Your Outside Mindset

By: Verla Fortier
  • Summary

  • 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.
    © 2025 Your Outside Mindset
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Episodes
  • Susan Allison-Dean, RN, MS Nature Nurse Focused on "the connection piece with nature"
    Jan 20 2025

    Susan Allison-Dean is a Board Certified Advanced Holistic Nurse and Certified Clinical Aromatherapy professional with over thirty years of experience in nursing. During the first half of her career, she practiced mainly as a Certified Wound, Ostomy, & Continence Clinical Nurse Specialist, holding a joint position with Yale-New Haven Hospital & Yale University.

    In 1999, she experienced the profound loss of two significant family members just two days apart. This loss and the profound healing experiences that she experienced in nature led her to leave the disease-care model and shift her practice to health promotion, specifically nature and health.

    Sue is the Founder and CEO of TheNatureNurse.com, which focuses on connecting women with nature so they may live more joyous, vibrant, awe-inspiring lives in harmony with Mother Nature. She is the co-chair of the Global Nature Nurse Network, connecting nurses who specifically partner with the natural world to enhance holistic health and prevent disease.

    Sue also enjoys writing, traveling with her husband, and dabbling in other creative arts. She lives in New York and North Carolina in the US.

    How you became a Nature Nurse

    4:12 deep level grief, profound loneliness, pain
    6:02 mother nature 24/7 availability - transformative - helped me to live a joyous and productive life. Bring light into people's lives.
    9:03 Florence Nightingale "nature itself is healing"

    14: Nurse Pioneers in Global Nature Nurse Network

    Verla cites podcast episode with Professor Andy Jones systematic review and meta analysis of green space exposure and health outcomes (103 observational and 40 interventional studies investigating 100 outcomes: green space exposure decreased heart rate and blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, increased HRV, decreased preterm birth, diabetes, and all cause mortality in particular cardiovascular mortality.

    For transcript see Treesmendus.com

    Nature Nurse on Instagram
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-allison-dean-rn-ms-ahn-bc-ccap/



    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 my website https://treesmendus.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



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    50 mins
  • Dr Jim Doty Tells You to Balance Your Nervous System to Manifest Your Goals
    Jan 5 2025


    Dr James Doty says Balance Your Nervous System To Manifest Your Desired Goals

    The word manifest may put you off, but I like James Doty (MD)’s definition of manifesting. He says “once the body and the mind are in a state of balance, we have the power of manifestation, we can start thinking clearly about what we want to manifest.” Renown Stanford neurosurgeon and neuroscientist Dr James Doty says we all have goals and intentions. When your nervous system is balanced you can begin to manifest.Studies show that as little as 5 minutes outside in nature or even looking at an image of nature balances your nervous system. When you are outside in nature your autonomic nervous system shifts to the parasympathetic (PNS) and you become less self focused, calm, and more connected to others and your world around you. You experience joy and awe. The relaxed PNS state (that can also be achieved by breathing and just thinking about the joy and awe in the world) is what Dr James Doty’s recent book “Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything” (link: https://www.amazon.ca/Mind-Magic-Neuroscience-Manifestation-Everything/dp/1399710966/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title) teaches. The book is well worth the read and fits beautifully with your practice of spending time in nature or green spaces.

    The ability to manifest is based in Neuroscience

    Doty’s idea of manifestation is not the self-serving get rich quick scheme, tarot cards, crystals, or pseudoscience. Doty’s view is based in “significant developments in brain imaging that allows us to watch the brain transform on a cellular, genetic, and even molecular level. We can now speak about manifestation in terms of cognitive neuroscience……and the brain’s extraordinary ability to change, heal, and remake itself, known as neuroplasticity.”

    Manifesting according to Dr. Doty is the process of intentionally embedding thoughts and desires into your subconscious. For this he suggests visualization and picturing powerful positive emotions of your desired goal. Why? Because your brain will not know the difference between the real and the imagined. Dr Doty says this is manifestation is not magic – it is neuroscience.

    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 my website https://treesmendus.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



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    24 mins
  • Dr Norman Farb Wants You to Test Drive Your Senses by "Sense Foraging"
    Nov 19 2024

    This is Verla Fortier of your Outside Mindset show. This podcast is about taking back your outside mindset by exploring and practicing new ways of noticing when you are outside close to nature whether you live in the city or country.

    Two podcast episodes ago I did a solo podcast on a great book “Better In Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your Life.” This is the link to that podcast episode is titled Get Intentional About Using Your Senses.

    Today I have the author of this book with me. This is his bio.

    Norman Farb, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, where he directs the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics laboratory. He studies the cognitive neuroscience of well-being, focusing on mental habits, such as how we think about ourselves and interpret our emotions. Together with Prof. Zindel Segal, he wrote Better in Every Sense, a book that describes the surprising role of sensation in mental health. His current research explores online interventions to support wellbeing, and neuroimaging of interoception, our sense of the body's internal state.

    Tanscript of interview is on my website Treesmendus.com

    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 my website https://treesmendus.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



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    57 mins

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