10: Reconnecting with Nature for Health and Happiness

Michael Kummer: You're listening to the Primal Shift Podcast. I'm your host Michael Kummer and my goal is to help you achieve optimal health by bridging the gap between ancestral living and the demands of modern society. Get ready to unlock the transformative power of nature as the ultimate biohack, revolutionizing your health and reconnecting you with your primal self.

Alright, welcome back to another episode. In today's episode I want to talk about something that I think is grossly overlooked and I'm gonna, I'm using the word of another study actually that talked about some of the things we'll discuss in this episode and that is reconnecting with nature, connecting with nature for our health and well being.

You know, humans have been an integral part of nature, one and one with nature. For millions of years, we've been out exposed to the elements, you know, walking around barefoot, I guess, for the longest time and being part of nature, being directly exposed and being an integral part of our environment. In our modern lives, that's no longer the case.

You know, we sit in. homes that are climate controlled, that off gas, that, you know, expose us to VOCs and EMFs and artificial light and that shield us from natural sunlight and from the heat and the cold and the rain and all of those things. And that has a profound impact on our health. And so in today's episode.

I'm going to talk about the top 13 ways that I've discovered, I'm sure there are more, on how you can reconnect with nature or connect in the first place and why those things have a positive impact on our health. There are even some studies that I'm going to point out that very clearly show that by implementing those ways or methods you can significantly improve your health and speed up the healing both from a mental as well as from a physical perspective.

In fact, there are over 100 studies. that show that being in nature, living near nature, or even just looking at nature, viewing nature in a picture or in a video, has a profound impact on our brains and our body and our feelings and our thought processes and social interactions. So very important to be as close to nature as you possibly can, of course, without giving up, you know, all of the benefits of having a modern life.

That's what the podcast is all about, to connect those two elements in a way. That makes sense and that's sustainable. In fact, there is, there is one particular study that, that I came across just the other day when doing research for this episode and it called out one of the methods that I'll talk about as a grossly overlooked factor in health and healing.

And that's quite an, a profound way of expressing things because studies are usually scientific, studies are usually more, you know, neutral and don't try to make things look worse or better than they actually are. And so let's jump right into those 13 methods. They are not sorted or based on a certain priority.

They are just based on how they popped into my head. And the first few in particular, I think you might not be familiar with, or you might've heard the name, but you don't really know what's going on. And so don't worry about it. I'll explain it. So let's start with number one. grounding, or earthing. And I've heard this term not too long ago, maybe a few years ago, and I'm like, you know, I don't really understand what that means and why that would make any difference, but if you think about it, you know, many of the processes in our body, they happen by cells, or by molecules, I should say, exchanging electrons.

You know, that's flow of electricity, microcurrents, of course. And that happens everywhere in nature, and in particular in our body. And that energy can flow, you know, from the ground, through your body, and back into the ground. And you can actually measure it. If you have a voltmeter that can measure micro currents, you can actually measure the amount of energy, if you stand barefoot on a patch of grass, how much energy is flowing through your body.

And unfortunately, you know, with modern footwear, you know, with pretty much all footwear, you know, we prevent that flow of energy from happening. And up until recently, there wasn't really any good understanding of whether or not that impacts our health. I think for the most part, nobody ever thought that wearing shoes could potentially and negatively impact our health.

However, studies have shown by practicing grounding or earthing, meaning by just walking barefoot on soil, on a patch of grass, on dirt, it can reduce inflammation, it can lower stress, it can improve blood flow, lower blood pressure, and improve sleep. You know, and I'm going to link some of those studies in the show notes.

There are studies that point out by just walking barefoot a couple of minutes every day, you can significantly improve your health and well being, and it doesn't cost you anything, except for a few minutes of your time. So that's actually the one method that a study called out as a grossly overlooked factor.

So if nothing else, you know, take your shoes off, take your socks off, and just walk barefoot every day if you can. It's free, it doesn't cost you anything, and it can significantly improve all of the factors I mentioned, including your sleep, which is one of the major issues that most people deal with.

Number two. is forest bathing and that's something I actually heard in the news in an Austrian news channel a couple of years ago and I'm like what on earth is forest bathing and it simply means being in a forest for extended periods for a couple of hours maybe a day. and doing nothing else by just being there, being in that environment, being in a forest.

And studies have also shown that it can have tremendous impact on your mental health and in particular in people with severe depression. You know, if you think about it, you know, if people that are severely depressed, they put them into the forest for a day and they come out and they feel significantly better.

And that feeling better actually lasts for quite some time. It's not just a, an effect that, that works in the moment or something that happens in the moment. No, by doing this, you can actually positively improve the symptoms of depression for extended periods. And that's really impressive. And some of the reasons why that is, is because being in an environment that's conducive to our genetics, to our way of evolving.

Regulates your, your hormone levels, including your stress hormone, cortisol, as well as upregulating some of the hormones that make you happy, like serotonin. It can also balance your nervous system. You know, as I've we've talked about in the stress episode, there is always that constant battle between your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

And by being in the forest, by forest bathing, so to say. you can positively influence that balance in favor of your parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers your resting heart rate, which increases your HRV, your heart variability, all signs that you're less stressed and less anxious. And so that's one of the things you can, you can easily do if you have a forest nearby, just go outside and spend some time in the forest.

And even if you don't want to spend the entire day, I mean, I usually don't have time to do that, but I spent time in a forest almost every day. by just walking, in our case, the dog, you know, once or twice a day for at least 45 minutes per walk. I am in the forest and when I'm there, I try to do one of two things and that is, I think, very important.

Engage your senses, you know, when you're out there in the forest, don't be on your phone and, you know, be distracted, but try to be present by paying attention to what you smell. What you hear, what you see, what you can observe, what you feel, maybe when the, you know, a breeze of wind is, you know, touching your skin or hitting your skin.

Pay attention to all of your senses and how that feels and how that makes you feel. And I've noticed by doing that, just by the fact of being present, by paying attention to my senses, I come out the other end, quite literally, and feel significantly better and less stressed. In other cases where I'm not necessarily present to the environment, I'm present to my thoughts.

I use that walk in the forest to sort my thoughts and to kind of, you know, take stock of how I feel. Why I feel a certain way, what caused me to feel a certain way. And the same, you know, why does my wife feel a certain way or the kids, you know, if they're acting out or if we have an argument or whatever the case might be.

Really try to, to understand what is happening and use the time to take stock and to reflect. And that's has a, that has had a very positive impact. On my, especially, mental health and well being. Number four, expose yourself to soil. And, you know, that comes, you know, if you have a garden or if you have livestock or whatever, you naturally do that.

But by exposing yourself to soil, to dirt at the end of the day, you impact in a positive way. your immune system. In fact, you kind of stress your immune system with maybe pathogens, with bacteria, with fungi, with, you know, microbes you might, your body might not be familiar with that are in the soil, but by doing so, it's kind of like a hermetic stressor.

It makes your immune system more robust and more capable of dealing with them. other pathogens that you might come across, you know, down the line. And that's really one of the reasons why farm kids are generally healthier and less sick than their city cousins. And that's all because of soil microbes. By being exposed to pathogens in slow, in low amounts, that can make your immune system more robust.

And that's just one of the ways of how nature can literally improve your health and reduce the risk of you getting sick. Fresh air is another no brainer and obviously some of those factors overlap. If you go, you know, into the forest, if you spend time in the forest, if you take a walk or whatever, you're naturally exposed to fresh air unless you're walking next to a street.

And one of the advantages of doing that is that the air in our homes is usually not incredibly healthy, you know, everything that we own, for the most part, furniture, wall paint, all of those things, off gas, VOCs, volatile organic compounds, you know, there might be mold that you haven't even realized yet, I mean, there is mold in every house to varying degrees, the question is, you know, is it enough to harm you or not, but there are so many toxins, that make the air that we breathe in our homes less than ideal.

And by being outside as much as you can, you significantly increase your exposure to better air. And that obviously has an impact on your health and wellbeing, especially if you suffer from asthma or some other, you know, respiratory infections or, you know, autoimmune type of conditions, which might be made worse or triggered by mold and.

and VOCs and some of those other things that we are exposed to on a daily basis. Number six, sunshine. Also, very much a no brainer. You know, our body responds positively to sun exposure. For example, if the sunlight heats our skin, then our brains release serotonin, the feel good hormone, or one of the feel good hormones.

So just being out in the sun and exposing your skin to natural sunlight without wearing, you know, sunscreen or anything else. You feel happier. Your body has better capability of producing certain hormones that require sunlight like vitamin D or even testosterone in man, you know, in particularly, in particular in men.

If you have low testosterone, you know, you might be just lacking sunlight, you know, among some of the other reasons we've discussed in the environmental toxins episode. But being out in the sun has a positive impact on your mental health and on your physical health. And so that's also one of the things, it's mostly for free.

And the funny thing is, some of those Benefits of sunlight even work when it's cloudy, you know, for example, the release of serotonin and making your skin more resilient to UV radiation even work to a lesser degree, of course, when it's cloudy outside. So there is no reason not to go outside and expose your naked skin, as much of your naked skin as possible, to sunlights.

Number seven, it just actually happened this morning, expose yourself to the elements. You know, one of my favorite ways. that I remember from childhood was to get out when it's raining when it's pouring down to just get out and let that rain soak me until I'm you know five pounds heavier because of all of the water and I just did this the other day and I did it today again to a lesser degree you know it was raining it was pouring and I knew I had to walk the dog so I'm like you know what let's take this opportunity and let's get soaked so I just wore a shirt you know because it was kind of chilly and I walked the dog for 45 minutes and it was pouring down and I was soaking wet, so was the dog, um, by the way, and the interesting part about that is that that rain offers tactile stimulation on your skin.

You suddenly feel stuff that you, that you might not have felt in a long time. You know, it's, it's almost like, you know, using, I use some of those tactile stimulation devices to downregulate or to balance my nervous system when I'm stressed and I get a similar effect when I'm out in the rain, you know, all those raindrops on my skin, on my body, you know, the, the chilling effect of the rain, even if it's usually, I mean, right now it's summer in Georgia, it's super hot, it's steamy, it's humid, but when it rains, it significantly cools down and I even got the chills the other day, even if we had still had I think it was like 25 degrees Celsius or so outside, so it was still very warm, but the rain just changed my perception of the heat, the tactile stimulation, I got like goosebumps running down my neck, I'm sure you had that feeling when you're either super happy or, you know, sometimes when you're, I don't know, scared, you might have that too.

But I specifically noticed that When I get overly excited, positively excited, I get those goosebumps, you know, and I had that effect when I was walking in the rain and, you know, just being drenched and it felt so good. I came back, I was happy. I was, it was just great. And it's something, again, you can do for free.

And, uh, you know, I challenge you. When was the last time you went outside when it was raining, pouring? And you didn't, you know, bring an umbrella or a raincoat and you just let it happen. I highly recommend you try that out and assess how you feel after. I can promise you, you're going to feel great. Tip number eight, you know, just to take your lunch, dinner, breakfast, whatever you have.

Outside, if you have a backyard, you know, we've started doing this, especially in spring when the temperatures rose enough, we just had all of our meals outside. And yeah, sometimes it's hot, sometimes there might be mosquitoes and sometimes there might be flies and whatever the case might be. But just being outside, a change of scenery, you know, being able to listen to the birds, to see the bees fly by, to observe all of those things.

So again, you know, engage your senses while you're eating, being more present to what you do. is, is just such an impactful way of reconnecting with nature that doesn't cost you anything and you'll probably go back up, upside, uh, inside and you'll feel happier than you were before. It has such a positive impact on your mental health which also drives your physical health and of course vice versa.

Number nine, make outdoor activities part of your regular routine. We had a time before we got all of the livestock, I think at the time we only had the bees, but we didn't have chickens yet or rabbits yet, and we struggled with our kids spending enough time outside. I got really frustrated because every day I would go outside, you know, no shirt, barefoot, you know, get exposed to the sun.

Ground, you know, do all of the things that I strongly believe are important for our health and well being. And the kids would rather play Lego on the inside. And there is nothing against Legos. You know, I love when they play Legos. It teaches them so many different things. But I'm like, you know, do that outside, you know, go outside.

It's warm, it's sunny, it's nice. But know that, you know, I want it to stay inside. And like, okay, we got to do something. We don't want to, you know, argue every single day for them to go outside. So we said, every weekend, we're going to go somewhere, you know, be it to a creek, to a waterfall, to a hiking trail, to a, you know, mountain peak, to a farm, whatever the case might be, we took the time and made it a regular part of our routine to spend time outside with the kids.

And of course, in the beginning, we were like, nah, I don't want to. You know, I'd rather play Lego or whatever, but every time we went, they had fun. We had fun. Everyone felt great. And we were all were exposed to the sun, to fresh air, to nature, you know, depending on where we went to animals in some cases, when we went to a farm and the kids could, you know, inoculate your immune system by, you know, kissing the chickens or whatever they did.

And all of that was great. And we came back home and we slept great because we spent all day outside and everyone was happier and we knew, okay, this is something we want to do again next week. And, you know, in our case, it takes us maybe 30 to 90 minutes to get to the place that we want to go, but the kids always loved it.

Not the driving part, but once we were there and we did too, it was a break of our routine of being home all the time. You know, since we're homeschooling, wife's home, I work from home, we are home all the time, literally. And so by doing that, it was, it has such a, it had such a profound impact. And then of course we got, you know, chickens.

And from that point on, the kids spent a lot of time in the backyard, just engaging with the chickens, but you might not have those chickens. Even if you don't, you know, just make it part of your routine. Say, on the weekends, one of those, you know, weekend days, we're gonna drive out and we're gonna do something.

Number 10, kind of, you know, similar vein that we started doing, grow something. You know, it could be something as simple as a house plant. It could be something as simple as a tomato plant. Even, you know, we are not big tomato eaters. But growing something, watching something grow and Taking care of a plant and you see the, you know, the progress from maybe the seed to the seedling to, you know, sprouting and to the full ground plant, maybe one that's even bearing some fruit or flowers or whatever is a beautiful thing.

And, you know, at some point we started making it. a habit of whenever we went somewhere to a nursery or something, we brought home some more plants that we could, you know, have on the inside. And plants are a great thing that, you know, they are the best air filters you can have, much better than anything you can, you know, any mechanical device you can put in the house.

And just being close to plants, like I have plants in my office, looking at them, seeing how they grow. has a positive impact on your health, on your mind and on your physical wellbeing. And it's such an easy thing. And in particular, if you do something, if you grow something that you can then harvest the fruit of, you know, it's a beautiful thing.

And you know, it's, it's very rewarding at the end of the day and it helps you be mentally, I think, in a much better place than if you live in a sterile home where there is no other living being than maybe you, you know, yourself and your family. Observing nature in your backyard. That's also something, if you have a backyard or, you know, out of outside of your window, it doesn't really have to be a backyard, but we've noticed that by just paying attention to what's happening around us, it had dramatic impact on our daily lives.

I'm going to give you one example. You know, I usually start my day. I come to the office, you know, I have a cup of coffee and I start working. And at one point I'm like, you know what, I'm going to take my. Macbook and I'm going to sit on the porch, you know, before the sun would come up because I'm usually an early riser.

I sit out there, I have my coffee there. I respond to emails or what have you. And I just from time to time, look up and I observe and seeing the sunrise, you know, every morning behind the trees had such a profound impact on my state of mind and how the rest of the day would go. You know, I was, it made me happy seeing something as simple as a sunrise.

You know, from the porch of our house. And then, you know, later on, you know, I, you can then suddenly hear, you know, the birds chirping, you know, the chickens come out of their coop, all excited to start foraging later in the day, you know, I could see the bees buzzing by, you know, left and right, left and right, you know, collecting nectar and pollen and all of the things that they do.

And by just observing those simple things or the birds that built a nest in one of our, you know, plants that we hung on the front porch, you know, those kinds of things, those little things. Add up, and the more of those little positive things you see that cause a, a release in your happy hormones, you know, the better your day is going to be, and the more you can counter all of the negative things that we are bombarded with on a daily basis.

Number 12, expose yourself to extreme landscapes. You know, there is something about, you know, being on the top of a mountain. or in the valley or, you know, seeing something like the Grand Canyon. I mean, those are things you don't forget. And by, I mean, obviously that's not something you can do every day, but if you have the chance, you know, go somewhere where you see extreme things as far as nature is concerned, you know, huge boulders sticking out of the middle of nowhere or, you know, peaks and valleys and, and all of those things, you know, scuba diving or, you know, skydiving or whatever it is, you know, exposing yourself to those extremes.

has a profound impact on how you see the world, first of all, and it's lasting memories, you know, and just to give you one example, that's obviously not very extreme, but a few weeks ago, it rained so hard that the trail I usually walk the dog at, on, was flooded. It was a river. So I was basically wading in a river, you know, and I told the kids about it and they got all super excited.

And the next time it rained, they came with me and, you know, they had their rain boots on and they got all wet and muddy and they had a Blast, just playing in a river or in a stream that is actually a trail. And, you know, there was nothing we had to buy for that. All I had to do is come with me. And that's something that, that sticks in their mind for a long time.

I, they still, you know, tell me, Hey, do you remember that time when it rained or every time it rained, they're like, it's not going to be a river, you know, that we can explore. And so those kinds of things, obviously, you know. As you get older, you know, you might be less excited about, you know, a flooded trail, but seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, being on top of a mountain and overlooking everything, you know, those are things you'll never forget and that have a profound impact because it makes you feel like, it makes you feel human.

There is something about that, that makes you feel like I belong here and this is where I want to be. And number 13, that can be a little bit more of a complex one, but a very powerful one is to connect with animals and that can obviously mean different things. You know, for us, it means having pets like, you know, our German shepherd or, and having livestock.

The thing with animals obviously is they are a great responsibility. And, you know, you can probably, we can probably talk about that in a separate episode, but whatever, whoever is the decision maker about introducing it, an animal to the household, to the home, whatever. That person is 100 percent responsible, you know, it's not your kids, it's not your spouse who also likes to have a dog, you know, or chickens or whatever the case might be, you know, if you're the decision maker, you're 100 percent responsible and you have, and you have to invest time every single day, you know, but if you do, if you see the positive in that, like, if You know, every morning I go out and I spend 20 minutes, you know, with our animals.

I release the geese, the chickens come out, I feed them, I feed the rabbits, I make sure everyone has water, I move the rabbit tractor, you know, there are a lot of things that go on every single morning and the animals don't care, you know, if I'm sick or don't wanna or kind of don't feel like it or, you know, it's pouring like this morning, it doesn't really matter.

You know, it has to be done, but the reward of having an animal or animals around you is, is profound. I mean, there are reasons why humans have spent a lot of their, a lot of time throughout history with cats, dogs, and livestock in general. So that's also another very important aspect, but one with the most responsibility.

So if you. You know, listen to this. I'm like, okay, what can I do? I'm not very engaged with nature right now. You know, start with something that requires zero responsibility, that doesn't cost you anything and that you can implement today, you know, you can take off your shoes and you can, I'm sure find a patch of grass unless you're, you know, live in the middle of a huge city that doesn't have any parks, but expose yourself, you know, to nature every single day, if you can, and try to assess how it makes you feel while you do it.

And afterwards, try to assess whenever you are out in the sun, in the morning, and during the day, how does that impact your sleep, you know, and you'll notice that the more you expose yourself to nature, the better you feel overall in different aspects of your life, the better you're gonna be able to manage stress, the less stressed you are, the less negatively your body responds to stress, to those stressors we cannot avoid, and the more happy you are.

But with that, yeah, we're gonna wrap it up. I'm sure there are many, many other ways on how you can reconnect with nature. Be creative, maybe use those tips as a template and see what works for you and try to incorporate them as much as you can in your daily routine and assess how you feel and how it makes you feel.

And I guarantee you, it's gonna make you better. It's gonna make you feel better mentally as well as physically. And with that, I'm hoping to see you in the next episode.