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Your Outside MindsetAuthor: Verla Fortier
Join retired nursing professor Verla Fortier as she shows you that going outside is not just a fun thing to do -- it can save your life. Verla shines the light on aging adults who may have chronic disease as she talks to green space scientists, forest bathing leaders, natural navigators, and all things in-between to get practical tips on how you can get the most out of your time spent close to trees, grass, and shrubs. If you want to live longer, prevent dementia, and control your chronic illness - you will love being a part of this conversation. Language: en-us Genres: Health & Fitness, Medicine, Mental Health Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Boreal Meditation and Hope
Episode 56
Monday, 23 February, 2026
Listeners thank you again for keeping this podcast in the top 5% of podcasts of 3.7 million podcasts globally as reported by Listen Score. In addition I want to thank Million Podcasts for recently recognizing Your Outside Mindset in the top Aging and Well Being Podcasts in Canada.As you may know I am an active member of the Global Nature Nurses Collective and interviewed the chair of the group Susan Alliston Dean and will add a link for that. In our last meeting Sue asked me to do a grounding mediation of my time in the boreal forest bush. So I thought I would just share that with you today. I mean hope in the way psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and Dr. Dan Tomasulo’s book describe it as a teachable skill based on agency and many pathways. Hope changes everything – hope helps us feel differently about what is coming at us. Finding small ways to feel better (like getting outside into the woods) activates hope which an be regulated, improved and cultivated. This is not so much a state of mind but a practice or a learned habit of mind. More on hope in Kaufman book "Rise Above" in this link. Hope is a form of energy and very frequently that energy is strongest at times when we are outside in the trees. So dear listeners keep trusting that being outside makes you feel good, you become energized, and your perspective shifts. Being outside sharpens your ability to chose a new outlook as you take back Your Outside Mindset. For peer reviewed research on how your time spent in green space can change your mindset, balance your nervous system and your heart rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com and check out my books Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space













