Areas › Your body › Moving your body
You do not need greenery for outside to help. Snow, grey sky, bare trees, a car park at dusk. Getting out still does something.
This matters if you live somewhere that is brown and frozen for half the year, or in a city with more concrete than park. Wrap up, go out for fifteen minutes, come back. If the dark months flatten your mood specifically, that is worth raising with a doctor, since there are other things that help with the light.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Secure in their winter and summer journeys (Quran 106:2). Both seasons are named, and both are counted as a blessing rather than one being the real one.
إِۦلَٰفِهِمۡ رِحۡلَةَ ٱلشِّتَآءِ وَٱلصَّيۡفِ
secure in their winter and summer journeys
Qur’an 106:2read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic review and meta-analysis of outdoor walking groups found improvements across a range of physical and psychological measures, with few adverse effects and low drop out. Those were ordinary outdoor walks rather than beauty spots. The review does not compare landscapes, so it cannot tell you how much the scenery adds.
Hanson S, Jones A. (2015). Is there evidence that walking groups have health benefits? A systematic review and meta-analysis.. British journal of sports medicine doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Open air, daylight and a change of scene are doing much of the work, and none of them require plants.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
End a session with a few minutes of sitting still. The styles that close with quiet seem to help most with the pause before reacting.
Being outside gives your attention something to rest on rather than something to hold. That is why an hour outdoors leaves you clearer than an hour lying on the sofa.
A promising study can be very small. Thirteen teenagers, teachers doing the rating, and a fortnight of follow up is a good start and not a settled answer.