The Ministry of Health and Healing

Benefits of the Outdoor Life

Physicians and nurses should encourage their patients to be much in the open air. Outdoor life is the only remedy that many invalids need. It has a wonderful power to heal diseases caused by the excitements and excesses of fashionable life, a life that weakens and destroys the powers of body, mind, and soul. MHH 145.3

To invalids weary of city life, with its glare of bright lights and noise of the streets, how soothing and healing are the quiet and freedom of the country! How eagerly do they turn to the scenes of nature! How glad they would be to sit in the open air, rejoice in the sunshine, and breathe the fragrance of tree and flower! There are life-giving properties in the balsam of the pine and in the fragrance of the cedar and fir. Other trees also have properties that are health restoring. MHH 145.4

To the chronic invalid, nothing so tends to restore health and happiness as living amid attractive country surroundings. Here the most helpless can sit or lie in the sunshine or in the shade of the trees. They have only to lift their eyes to see beautiful foliage. A sweet sense of restfulness and refreshing comes over them as they listen to the murmuring of the breezes. The drooping spirits revive. The waning strength is recruited. Unconsciously the mind becomes peaceful, the fevered pulse more calm and regular. As the sick grow stronger, they will venture to take a few steps to gather some of the colorful flowers, precious messengers of God’s love to His afflicted family here below. MHH 145.5

Plans should be made to keep patients out of doors. For those who are able to work, let some pleasant, easy employment be provided. Show them how agreeable and helpful this outdoor work is. Encourage them to breathe the fresh air. Teach them to breathe deeply and to exercise the abdominal muscles in breathing and speaking. This is an education that will be invaluable to them. MHH 146.1

Exercise in the open air should be prescribed as a life-giving necessity. And for such exercise there is nothing better than the cultivation of the soil. Let patients have flower beds to care for or work to do in the orchard or vegetable garden. As they are encouraged to leave their rooms and spend time in the open air, cultivating flowers or doing some other light, pleasant work, their attention will be diverted from themselves and their sufferings. MHH 146.2

The more that patients can be kept out of doors, the less care they will require. The more cheerful their surroundings, the more hopeful they will be. Shut up in the house, be it ever-so-elegantly furnished, they will grow fretful and gloomy. Surround them with the beautiful things of nature. Place them where they can see flowers growing and the birds singing, and their hearts will break into song in harmony with the songs of the birds. Relief will come to body and mind. The intellect will be awakened, the imagination quickened, and the mind prepared to appreciate the beauty of God’s Word. MHH 146.3