Patrick Begg, the trust’s director of outdoors and natural resources director, said: “Sometimes a simple walk in woodlands, where you’re surrounded by the echoes of calling birds, and that satisfying crunch of fallen leaves and twigs underfoot, is the perfect remedy for reducing stress.” A fifth of people never visit the woods, it says.
It is flagging up the fact that the UK’s 3.19m hectares (7.8m acres) of woodlandprovide one of the most accessible places for people to relax in. The National Trust commissioned the research as part of an effort to get more people out into environments such as woodland. Silence also proved a tiny bit better at making people feel less anxious.
The experiment found that 60 seconds of the voice meditation app was slightly more effective at making participants feel less stressed and anxious. There was no change in the level of relaxation people felt after listening to the meditation or the silence. When asked to listen to the woodland sounds for one minute, people felt 30% more relaxed, while stress and anxiety dropped.
