Benefits of the Great Outdoors

Pathways to Parks is excited to share our collaborative vision for equity focused on getting Black, Hispanic, Native American Indian, and other people of color outdoors with aims to both improve health while also encouraging usage of green spaces in and around our own backyards and beyond.

We all know that sedentary lifestyles go hand in hand with skyrocketing rates of obesity and chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and type-2 diabetes and high blood pressure. People of color can immerse themselves in nature as a routine part of their daily activities of life. Nature should be like breathing air - a necessity! 

Studies have been conducted on the health benefits of reconnecting with nature and have shown that various groups of people of color suffer from alarming numbers of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. Doctors are writing ‘park-prescriptions’ to help decrease stress levels with hopes of lowering rates of these chronic diseases, improving sleep and impacting social isolation. Routinely getting involved in activities outdoors has been shown to have enormous health benefits. It’s shown that within minutes of being in nature, your breathing rate is lower, your heart rate is slower, your blood pressure decreases and concentration is reset. Additionally, stress hormones and inflammatory markers are reduced, and glucose levels go down. Even children with ADHD have experienced improved attention spans.

The fact that people of color only spend 7 percent of our time outdoors has significant consequences for our physical and mental health. There’s a term, “nature deficit disorder” that describes the human cost of alienation from nature. Many of us are guilty of the excessive use of electronic devices, and are aware of the disappearing open spaces due to over building. Poor urban planning, increased traffic, fears of outdoor spaces by parents, and an education system that falls short in teaching the significance of nature to our youth, affect our drive to get outdoors.