness.
Do you find that you tend to be in a better mood when the sun is shining, when you are walking through a park, or when you are by a creek and hear birds chirping away in the background? There is a reason for this.
A new study found that exposure to nature is linked with not only higher momentary happiness, but also prolonged happiness afterwards, which shows lasting benefits of being with nature.
The implications of this are great for us, as I already find that taking a walk generally helps calm me down if I am stressed or anxious. The researchers behind the study are not saying that we now have to go live deep in a forest, but that we may feel benefits from living in urban or city areas that include elements of nature.
Some things you can do if you don’t have immediate access to a park or river:
- Go cloud watching.
- Open a window in your house.
- Take a short walk around the block.
Read a summary of the study here, or take a look at the full academic paper here!
Do you find your child’s mood is better after they’ve spent time outside? How do you motivate them to get outdoors? What do you and your family do in the colder months when it is harder to get outside? We’d love to hear from you in the Comments section!