So. What crazy times we are living in today. We’ve been cooped up at home for months… The only human faces we see nowadays are the ones of the people we live with, and everyone’s a bit stressed at this point. So I’m here with a solution: nature. Montréal is a big, crazy city, but in the middle of it all, there’s a mountain covered in trees that are getting greener each day as spring starts knocking on our doors. And as many of us transition from face-to-face conversations into video calls in front of our computer screens, now might be the perfect time to start going out to our beautiful mountain and starting to spend time in nature. Still not convinced? Well, here are some studies and facts as to why nature is not only beautiful, but also physically good for you.

“Imagine a therapy that has no side effects, was readily available and could improve your cognitive functioning at zero cost.” It’s the opening sentence of a paper from the University of Michigan, written in 2008. And it’s true: according to a many number of studies, nature is great for helping with stress and depression, memory, creative problem-solving, or even just to give you a mental boost!

A study in the UK found that walking in the forest was almost always associated with less anxiety and better moods. The study even suggested that walking in the outdoors could be “useful clinically and a supplement to existing treatments for major depressive disorder.” In addition, a study performed in Denmark suggested that green spaces could help manage stress. Researchers examined a group who’d been in the city and another that had been in nature, and found that the group who had just spent time in nature had lower heart rates and lower levels of cortisol, the hormone that causes stress. In fact, simply just having a view of nature from your office window is already connected to reduced stress at the workplace.

Another benefit of spending time in green spaces is an increase in creativity and problem-solving skills. In this 2012 study, researchers found out that people who went hiking in nature a lot had a huge cognitive advantage when it came to creativity and problem-solving. In fact, another study showed that subjects who had just spent four days in the middle of nature did 50% better on a creative problem-solving test than another group of subjects that had just stayed in the city.

Walking around in nature can also improve your short-term memory. Hard to believe? But it’s true: the same University of Michigan study I quoted earlier looked at how two groups scored on a memory test. Each group did the test, and then one group did a forest walk, and the other group just walked around the city. When both groups came back and did the test again, the forest group did 20% better than the first time, whereas the city group’s scores stayed pretty much the same.

Green spaces can also help you experience a mental boost. You know that feeling when your brain is just… empty? That’s mental fatigue, otherwise known as a brain fart. And nature can help with that. In fact, brain farts can be counteracted with even simply looking at a picture of nature… Plus, nature is so amazing, and awe is one of the best ways to get over mental fatigue.

But there are also many ways that spending time in nature can help your physical health.

For example, it has been proven that playing outside in nature can reduce the risk of myopia, or nearsightedness, especially in kids. In Taiwan, a study was performed where researchers looked at two nearby schools. They asked one school to encourage the students to play outside during recess, whereas the other school was just used as a control group. And after a year, they could see significant changes: the children who suffered from myopia in the control school was roughly 17%, whereas the school who told their students to play outside was down to almost 8%!

A British study in 2012 said that being in green spaces inspired more people to work out more often, even if it’s not in said green space. Which makes sense, because other side effects of being in green spaces include decreased blood pressure, and a lower heart rate. Plus, according to a 2011 study, visiting forests as opposed to cities results in an increase of killer T cells (kind of like the soldiers of your immune system) being made in your body!

Shinrin-yoku, which roughly translates to forest-bathing, is a Japanese therapy where people just go lie or sit down or even just walk around forests; now we know that this practice has actual real benefits. Most Japanese research on why that is point to phytoncides, which are organic compounds with antibacterial properties that are released by trees.

Another study also revealed that being exposed to green spaces could lower the risk of type two diabetes, cardiovascular death, preterm birth, premature death, and high blood pressure. The study gathered evidence from over 140 other studies and over 190 million people from over 20 different countries, including the UK, US, Spain, France, Germany and Japan, where this forest-bathing therapy is already rather popular, and they all pointed to the fact that nature is good for our health.

Twohig-Bennet, a researcher passionate about the topic, said: "We hope that this research will inspire people to get outside more and feel the health benefits for themselves. Hopefully our results will encourage policymakers and town planners to invest in the creation, regeneration, and maintenance of parks and greenspaces, particularly in urban residential areas and deprived communities that could benefit the most." And honestly, that’s the best we can hope for. But for now, we already have our beautiful Mount Royal, and many parks in and around the city. So maybe, instead of watching that extra episode this afternoon, instead of scrolling through more social media, instead of wallowing at home alone, get outside and breathe in some of our precious nature. Because it’s good for you and… who knows? You might even end up having fun!