The Daily Makeover Wellness Prescription: A Daily Dose of Nature

There’s a particular moment, usually somewhere along the first stretch of trail in the Forest of Nisene Marks, when the world sharpens into focus. The air cools, the light thins into long ribbons between the redwoods, and your nervous system—tired from a steady diet of news alerts, unfinished to-do lists, and the soft hum of self-expectation—finally exhales. Not dramatically. Just enough to remember its own original settings.

Nisene Marks has that effect on people. It’s a kind of unintentional laboratory, a place where biology and psychology quietly collaborate. Step into the trees and your heart rate drops almost without asking permission. The parasympathetic nervous system—your internal peacekeeper—slides into the driver’s seat. Your mind, which may have been performing acrobatics all morning, suddenly has less to prove.

Scientists will tell you that it’s the phytoncide, those invisible compounds trees release as naturally as we breathe, that ease inflammation and coax the immune system into a steadier rhythm. They’ll explain how forest air communicates directly with the vagus nerve, that wispy, wandering filament responsible for mood, digestion, and whether you’re able to think straight in the grocery aisle.

But standing in a cathedral of redwoods, the science feels less like a revelation and more like confirmation. Of course the body responds to this. How could it not?

What people talk about less, but should, is the gut. Your microbiome, that complex, chattering ecosystem inside you, actually changes when you spend time outdoors. Soil microbes, plant compounds, and simple exposure to fresh, unprocessed air diversify the gut’s internal culture. A more diverse microbiome links to better mood, clearer thinking, and an immune system that doesn’t overreact to every passing disturbance.

Which makes the equation surprisingly simple:
Spend time in nature, and your insides behave more like a well-run city and less like a frat party at 2 a.m.

The prescription, if we can call it that, doesn’t require much more than a reminder. Twenty minutes a day is enough. Not a pilgrimage, not a seven-mile hike, not even a fitness outfit. Just an unhurried walk whereever you live. For me, in Aptos  a glance at the ocean on my way to somewhere else, or a few minutes on the porch in the morning, letting your eyes land on something that isn’t a screen

Because here’s the quiet truth: your nervous system is always trying to return you to yourself. It’s just waiting for the right conditions.

And Aptos, with its sanctuaries: Nisene Marks, the beach, Seacliff bluff paths, the muted blues, greens and grays of the coastline, offers those conditions generously. The forest does not ask demand anything of your only to be here and to pay attention. The ocean invites your system to synchronize.  Wherever you live even a small ritual of stepping outside and breathing in the air, letting your body attune to natural light.. or if in the forest listening for the creek, noticing how the light shifts between the trees- can become its own kind of daily makeover.

After a week of these brief encounters with nature, I have found that something shifts. Digestion steadies, anxiety lifts, almost imperceptibly at first. And the part of you that’s been running, strategizing, manifesting, scheduling, planning sits down for a moment. The buzzing energy gets absorbed by nature, the forest, the path, the back deck, the roof top, the balcony, the ocean.. 

Your daily routine creates the ultimate reset. So today, fill the prescription and take natures medicine.  Step outside. Nothing dramatic, just enough to nature reintroduce you to yourself.