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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : September 25, 2014 12:48 PM IST
Coping with stress may come without a cost if you care to go out of your house and walk with others in the local natural environment, a study suggests. Group nature walks are linked with significantly lower depression, less perceived stress and enhanced mental health and well-being, the findings showed. The researchers found that people who had recently experienced stressful life events like a serious illness, death of a loved one, marital separation or unemployment especially saw a mood boost after outdoor group walks.
'Walking is an inexpensive, low-risk and accessible form of exercise and it turns out that combined with nature and group settings, it may be a very powerful, under-utilized stress buster,' said senior study author Sara Warber, an associate professor at the University of Michigan in the US.
'Our findings suggest that something as simple as joining an outdoor walking group may not only improve someone's daily positive emotions but may also contribute as a non-pharmacological approach to serious conditions like depression,' Warber added. For the study, the researchers evaluated 1,991 participants from the Walking for Health programme in Britain.
The findings appeared in the journal Ecopsychology.
Here are some expert tips to reduce stress
Decide to change your lifestyle: Somewhere down the line, we all know we need to change our lifestyle but we don t act upon that thought. Think about what changes you need to make and target them one by one. Changing your lifestyle in a positive way can help you cope up with the expectations of people around you.
Eat a balanced diet: Good nutrition is a powerful weapon to deal with stress. Your nutrition requirement shoot up when you re under stressful situation. Your body needs extra B vitamins, vitamin C and zinc for building resistance against infections. Eat a balanced diet, with adequate amount of complex carbohydrates that keep you energised for a long time and prevent mindless eating along with proteins and healthy fats. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables to meet your nutritional requirement.
Exercise regularly: Physical activity releases stress-busting hormones that induces a feeling of relaxation and keeps you happy. Even 30 minutes of daily exercise will be sufficient for reducing stress. It will also reduce cholesterol and increase your heart rate, improving heart function. Read more about Expert tips to reduce stress and keep your heart healthy
With inputs from IANS
Photo source: Getty images
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