Oct. 12, 2025
How To Lower Your Stress, Your Blood Pressure and Improve Your Gut Health in Just 20 Minutes
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RSS Feed We know it sounds like click bait… T.J. thought the same thing too when Amy brought up a new study that makes this claim! And yet, when you hear why and how you should spend your next 20 minutes, it will make perfect sense with a scientific study out of the UK to back it up. The answer is free to anyone and available just about everywhere and we encourage everyone to give it a try.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to this edition of Amy and TJ. It is Sunday, October twelfth, and a new study caught our eye about how just twenty minutes can change your health. That we see a lot of these headlines, we often attribute them to clickbait, but I loved this one in particular because it's how twenty minutes in nature can boost your health. And if you have been dismissive of that, there are real scientific research behind that even a lunchtime walk to the park or taking a beat on a bench can actually have significant health done if it's not just physically to you, but mentally as well. And they go through four ways that being in nature actually improves your health.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: Do you buy it?
00:00:53
Speaker 3: No, I've just clickbait. You fell for it, just a clickbait like all the other headlines here we go seriously makes you think you just said there's a lot of clickbait headlines. Yeah, you study this and that. This one got your attention, But what makes this one any different?
00:01:07
Speaker 1: Because for me, if I'm feeling stressed in any way, if I just go outside, if I just walk outside and I don't care what the weather is or even honestly where I am if I can find a tree, if I can find green grass, if I can hear water, it immediately takes my stress level down.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: Do you not have that same experience?
00:01:30
Speaker 3: You need to live outside? Then you should just go live off the land. That'll be good for your health. I don't I do it all the time. When there was a time we still had we had two places. We some of the the ideas you got most from me, the freshest ideas. Where after I took a walk, i'd leave you say bye. By the time I got ten fifteen minutes and got to the other apartment, you were flooded with text messages of ideas and thoughts of this and that. So yeah, I'm a huge fan. The just need to get out of the house.
00:02:00
Speaker 1: You said your mind is firing. You would say that my mind is firing on this walk, and that I think all. I think everyone listening can say they have had a similar experience. But it's interesting to understand the why, the science behind it. And so according to the study, they actually looked at twenty thousand people.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: This is a study out of the UK.
00:02:22
Speaker 1: And they say, when you see green trees, when you smell pine, even if you hear leaves rustling, or a bird chirping, It actually impacts your add Wait, I'm an autonomic nervous system, so that's all the nerves that control your unconscious process. So you don't know what's happening, but you can feel it happening, and you don't know why it's happening, but it's happening. And yes, water, Yes, so like even the sounds of nature can actually change your heart rate variability. So your heart it actually starts to beat slower, you actually start to calm down physically. That is fascinating to know. So sometimes all it takes is for you to hear something, smell something, see something in nature, and your body biologically physically response.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: Have you had that experience?
00:03:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's while we go to the ocean, that's while you go to the beach, crashing waves. Do it for me every time. There's very simple things. And yes, people can relate to that a bird chirp, and you can relate to hearing raining outside. You can relate to hearing the leaves after the wind hits them. We can all relate to yes, finding nature, finding peace. It this all makes perfect sense. But yeah, it confirms how it works for everybody, and that's why being in a concrete jungle, you're all stressed out. I ain't heard a bird, I ain't heard a damn thing.
00:03:56
Speaker 2: Except for police.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: I wanted to study done for people living in urban areas where you hear a barrage of ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles, it actually stresses you out.
00:04:14
Speaker 3: I want to know specifically the block of thirtieth and First Avenue in New York near that you're laughing because you know the hospital.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: Over there, it's terrible.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: Or if you live near a fire station, which I did when I was on Broadway, which is one of this city's most busy streets. I have to say we have moved somewhere quieter, and it has absolutely impacted my wellbeing, and I believe it has yours as well.
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Oh, without a doubt, you can say whatever. I'm just walking to the other room and I'm good. It doesn't matter how this episode goes. I'm going to walk out to the other area and I'm gonna be calm.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: It is.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: It does speak volumes to when you're choosing where you live. If you know you have to be in a busy space or in a non quiet environment, which we we have often been For the last two decades plus I've been in this situation. But if you can make a point to find some space, someplace where there is nature, it actually has an impact.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: So they say your.
00:05:11
Speaker 1: Hormones actually reboot, that is the word they used. So spending time outdoors triggers your endocrine system, which then that impacts your levels of cortisol and adrenaline, and those are the hormones that come raging on when you're stressed out, when you're taxed, so it actually calms down, it drops your adrenaline hormone. So that is actually when you have an increase in hormones, like your adrenaline is rushing, it actually is a killer of cells in your blood system.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: It actually creates disease.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: I remember my brother, who is a physician, told me stress is absolutely one.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: Of the biggest killers in this country.
00:05:52
Speaker 1: And people don't recognize how important it is to address stress because stress leads to cancer, stress leads to heart to stress leads to all sorts of things that end up taking away years of our lives. And so to actually focus on that and recognize, how can I put myself in an environment where my stress level goes down.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: Even if it's just for twenty minutes each day.
00:06:17
Speaker 3: My pastor said, family member will raise your blood pressure fast, and the piece of pork, ever will To your point, yeah, we think, well, yes, we should focus on diet, We should focus on what we put in our bodies. We focus on all of that so much, don't we That's what we should change, That's what we should change. No, you're stressing yourself out. I don't think we too. I don't think we see directly enough that connection between the stress we put on ourselves and how that impacts our lives. But yeah, getting outside can reduce that automatically all.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: For Okay, this is really crazy. So this study found that people in a hotel room for three days who were breathing in the smell of a Japanese cypress. Okay, they pumped this smell into this hotel room saw a huge drop in that adrenaline hormone that we were just talking about, and that effect lasted for two weeks after inhaling that smell for three days. So it doesn't just help you in the moment. They say that that feeling that that smell created chemically in your body stays with you. So that was it was a hotel they did, Yes, Yes, that was part of it. Yes, So they even said then they put it like this, a three day weekend in nature doesn't just help you for those three days they said they were doing. They've tested your blood levels, your hormone levels. Even a month later, it can be twenty four percent improved from where it was, So it stays with you.
00:07:57
Speaker 3: But this idea, the talking about being in nature, they didn't know they were in nature, correct, right, They were breathing in something, had no idea they.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: Were breathing, they were emulating nature. So even if you can't make it outdoors. That's why lighting candles, why do you instantly feel better?
00:08:12
Speaker 3: Wait, what's the connection here with the cypress?
00:08:14
Speaker 1: Then the smell, the smell of a tree, the smell of outdoors. A lot of these smells that we put into our our either our apartments, our homes, even in hotel rooms, absolutely Elicits a chemical reaction in your body where you feel like you're in nature.
00:08:30
Speaker 2: They feel like you're outdoors.
00:08:32
Speaker 3: Okay, I didn't realize, Okay, I didn't put that together. They were conscious of what they were smelling. They essentially had a conscious thought of Wow, that is nice or something smells good.
00:08:41
Speaker 1: I don't know that they were conscious of it, but it created a feeling in their body, and it create and it wasn't just something they thought they felt. It actually was a chemical response in their body. Hormone levels changed based on smelling outdoors.
00:08:57
Speaker 2: How cool is that?
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Like?
00:08:58
Speaker 2: Okay?
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Here one of the sciences says, pine is a really good example. The smell of a pine forest can make you calmer within ninety seconds, and that effect can last for about ten minutes. They've done this study. So when you think about what candles to choose, if you pick scents that emulate nature, you actually will have a physical detectable response in stress hormones.
00:09:26
Speaker 2: That's remarkable.
00:09:27
Speaker 3: Or do we have what's our scent to your candle scent? Well?
00:09:29
Speaker 1: I love pine. I do love a nature scent.
00:09:32
Speaker 2: What other we like? Pumpkin in the fall? I like it to be seasonal.
00:09:36
Speaker 3: There was there were two flavors I hated, but they became a candle you had and I loved. What was it? It was in the bedroom. I hate coconut, pumpkin or something. It was something ridiculous.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's exactly what it was, and I wouldn't normally like those two either, but somehow they smell delicious and use that I don't know why I love the scent, but I do. I'm a big evergreen pine forest. And you made a lot of fun of me one time because I told you there is one candle scent that I cannot stand. It's it's a warm vanilla. I don't know why, but it makes me feel the opposite of nature. It makes me feel like I'm trapped. So I just said, look, I pretty much like every candle out there, as long as it doesn't have a vanilla undertone.
00:10:22
Speaker 2: And I believe you made fun of me from that moment.
00:10:26
Speaker 3: Fun of you because you said that out loud of TJ Max with me and Spein, and we were embarrassed, and we were we were stunned. We didn't know what to think of the moment because we never heard a person say such a thing. I use very specific.
00:10:38
Speaker 1: I got specific you had thought about this before I have because I have spent a lot of time. Okay, anyone listening, how many of you have spent and wasted countless minutes smelling every candle in TJ Max and Marshall's trying to find the perfect fun my hands down, I.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: Need like a coffee to cleanse the palate.
00:10:57
Speaker 1: You know, they have you and like those fancy stores that you smell coffee beans or something to try and cleanse your palate.
00:11:02
Speaker 2: When you're in TJ Max, that's not available. So you're just.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: Going from candle to candle to candle, and every time I smell one with a vanilla undertone, I'm out.
00:11:12
Speaker 3: I just get anyone that's labeled tobacco or cognac, and those are the ones that get there, usually in a black case. Those are the candles for dudes.
00:11:22
Speaker 2: You like those, Yeah, I like put.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: Them in the bathroom. I put them in the office. I put it. Yeah it smells. Yeah that's a good smell. I don't want in the living room, but yeah, others it works, all right.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: This study was so fascinating to me.
00:11:34
Speaker 1: It goes on a whole other level that TJ. I don't know if you're gonna buy this, but when we come back, we're going to talk about how apparently when you're outdoors, it actually gets good bacteria into your gut, which improves your overall health. We've talked about gut health so much so and beyond candles. They talk about how important it is to bring nature into your home. If you can bring nature into your home, the health of last for much longer than you would imagine, and actually improve your health and ways you couldn't have thought.
00:12:09
Speaker 4: And and and continuing now with our conversation about how just twenty minutes in nature can actually have serious and long lasting health benefits.
00:12:27
Speaker 2: And also in this study they talked about if you.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: Can't get to nature, which I get sometimes we're too busy, we live too far away from it. We totally understand that here in New York City, how you can bring nature to you and how that can be just as effective. But this next part of the study is interesting. They say that nature doesn't just soothe you, calm you, change and adjust your adrenaline hormones and your body, but it actually can boost your microbiome. How okay, So if you have plants around you, this is why you shouldn't tell your kids not to play in the dirt. When you play in the dirt, when you plant, when you garden. You know how much I love this that the dirt that you are touching actually enters your system and it doesn't necessarily you don't have to. It can actually come in through your nose or your mouth.
00:13:30
Speaker 2: Without you realizing that.
00:13:32
Speaker 1: But just breathing in the soil that plants are growing in can actually impact your microbiome, your gut health.
00:13:43
Speaker 3: And this is where she lost me. Breathing dirt is like eating kimchi.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Yes, it can actually boost your mood on one hand, but also the anti microbial chemicals released by plants they're called I'm not good with pronouncing phyotone sides, phyotoed sides, Okay, whatever, they can actually help you fight disease because it tickles your immune system.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: That's what the scientist found out.
00:14:12
Speaker 1: An infection scientist said, breathing in dirt, being around nature and plants can actually kind of well, they said, tickle your immune system. So he actually, the scientist says, he encourages his children to get dirty, to go into the dirt, to dig, to roll around and play in it, because it's important we need. We're supposed to be in nature. It's part of what we as humans were meant to do, and we sometimes, especially people living like we do in New York City, don't get the opportunity to do so.
00:14:45
Speaker 2: So, you know, me.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: The moment I see any opportunity to plant a plant, to plant anything.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: I get excited.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: There's a reason I'm not just somebody who loves to garden and I'm getting older and have more time on my hands.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: You will catch I.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: Actually feel joy knowing that there are plants in the apartment, and there is a as these studies have shown a physiological reason why. So you feel just five And this whole episode is for me validating my love of hiking and gardening. So this is you see what I'm doing here, right.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: Stay tuned next Sunday when Robot tackles what exactly?
00:15:27
Speaker 1: So they say, so many people will sit there and pay for probiotic drinks that are stupid expensive and try to get all of these uh you know, but if you actually just go out of nature, it's all there and it's free, and you can experience it. You can breathe it in, you can touch it, you can feel it. They all enter your body. Your skin is your biggest organ, so actually you are absorbing things that you don't even realize. So I think that's super super cool, all right, in terms of what you can do in your home. This one actually really got me They found that flowers like the tifically said white or yellow roses have been shown to create the greatest calming effect on brain activity.
00:16:11
Speaker 2: You know, I love yellow roses.
00:16:14
Speaker 1: Really again, I found research to validate my love forthing.
00:16:21
Speaker 3: You should have told me that's what this episode was about. I would have prepared it differently. But yes, we keep I think I've only got you how many red roses? I've gotten you a lot of flowers over time, but you have always yellow yellow?
00:16:36
Speaker 2: But you did, actually you did.
00:16:39
Speaker 1: I highly suggest this gift for any guy out there looking for something to give his gal Oh that you actually did such a cool thing. I believe it was last Valentine's Day. You got what are they called forever roses?
00:16:50
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, that's some way they treat them. They preserve them and they last a year. So we've had those things look great.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: I think we're at how many months in counting that was months, I don't know, We're great at math eight months, nine months in counting. This beautiful display of red roses in a beautiful white vase have been almost perfect now for nine months.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: And I've said to you every time.
00:17:18
Speaker 1: I walk by it, it's a statement, I say that is one of the best gifts you ever gave me, because flowers are beautiful, but they die and they smell and it's off. And this is such a cool way to have flowers that are real in your yeah, in your home that last for a year. So anyway, highly recommend white or yellow roses though are apparently, yes, the recommendation to have the greatest calming effect on brain activity. And we mentioned pine. They say you can get a diffuser with essential oils that you know, people kind of I think a.
00:17:50
Speaker 2: Lot of folks laugh off a lot of.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: People who love the essential oils, but they say this is actually scientifically proven. It helps you feel calm. And so they even say, if you say you don't have the essential oils, you can't afford the candles or the roses. Those are all fairly expensive things. Even if you can take a picture of a forest, and I do believe this, what you surround yourself with in your home absolutely impacts how you feel. And so they say, even if you can take a picture of nature, put your laptop screensaver, whatever it is. I actually have a picture of nature if you haven't noticed, it's of a beautiful mountains with trees and a waterfall place I'd like to hike to. It's one of the ones that I think a lot of people have.
00:18:33
Speaker 2: You have, what's on yours?
00:18:36
Speaker 3: No wonderum stressed out? Oh no, this is what is that? I don't know what it is with this nature.
00:18:40
Speaker 2: It's rocky though.
00:18:42
Speaker 1: It looks like it's an ocean with a bunch of rocks jutting out, like it could destroy a naval ship in two seconds or a sailboat.
00:18:50
Speaker 3: This is my life. I'm trying to avoid these obstacles.
00:18:53
Speaker 1: This this reads your screensaver, looks treacherous.
00:18:59
Speaker 3: This is what this every day?
00:19:02
Speaker 1: All right? Well, they're saying research shows that looking at pictures of nature or gazing out at something green actually changes your brain waves and reduces stress. They're saying, every little bit that you can do to surround yourself with what you're looking at, what you're smelling, and what you're feeling, what you're touching, all of that has a huge impact on your mental health, which then translates to your physical health.
00:19:29
Speaker 3: Okay, look out the window back here, we see a.
00:19:33
Speaker 2: Lot of tall buildings.
00:19:35
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't Okay, there's something on the rooftop, but there is no From looking this direction, we see buildings New York City high rises.
00:19:48
Speaker 2: Bricks concrete.
00:19:49
Speaker 1: Now what I can see are clouds in sky.
00:19:51
Speaker 2: So I could look at that, But have you noticed that?
00:19:53
Speaker 1: So on the other side of the apartment, I can see other people who have big, beautiful balconies. And I said, even looking at someone else's flowers that they've planted on their balcony brings me.
00:20:06
Speaker 2: Joy when I look at it.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: But that's where we are. We do have some trees on the other side and some water. And when you can see nature, just like you know when you walk into a space, you have a feeling, there's an energy about it, and nature has such a big part of that, I believe. So it's just a reminder we can all do little things. Every little bit helps to calm our nerves. We have so much going on in our lives and in the world. It's just nice to know that if we just maybe get some plants, light a candle, have an essential oil, and maybe just plan a walk. Twenty minutes a day, that's what they say, that is the amount of time you need to change your inner chemistry. But those twenty minutes can have a lasting effect I think that's cool. It's not just helping for those twenty minutes. It could actually help for.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: So how about that for your Sunday thought. We thank you for joining us on this Sunday. I'm Amy Robot alongside t J.
00:21:05
Speaker 2: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to this edition of Amy and TJ. It is Sunday, October twelfth, and a new study caught our eye about how just twenty minutes can change your health. That we see a lot of these headlines, we often attribute them to clickbait, but I loved this one in particular because it's how twenty minutes in nature can boost your health. And if you have been dismissive of that, there are real scientific research behind that even a lunchtime walk to the park or taking a beat on a bench can actually have significant health done if it's not just physically to you, but mentally as well. And they go through four ways that being in nature actually improves your health.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: Do you buy it?
00:00:53
Speaker 3: No, I've just clickbait. You fell for it, just a clickbait like all the other headlines here we go seriously makes you think you just said there's a lot of clickbait headlines. Yeah, you study this and that. This one got your attention, But what makes this one any different?
00:01:07
Speaker 1: Because for me, if I'm feeling stressed in any way, if I just go outside, if I just walk outside and I don't care what the weather is or even honestly where I am if I can find a tree, if I can find green grass, if I can hear water, it immediately takes my stress level down.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: Do you not have that same experience?
00:01:30
Speaker 3: You need to live outside? Then you should just go live off the land. That'll be good for your health. I don't I do it all the time. When there was a time we still had we had two places. We some of the the ideas you got most from me, the freshest ideas. Where after I took a walk, i'd leave you say bye. By the time I got ten fifteen minutes and got to the other apartment, you were flooded with text messages of ideas and thoughts of this and that. So yeah, I'm a huge fan. The just need to get out of the house.
00:02:00
Speaker 1: You said your mind is firing. You would say that my mind is firing on this walk, and that I think all. I think everyone listening can say they have had a similar experience. But it's interesting to understand the why, the science behind it. And so according to the study, they actually looked at twenty thousand people.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: This is a study out of the UK.
00:02:22
Speaker 1: And they say, when you see green trees, when you smell pine, even if you hear leaves rustling, or a bird chirping, It actually impacts your add Wait, I'm an autonomic nervous system, so that's all the nerves that control your unconscious process. So you don't know what's happening, but you can feel it happening, and you don't know why it's happening, but it's happening. And yes, water, Yes, so like even the sounds of nature can actually change your heart rate variability. So your heart it actually starts to beat slower, you actually start to calm down physically. That is fascinating to know. So sometimes all it takes is for you to hear something, smell something, see something in nature, and your body biologically physically response.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: Have you had that experience?
00:03:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's while we go to the ocean, that's while you go to the beach, crashing waves. Do it for me every time. There's very simple things. And yes, people can relate to that a bird chirp, and you can relate to hearing raining outside. You can relate to hearing the leaves after the wind hits them. We can all relate to yes, finding nature, finding peace. It this all makes perfect sense. But yeah, it confirms how it works for everybody, and that's why being in a concrete jungle, you're all stressed out. I ain't heard a bird, I ain't heard a damn thing.
00:03:56
Speaker 2: Except for police.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: I wanted to study done for people living in urban areas where you hear a barrage of ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles, it actually stresses you out.
00:04:14
Speaker 3: I want to know specifically the block of thirtieth and First Avenue in New York near that you're laughing because you know the hospital.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: Over there, it's terrible.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: Or if you live near a fire station, which I did when I was on Broadway, which is one of this city's most busy streets. I have to say we have moved somewhere quieter, and it has absolutely impacted my wellbeing, and I believe it has yours as well.
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Oh, without a doubt, you can say whatever. I'm just walking to the other room and I'm good. It doesn't matter how this episode goes. I'm going to walk out to the other area and I'm gonna be calm.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: It is.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: It does speak volumes to when you're choosing where you live. If you know you have to be in a busy space or in a non quiet environment, which we we have often been For the last two decades plus I've been in this situation. But if you can make a point to find some space, someplace where there is nature, it actually has an impact.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: So they say your.
00:05:11
Speaker 1: Hormones actually reboot, that is the word they used. So spending time outdoors triggers your endocrine system, which then that impacts your levels of cortisol and adrenaline, and those are the hormones that come raging on when you're stressed out, when you're taxed, so it actually calms down, it drops your adrenaline hormone. So that is actually when you have an increase in hormones, like your adrenaline is rushing, it actually is a killer of cells in your blood system.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: It actually creates disease.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: I remember my brother, who is a physician, told me stress is absolutely one.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: Of the biggest killers in this country.
00:05:52
Speaker 1: And people don't recognize how important it is to address stress because stress leads to cancer, stress leads to heart to stress leads to all sorts of things that end up taking away years of our lives. And so to actually focus on that and recognize, how can I put myself in an environment where my stress level goes down.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: Even if it's just for twenty minutes each day.
00:06:17
Speaker 3: My pastor said, family member will raise your blood pressure fast, and the piece of pork, ever will To your point, yeah, we think, well, yes, we should focus on diet, We should focus on what we put in our bodies. We focus on all of that so much, don't we That's what we should change, That's what we should change. No, you're stressing yourself out. I don't think we too. I don't think we see directly enough that connection between the stress we put on ourselves and how that impacts our lives. But yeah, getting outside can reduce that automatically all.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: For Okay, this is really crazy. So this study found that people in a hotel room for three days who were breathing in the smell of a Japanese cypress. Okay, they pumped this smell into this hotel room saw a huge drop in that adrenaline hormone that we were just talking about, and that effect lasted for two weeks after inhaling that smell for three days. So it doesn't just help you in the moment. They say that that feeling that that smell created chemically in your body stays with you. So that was it was a hotel they did, Yes, Yes, that was part of it. Yes, So they even said then they put it like this, a three day weekend in nature doesn't just help you for those three days they said they were doing. They've tested your blood levels, your hormone levels. Even a month later, it can be twenty four percent improved from where it was, So it stays with you.
00:07:57
Speaker 3: But this idea, the talking about being in nature, they didn't know they were in nature, correct, right, They were breathing in something, had no idea they.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: Were breathing, they were emulating nature. So even if you can't make it outdoors. That's why lighting candles, why do you instantly feel better?
00:08:12
Speaker 3: Wait, what's the connection here with the cypress?
00:08:14
Speaker 1: Then the smell, the smell of a tree, the smell of outdoors. A lot of these smells that we put into our our either our apartments, our homes, even in hotel rooms, absolutely Elicits a chemical reaction in your body where you feel like you're in nature.
00:08:30
Speaker 2: They feel like you're outdoors.
00:08:32
Speaker 3: Okay, I didn't realize, Okay, I didn't put that together. They were conscious of what they were smelling. They essentially had a conscious thought of Wow, that is nice or something smells good.
00:08:41
Speaker 1: I don't know that they were conscious of it, but it created a feeling in their body, and it create and it wasn't just something they thought they felt. It actually was a chemical response in their body. Hormone levels changed based on smelling outdoors.
00:08:57
Speaker 2: How cool is that?
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Like?
00:08:58
Speaker 2: Okay?
00:08:58
Speaker 1: Here one of the sciences says, pine is a really good example. The smell of a pine forest can make you calmer within ninety seconds, and that effect can last for about ten minutes. They've done this study. So when you think about what candles to choose, if you pick scents that emulate nature, you actually will have a physical detectable response in stress hormones.
00:09:26
Speaker 2: That's remarkable.
00:09:27
Speaker 3: Or do we have what's our scent to your candle scent? Well?
00:09:29
Speaker 1: I love pine. I do love a nature scent.
00:09:32
Speaker 2: What other we like? Pumpkin in the fall? I like it to be seasonal.
00:09:36
Speaker 3: There was there were two flavors I hated, but they became a candle you had and I loved. What was it? It was in the bedroom. I hate coconut, pumpkin or something. It was something ridiculous.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's exactly what it was, and I wouldn't normally like those two either, but somehow they smell delicious and use that I don't know why I love the scent, but I do. I'm a big evergreen pine forest. And you made a lot of fun of me one time because I told you there is one candle scent that I cannot stand. It's it's a warm vanilla. I don't know why, but it makes me feel the opposite of nature. It makes me feel like I'm trapped. So I just said, look, I pretty much like every candle out there, as long as it doesn't have a vanilla undertone.
00:10:22
Speaker 2: And I believe you made fun of me from that moment.
00:10:26
Speaker 3: Fun of you because you said that out loud of TJ Max with me and Spein, and we were embarrassed, and we were we were stunned. We didn't know what to think of the moment because we never heard a person say such a thing. I use very specific.
00:10:38
Speaker 1: I got specific you had thought about this before I have because I have spent a lot of time. Okay, anyone listening, how many of you have spent and wasted countless minutes smelling every candle in TJ Max and Marshall's trying to find the perfect fun my hands down, I.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: Need like a coffee to cleanse the palate.
00:10:57
Speaker 1: You know, they have you and like those fancy stores that you smell coffee beans or something to try and cleanse your palate.
00:11:02
Speaker 2: When you're in TJ Max, that's not available. So you're just.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: Going from candle to candle to candle, and every time I smell one with a vanilla undertone, I'm out.
00:11:12
Speaker 3: I just get anyone that's labeled tobacco or cognac, and those are the ones that get there, usually in a black case. Those are the candles for dudes.
00:11:22
Speaker 2: You like those, Yeah, I like put.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: Them in the bathroom. I put them in the office. I put it. Yeah it smells. Yeah that's a good smell. I don't want in the living room, but yeah, others it works, all right.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: This study was so fascinating to me.
00:11:34
Speaker 1: It goes on a whole other level that TJ. I don't know if you're gonna buy this, but when we come back, we're going to talk about how apparently when you're outdoors, it actually gets good bacteria into your gut, which improves your overall health. We've talked about gut health so much so and beyond candles. They talk about how important it is to bring nature into your home. If you can bring nature into your home, the health of last for much longer than you would imagine, and actually improve your health and ways you couldn't have thought.
00:12:09
Speaker 4: And and and continuing now with our conversation about how just twenty minutes in nature can actually have serious and long lasting health benefits.
00:12:27
Speaker 2: And also in this study they talked about if you.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: Can't get to nature, which I get sometimes we're too busy, we live too far away from it. We totally understand that here in New York City, how you can bring nature to you and how that can be just as effective. But this next part of the study is interesting. They say that nature doesn't just soothe you, calm you, change and adjust your adrenaline hormones and your body, but it actually can boost your microbiome. How okay, So if you have plants around you, this is why you shouldn't tell your kids not to play in the dirt. When you play in the dirt, when you plant, when you garden. You know how much I love this that the dirt that you are touching actually enters your system and it doesn't necessarily you don't have to. It can actually come in through your nose or your mouth.
00:13:30
Speaker 2: Without you realizing that.
00:13:32
Speaker 1: But just breathing in the soil that plants are growing in can actually impact your microbiome, your gut health.
00:13:43
Speaker 3: And this is where she lost me. Breathing dirt is like eating kimchi.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Yes, it can actually boost your mood on one hand, but also the anti microbial chemicals released by plants they're called I'm not good with pronouncing phyotone sides, phyotoed sides, Okay, whatever, they can actually help you fight disease because it tickles your immune system.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: That's what the scientist found out.
00:14:12
Speaker 1: An infection scientist said, breathing in dirt, being around nature and plants can actually kind of well, they said, tickle your immune system. So he actually, the scientist says, he encourages his children to get dirty, to go into the dirt, to dig, to roll around and play in it, because it's important we need. We're supposed to be in nature. It's part of what we as humans were meant to do, and we sometimes, especially people living like we do in New York City, don't get the opportunity to do so.
00:14:45
Speaker 2: So, you know, me.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: The moment I see any opportunity to plant a plant, to plant anything.
00:14:52
Speaker 2: I get excited.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: There's a reason I'm not just somebody who loves to garden and I'm getting older and have more time on my hands.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: You will catch I.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: Actually feel joy knowing that there are plants in the apartment, and there is a as these studies have shown a physiological reason why. So you feel just five And this whole episode is for me validating my love of hiking and gardening. So this is you see what I'm doing here, right.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: Stay tuned next Sunday when Robot tackles what exactly?
00:15:27
Speaker 1: So they say, so many people will sit there and pay for probiotic drinks that are stupid expensive and try to get all of these uh you know, but if you actually just go out of nature, it's all there and it's free, and you can experience it. You can breathe it in, you can touch it, you can feel it. They all enter your body. Your skin is your biggest organ, so actually you are absorbing things that you don't even realize. So I think that's super super cool, all right, in terms of what you can do in your home. This one actually really got me They found that flowers like the tifically said white or yellow roses have been shown to create the greatest calming effect on brain activity.
00:16:11
Speaker 2: You know, I love yellow roses.
00:16:14
Speaker 1: Really again, I found research to validate my love forthing.
00:16:21
Speaker 3: You should have told me that's what this episode was about. I would have prepared it differently. But yes, we keep I think I've only got you how many red roses? I've gotten you a lot of flowers over time, but you have always yellow yellow?
00:16:36
Speaker 2: But you did, actually you did.
00:16:39
Speaker 1: I highly suggest this gift for any guy out there looking for something to give his gal Oh that you actually did such a cool thing. I believe it was last Valentine's Day. You got what are they called forever roses?
00:16:50
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, that's some way they treat them. They preserve them and they last a year. So we've had those things look great.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: I think we're at how many months in counting that was months, I don't know, We're great at math eight months, nine months in counting. This beautiful display of red roses in a beautiful white vase have been almost perfect now for nine months.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: And I've said to you every time.
00:17:18
Speaker 1: I walk by it, it's a statement, I say that is one of the best gifts you ever gave me, because flowers are beautiful, but they die and they smell and it's off. And this is such a cool way to have flowers that are real in your yeah, in your home that last for a year. So anyway, highly recommend white or yellow roses though are apparently, yes, the recommendation to have the greatest calming effect on brain activity. And we mentioned pine. They say you can get a diffuser with essential oils that you know, people kind of I think a.
00:17:50
Speaker 2: Lot of folks laugh off a lot of.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: People who love the essential oils, but they say this is actually scientifically proven. It helps you feel calm. And so they even say, if you say you don't have the essential oils, you can't afford the candles or the roses. Those are all fairly expensive things. Even if you can take a picture of a forest, and I do believe this, what you surround yourself with in your home absolutely impacts how you feel. And so they say, even if you can take a picture of nature, put your laptop screensaver, whatever it is. I actually have a picture of nature if you haven't noticed, it's of a beautiful mountains with trees and a waterfall place I'd like to hike to. It's one of the ones that I think a lot of people have.
00:18:33
Speaker 2: You have, what's on yours?
00:18:36
Speaker 3: No wonderum stressed out? Oh no, this is what is that? I don't know what it is with this nature.
00:18:40
Speaker 2: It's rocky though.
00:18:42
Speaker 1: It looks like it's an ocean with a bunch of rocks jutting out, like it could destroy a naval ship in two seconds or a sailboat.
00:18:50
Speaker 3: This is my life. I'm trying to avoid these obstacles.
00:18:53
Speaker 1: This this reads your screensaver, looks treacherous.
00:18:59
Speaker 3: This is what this every day?
00:19:02
Speaker 1: All right? Well, they're saying research shows that looking at pictures of nature or gazing out at something green actually changes your brain waves and reduces stress. They're saying, every little bit that you can do to surround yourself with what you're looking at, what you're smelling, and what you're feeling, what you're touching, all of that has a huge impact on your mental health, which then translates to your physical health.
00:19:29
Speaker 3: Okay, look out the window back here, we see a.
00:19:33
Speaker 2: Lot of tall buildings.
00:19:35
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't Okay, there's something on the rooftop, but there is no From looking this direction, we see buildings New York City high rises.
00:19:48
Speaker 2: Bricks concrete.
00:19:49
Speaker 1: Now what I can see are clouds in sky.
00:19:51
Speaker 2: So I could look at that, But have you noticed that?
00:19:53
Speaker 1: So on the other side of the apartment, I can see other people who have big, beautiful balconies. And I said, even looking at someone else's flowers that they've planted on their balcony brings me.
00:20:06
Speaker 2: Joy when I look at it.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: But that's where we are. We do have some trees on the other side and some water. And when you can see nature, just like you know when you walk into a space, you have a feeling, there's an energy about it, and nature has such a big part of that, I believe. So it's just a reminder we can all do little things. Every little bit helps to calm our nerves. We have so much going on in our lives and in the world. It's just nice to know that if we just maybe get some plants, light a candle, have an essential oil, and maybe just plan a walk. Twenty minutes a day, that's what they say, that is the amount of time you need to change your inner chemistry. But those twenty minutes can have a lasting effect I think that's cool. It's not just helping for those twenty minutes. It could actually help for.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: So how about that for your Sunday thought. We thank you for joining us on this Sunday. I'm Amy Robot alongside t J.
00:21:05
Speaker 2: Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.