In her book the Nature Fix, author Florence Williams says that the Finnish recommend being in nature for 5 hours a month to reap health benefits. That seems like a pretty good thing to add to a New Year’s Resolution list – just an hour and fifteen minutes a week spending time outdoors in a non-urban setting. Personally, I think 1.25 hours a day would be a better goal, but start small and dream big!

In case you’re not sure where to go, here are some suggestions of where to spend your nature time: parks, botanical gardens, your own yard (if you have vegetation), greenspaces at condo complexes and in housing developments, along rivers or streams, and on any public land that you can safely access. As for hiking trails – state parks, city or county parks, national parks, recreation areas – all of these frequently have trails or even just areas where you can sit and soak up the environment.