137- Go Touch Grass: Why Nature Is the Ultimate Regulation Tool

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Welcome to Every Brain is Different, the podcast where we celebrate the unique world of neurodiversity. We are your hosts, Samantha Foote, a neurodivergent, Board Certified Music Therapist and mom to three kids of ADHD and autism. And Lauren Ross, an ally to the neurodivergent community with over 10 years of experience supporting children and adults with autism.

This podcast is for parents like you. Navigating the world of neurodiversity with love and compassion. Together we'll create a world where every brain is valued and celebrated. We're excited to embark on this enlightening journey with you.

Transcript:

Samantha Foote: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Every Brain is Different podcast. It is Samantha and Lauren here with you and Lauren, how's it going?

Lauren Ross: It's, it's so, it's so going so good. So going so good haha.

Samantha Foote: Good, good, good. Today we are talking about touching grass and why that helps your mental health.

Lauren Ross: Go [00:01:00] touch grass.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. I always say that when people are being ridiculous, I'm like, “You need to go touch grass.”

Lauren Ross: I had to say this to my father, I think a couple times in the last week. I don't remember why, but I was just like, “You need to go touch grass. Calm down.”

Samantha Foote: That's awesome. I tell that to my kids all the time. I'm like, “You need to go touch grass. Like just, go outside and reset yourself.” But, I really think that that's like what helps people is going outside. It does like reset your body.

Lauren Ross: The- it- I swear by it, and I swear by it by witnessing my ADHD boyfriend thrive in nature.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. Yeah. So yesterday I was feeling kind of like meh. And my son said, “Will you go outside and play Two Square with me?” And I said, “Absolutely.” I did not want to go play Two Square with him, but I was like, I'll go play. [00:02:00] Anyway, we played for like 45 minutes and it was so fun and I felt so good afterwards. I was awake. I was alert. It's like when you go outside and just get the sun on you and then you're getting the endorphins going. I mean, it's awesome. So that's what we're gonna talk about today, like why nature helps regulate our bodies and brains and simple sensory friendly ways we can get outside. And then how outdoor time can improve connection and emotional regulation. So, I really do think like going outside, just reset your body and it just helps get some perspective on things. So, yeah.

Last night my kids spilled red Kool-Aid on my beige carpet. Probably should have went outside and like reset myself before I reacted to [00:03:00] that. So just remember, just go outside. Just be like, “I'll be back. I'll be back.” So yeah, I did not respond well to that. I just, I did everything you're not supposed to do, but such is life. Sometimes it happens and sometimes you, instead of going outside, I just screamed for five seconds and I was like, “ahhhhh” and then my kids ran away to their rooms. And I cleaned it up and I found my kid crying because I scared him from my outburst and I felt so bad. But I am working on not doing that all the time. And sometimes you just gotta apologize. I apologized to him. And we went on with life and everything was fine. But yeah, sometimes you don't react appropriately a hundred percent of the time, but yeah.

But we're [00:04:00] talking about going outside today so that maybe you can react better than I did, most of the time-

Lauren Ross: When those kinds of things happen.

Samantha Foote: … and when those things, when you're- and I'm talking like it was like a giant canning jar, not like the quart size or even- pints are smaller than quartz. Not the quart size. It was like four quarts that huge jar of Kool-Aid on my carpet, and mm. And it was like nine o'clock at night and they were supposed to be in bed. So I'm like, “Why do you have Kool-Aid on the carpet anyway? What, what does keep- Yeah. I was like, why is that even on?” Like, and I told my son, “Do not ever take this on the carpet.” And he is like, “Well, I forgot you said that.” And then my other son was like, “Well, I didn't see it there.” So anyway, I'm making excuses for my reaction. There's no excuse, but.

Here's the [00:05:00] neuroscience of nature. So when we go out in nature, it affects our nervous system by activating the parasympathetic system, which is the rest and digest system, and it lowers cortisol and heart rate and improves sensory integration and attention.

So, the first one, activates the parasympathetic rest and digest system. When we're stressed, rushed, or overstimulated, our sympathetic nervous system kicks in. This is our fight, flight, or freeze response, and that's when we feel tense, reactive, or on edge. Just like I did last night. But when we spend time in nature, our body starts to shift into the parasympathetic state, which is the one responsible for calm, digestion, and recovery.

So, when you go outside, you might notice your breathing slows down, your [00:06:00] shoulders drop and your thoughts get quieter. And that's your nervous system saying, “we're safe now, we don't have to fight, flee or freeze.” And then for neurodivergent kids who often live in a world that constantly overstimulates them, nature provides a sensory break that tells their brain, you can relax. So that's a cool thing that nature does.

It also lowers cortisol and heart rate. So, studies show that even 15 to 20 minutes outside can lower cortisol, which is your stress hormone, and that's true for both adults and children. So, exposure to nature sounds like birds chirping or water flowing can lower heart rate and blood pressure too.

And I learned scary things about blood pressure yesterday, so you should keep that low.

Lauren Ross: I do nature soundscapes at night to help me calm and sleep and yeah. It's game changer. So, the nature sounds real legit.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. Yeah. And if you live in the city, maybe there's not a lot of nature [00:07:00] sounds, play that that's perfect. Because when I go to my parents' house in the country, there's all sorts of nature sounds that I do not hear in the city, and it makes me kind of sad. But yeah, so nature is literally telling your body to regulate. It's like hitting the reset button, like we said, for your stress response.

And then the third thing that nature does is it improves sensory integration and attention. So, nature is full of sensory input, but it's soft sensory input, not the kind that overwhelms, like bright screens or noisy classrooms or me turning up my music super loud. Yeah, it's gentle. Like you hear the birds chirping. You hear water flowing. I can't think of any other nature sounds, but you get it.

Lauren Ross: The leaves rustling.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, yeah. So you can feel grass, you can hear the sound of leaves rustling. You can see the sun. Don't [00:08:00] look at the sun, but you can see the sun like coming through the trees. All that helps your brain practice filtering and organizing sensory information in a way that feels safe. So, for kids with ADHD or autism, this kind of environment supports sensory integration, helping them tune in and out appropriately rather than feeling bombarded by all the sensory information they're receiving. It also improves focus, and researchers call this attention restoration theory. After being in nature, the brain has more capacity for sustained attention and problem solving. Which I can attest to because yesterday, usually in the afternoon, I struggle really bad.

Lauren Ross: Hardcore.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, hardcore with paying attention, focusing on anything. And I felt like I could do anything that I wanted to do after I got back inside from doing that stuff with my son. It was awesome. So, yeah.

And then the other cool thing [00:09:00] about nature is you have a natural playground and it's free. Yeah, it's free.

Lauren Ross: It's free playground for-

Samantha Foote: Yeah, it's a free playground, so in nature you have grass, rocks, sand, leaves, wind, so that those are touching things like you can touch grass, touch rocks, touch leaves, explore them, and then you can hear sounds like wind, birds, crunching leaves, and then proprioception and vestibular includes climbing, swinging, running, all those different things you can find for free in nature. You don't have to go to a gym and it's awesome.

So, nature gives the safe sensory input like we talked about. So, outside sensations come in layers. You have the wind on your face, the crunch of the leaves under your feet, the birds in the distance, but they're predictable and rhythmic. [00:10:00] Like music, this is why music works so well, and gentle. Like we've said before, they're very gentle. They're not gonna bombard your system. So these kinds of inputs help the brain organize and make sense of sensory information.

For example, just more examples, because I love examples. For touch, you can fill grass, fill the dirt, or the bank provides grounding, tactile feedback, and it reminds the body, I'm here. I'm safe. I can feel the earth under me. And then for movement, swinging, running, or spinning in a wide open space helps the inner ear recalibrate and brings balance back to the nervous system. For proprioception, climbing on rocks or pushing a wagon gives deep pressure input to muscles and joints, which helps calm the body and reduce impulsive movements.

I think my son who has ADHD needs to go outside more. If I could convince him to go outside more, that would be perfect, [00:11:00] but. He's a homebody. He just has a lot of impulsive movements that need to be, helped-

Lauren Ross: Needs to be working out outside.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. His, his occupational therapist will like, beg him to go outside. “No, I don't want to.” So then they try to do things inside and I'm like, “you're gonna break my house.” But anyway.

When kids get this variety of input, like proprioception, sound, touch, all those different things, in a gentle and self-directed way, their brains can process and integrate sensations instead of reacting to them. It's like giving their nervous system a chance to reboot. Like we said before, it's a reset when you go outside and parents can feel it too. So when you walk barefoot in the grass or stop to notice how the air feels on your skin, you're giving your own brain the same reset, and that's co-regulation in action. So your calm body becomes the model [00:12:00] for theirs.

Lauren Ross: Mm-hmm.

Samantha Foote: So instead of seeing outdoor time as one more thing to fit in, think of it as a natural regulation strategy. So, nature does have to work for you. It gives your child's senses a chance to settle down, and it gives you space to breathe with them.

So, one of the best things about being outside is that it's unscripted than unstructured. It can be as structured as you want it to be. Like yesterday, my son and I were playing two square, but if we just wanted to go outside and go for a nature walk or play a scavenger hunt or there's no right way to play in nature, you can make it as structured or unstructured, unstructured as you want. That builds creativity in kids and in yourself. Yeah, like use your imagination. So this was perfect. My- My kid's uncle. So my brother-in-law, I was like, “How is he related to me?” [00:13:00] He created this thing where they drew pictures of animals that were gonna be in their zoo, and then they pretended that the animals were outside and they had to go take care of the animals in the zoo. But, they first had to go on like a nature safari type thing, and then they went to the zoo to take care of the animals, and they created this book. So they were drawing. They were creating, you know, like their book and then they were using their imagination to go on the safari, and then they were using their imagination to be at the zoo. I just thought it was really cool and an idea if you wanted to do something like that.

So, when kids are outside, also, they're practicing emotional flexibility and this happens because nature is unpredictable. Sometimes the ground is uneven. Sometimes a bug might surprise them. The wind might blow their artwork away, but it's still a safe place to experience the [00:14:00] unpredictability. They learn to adapt, to adjust their plan, to try again, and it builds resilience in them.

Lauren Ross: I love that.

Samantha Foote: So yeah, I think that's great because it's, once again, a more gentle approach to unpredictability and it helps teach them resilience instead of just like sitting them down and being like, “we're gonna talk about resilience.” You know?

Lauren Ross: I think, and I think that's a part of it is with the nature and why, like the gentler, it's not a person, it's not a thing. I can't blame you. I can't be mad at you. Like, 'cause there's nothing there. It's just, it's just happening.

Samantha Foote: Yeah.

Lauren Ross: And so I. I think that helps kids.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. Because you can't say, “Oh, nature did that on purpose.” you know?

Lauren Ross: Yeah.

Samantha Foote: If someone came up and took your, or, okay. Let's think of an an example where someone comes up and does something on accident, like, [00:15:00] knock over your drink or something like that. My kids and a lot of neurodivergent kids that I know would say, “You did that on purpose.” And they would blame the person, get mad at the person, say they did it on purpose, argue with the person. But, if nature does it, they can't be like, “The wind did that on purpose. They're out to get me.” Yeah. I mean they still might,

Lauren Ross: Yeah. I mean they still might, but it's less likely.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. And it's more logical to be like, this just happened. So, then they're learning to deal with their drink spilling without having that added thing on top that another person did it to them on purpose and having to deal with those feelings too.

Lauren Ross: Mm-hmm.

Samantha Foote: So, here are some practical strategies for neurodivergent kids to get them outside, if they need some ideas of what to do. When I was a kid, my mom would just say, “Go outside. Do something.”

Lauren Ross: Go play outside.

Samantha Foote: Go play outside. I say that to my kids and they're like, “Well, what are we supposed to do?” I blame [00:16:00] it on being in the city 'cause I grew up on a farm and I had wide open spaces and my kids have a tiny backyard. What are they supposed to do? I wouldn't know what to do. That's on me though. They deserve better.

Lauren Ross: Oh, no, no.

Samantha Foote: My kids have said, “What are we supposed to do? There's nowhere to go.” Because they go to their grandparents' house and they're used to that, and then they come home and they're like, we hate living in a subdivision. I was like, “Well, that's where we live, so you gotta deal with it.”

Lauren Ross: Yeah.

Samantha Foote: But here are some ideas, if your kids need ideas. The first one is a nature walk or a leaf hunt. You can find five different colors. You can find different textures.

Lauren Ross: Now’s the time.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, this is a perfect time for that because we have green leaves, leaves that are still on the tree, leaves that are falling down.

My daughter is noticing the leaves like no other right now. She's like, “Oh, they're falling down, or those are golden, or those are yellow, or those are green.” I love [00:17:00] it.

The next one is a backyard sensory scavenger hunt where- We got these cards that we got for camping to go on a scavenger hunt and you have to find something like find something that's rough, find something that's smooth, find something that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and we got 'em on Amazon. The link will be in the show notes. But it was really cool because my kids were able to take the cards and they were able to look for those different things and then they'd bring them back to me and be like, “Look what I found! Look what I found!” Or, they could take a picture of 'em because they're obsessed with taking pictures of things, so they would take pictures of what they found. So that was really fun.

Lauren Ross: Nice.

Samantha Foote: The next one is to bring favorite comfort items outdoors. So noise counseling, headphones, fidgets, snacks.

My kids really like to go outside and have picnics, so they take a blanket out there and they take all the snacks out there and just have a picnic.

Movement breaks between tasks. So you can- I do tell my kids, “Go [00:18:00] run around the house three times and then come back in and we're going to finish what we're doing.” Because they just need a movement break and like going outside-

Lauren Ross: Let that energy out.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. Yeah. And just get a reset. And so that's perfect. If you're maybe doing a hard task inside, maybe take it outside or have them take a break outside for a few minutes.

Lauren Ross: Mm-hmm.

Samantha Foote: And then the last one is using playgrounds as practice for social and emotional skills. So, if you go to a park or a playground and there's other kids there, you can practice your social emotional skills while playing at the playground and being outside, you know, getting that reset and everything.

Common barriers to being outside though are transitions, going from inside to outside. That seems to be a big one in my house where they're like, “No, I don't wanna do it.” Because they had to transition to a new activity, new location and they just don't want to.

Sensory overload can happen [00:19:00] outside, even with the gentle sensory input. So, just be aware of that. Like if it's super windy outside, they're probably gonna get overwhelmed sensory wise, I don't know how to say that. Or if it's like really, really hot outside, you know, different things like that. So there are weather concerns too. You know, in the summer here it gets like a hundred and something degrees, so you might not wanna go outside when it's like over a hundred degrees.

Lauren Ross: Yeah.

Samantha Foote: And in the wintertime it gets sub-zero, so maybe don't go outside when it's that cold.

Lauren Ross: Yeah.

Samantha Foote: You can get like a sun lamp during the wintertime. I think that helps. Even if you're not going outside and getting like the sensory stuff. That way you can still get sunlight on you even if you can't go outside.

Lauren Ross: Which is important.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. And now in the fall, it's cooler weather. It's actually kind of perfect [00:20:00] weather, I would say to do stuff outside right now, at least where we live. It's like in the sixties right now. And I say that's perfect for outdoor adventures-

Lauren Ross: Yeah.

Samantha Foote: … that don't require getting in the water because if you have to get in the water, that's too cold.

But you can do things like collect leaves or pine cones, make a craft out of 'em. You can do a mud kitchen, water with mittens. That- That's more of a summer thing. I don't know why I put that on the list, but anyway, I don't know. But that's more of a summer thing. But you can go on walks and not get overheated, not get, I almost said under heated, don’t get cold. You can go apple picking, you can work in the yard, you can rake leaves. I can only think of chores right now because that was my upbringing. Like we went outside to do chores 'cause I lived on a farm, so [00:21:00] you can do lots of chores outside in the fall time. Don't necessarily know- And when people are like, “We're going apple picking.” I'm like, “You're paying to go apple picking?” Like I don't get that. If you're gonna pay for it, just buy the apples. But some people like it, so that's cool.

Lauren Ross: It's the experience. Be outside with your friends and family doing an activity.

Samantha Foote: I know, but it's not for me. Maybe because I grew up doing that, like my parents had like six trees and I literally fell out of the tree once from pretty high up and my mom was like, “Get back to work, you're fine.” She didn't believe me that I fell out of the tree 'cause she didn't see me fall out of the tree. And I like hit my back and it really hurt. And she was like, “You're just pretending 'cause you don't wanna do it. Get back out there.”

Lauren Ross: And you hated picking apples ever since.

Samantha Foote: I hate, I was picking cherries that time, but I didn't wanna pick any fruit [00:22:00] after that because it was scary.

But anyway. Yeah. So, just remember-

Lauren Ross: Go touch grass guys.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, go touch grass. Nature regulates, it connects and it restores. And just choose one small outdoor activity this week to do. If you're not used to going outside, if you're not used to getting fresh air except to like walk to your car to take your kids somewhere, maybe go on a five minute walk before you get in the car. I don't know. But, choose one small thing to do this week. And then, think about when the last time was you truly felt calm outdoors, and what made that moment feel so good? And maybe recreate that moment and see what you can do. And if you want more simple regulation strategies like this, you can join the Parenting- Nope. The [00:23:00] Neurodivergent Parenting Community, and that is at everybrainisdifferent.com. We share practical strategies that actually work for real families. So-

Lauren Ross: Check it out.

Samantha Foote: Go check it out. See what you see if it's for you. Anyway, have a good week. Thank you for listening. If you like our podcast, share it with someone, leave a review, do what you want, follow us on Instagram, do all the things, and we'll see you next week.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. We hope this discussion on neurodiversity has provided you with support, understanding and inspiration. If you're looking for more support, Or you can go to everybrainisdifferent.com and download the ultimate guide to parenting your neurodivergent child.