Opinion

Get out and explore nature!

When we see nature all around us being its beautiful self, it is saddening to realize that while we have all these natural treasures around us, we totally have lost contact with it.

Here, we may understand intuitively that this is bad news for happiness and health in general. Thus if you move away from nature, you are sure to reduce your happiness and increase your misery. Therefore, the remaining weeks of this summer are an ideal opportunity to change things and start breathing fresh air here in the Sultanate, especially in its beautiful governorates, especially the Dhofar Governorate, or by travelling abroad.

What I am talking about is familiar to you in a way. You are busy with your job, whatever it is, and are connected to your computer all day and night. Other than walking from your house to the car and moving with it daily on crowded roads, you have not spent serious time in nature for months or even years. If so, you are probably experiencing some noticeable malaise, such as stress, anxiety, or even depression.

If your routine is like this, you should know that you might be happier spending more time in nature. But work is work and it provides for your need. Lack of nature and looking at it from time to time can reduce the quality of your work too! Especially since there are several types of research with the importance of immersion in nature – if I may say – for several days without using technology increases people’s creativity and even their ability to solve problems.

If nature is absent from your life, you will likely be more unhappy, nervous and less productive than necessary. And here I strongly recommend addressing this matter as soon as possible – perhaps this summer -. It is better to spend as much time in the fresh air as possible. Not to mention that using nature to reset your body with your mind is so important. For example, exposure to natural light (not artificial light) synchronizes your internal biological clock with sunrise and sunset. As such you will see how naturally easier your sleep will be than ever before.

Nothing can replace actually going out and feeling the sun and air on one’s skin, so consider stepping out of your house to get out of your head and relax.

In the end, if you still need persuasion, let me say here: The sun will rise one day and it will shine in our hearts wherever we try to search for light and beauty, even it will illuminate our whole life with that warmth and all that calmness on the strand of autumn as we see it now in the autumn of Dhofar!

Dr Yousuf Ali Al Mulla is a physician, medical innovator and a writer.