Eco-therapy is a type of mental health therapy which integrates nature into a person’s growth and healing. Eco-therapists work from the theory that humans are hard-wired to connect with the natural world, which can include not only remote wilderness areas, but also our gardens, yards, and pets. We depend on nature every day for our physical survival; we all must breathe air, eat food, and drink water. But the quality of our mental and emotional health also depends on nature. Spending time with nature helps us feel restored, inspired, and connected to something larger than ourselves or our difficulties and suffering.
An increasingly large body of research explores how nature affects our physical, emotional, and mental health. Some benefits include lower blood pressure, increased immune functioning, quicker post-surgery recovery, decreased loneliness, decreased depressive and anxiety symptoms, better stress resilience and recovery, and improved quality-of-life. Results from ecotherapy studies specifically focusing on cancer have reported decreased post-surgery attention fatigue and better ability to focus and concentrate. Additionally, several studies have discovered that exposure to certain chemicals released by trees significantly enhance human Natural Killer (NK) activity, number of NK cells, and intracellular anti-cancer proteins.
Eco-therapy can be done both outdoors and indoors to accommodate difficulties with mobility, physical pain or discomfort, or fatigue. Integrating nature into your overall treatment plan can be simple, flexible, free or low-cost, and has little to no negative side effects. While spending time with nature is not a panacea, it can be an effective (and pleasant) integrative therapy to help improve quality-of-life and wellness while living with and managing a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
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