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4 Ways You Can Make Your Kids Love Playing Outside

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If you’re like most parents, you want your kids to be active and healthy. And what better way to encourage them to be active than by playing outside? Outdoor play is a great way for kids to get exercise, learn new skills, and have fun. In this blog post, we will discuss four ways that you can make your kids love playing outside!

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How Walking in Nature Changes the Brain

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By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS JULY 22, 2015 5:44 AM

A walk in the park may soothe the mind and, in the process, change the workings of our brains in ways that improve our mental health, according to an interesting new study of the physical effects on the brain of visiting nature.

Most of us today live in cities and spend far less time outside in green, natural spaces than people did several generations ago.

City dwellers also have a higher risk for anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses than people living outside urban centers, studies show.

These developments seem to be linked to some extent, according to a growing body of research. Various studies have found that urban dwellers with little access to green spaces have a higher incidence of psychological problems than people living near parks and that city dwellers who visit natural environments have lower levels of stress hormones immediately afterward than people who have not recently been outside.

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/how-nature-changes-the-brain/?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

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New research suggests nature walks are good for your brain

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By Chris Mooney June 29 at 3:42 PM

In the past several months, a bevy of studies have added to a growing literature on the mental and physical benefits of spending time outdoors. That includes recent research showing that short micro-breaks spent looking at a nature scene have a rejuvenating effect on the brain — boosting levels of attention — and also that kids who attend schools featuring more greenery fare better on cognitive tests.

And Monday, yet another addition to the literature arrived — but this time with an added twist. It’s a cognitive neuroscience study, meaning not only that benefits from a nature experience were captured in an experiment, but also that their apparent neural signature was observed through brain scans.

The paper, by Stanford’s Gregory Bratman and several colleagues from the United States and Sweden, was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In it, 38 individuals who lived in urban areas, and who had “no history of mental disorder,” were divided into two groups — and asked to take a walk.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/29/fixating-or-brooding-on-things-take-a-walk-in-the-woods-for-real/