Whether you live in an area surrounded by desert, trees, water, or in the city, your environment will affect the way that you live. It will affect whether or not you go outside, drink the water from your tap, or eat the fruit off the trees in the backyard.

Therefore, the healthier the environment is, the healthier you will likely be. This means it’s important to focus on ways to improve the environment around you—be it through taking shorter showers, eating less meat, or installing solar panels for home. Making the world a healthier place by taking care of the environment means boosting your wellbeing. Here are a few ways a healthier environment benefits you.

You’ll Get More Exercise 

Who wants to walk out the front door into smokey air or dirty roads? It’s a lot more pleasant to be outside when your environment is thriving, and it’s much more pleasant to exercise freely outside than in the confines of your home. Therefore, a healthier environment means more exercise. Exercise has countless benefits for your well-being. Physical benefits include helping you manage your weight, blood sugar, and insulin levels, reducing your risk of heart disease, and strengthening your muscles and bones. Exercise also has mental benefits. Exercise releases chemicals that improve your mood and make it easier to deal with stress. But when you look out your window and see wilted trees, it likely doesn’t give you much motivation to go exercise outside.

You’ll Get More Sunshine

A healthier environment means more clear skies and sunshine. Sunshine is an addictive drug that does wonders for your mental health. Sunshine helps regulate melatonin, which helps both cultivate improved sleep patterns and reduce stress. It also provides you with a healthy dose of vitamin D, which is critical for the strength of your immune system. Plus, sunshine catalyzes your body’s release of serotonin, which plays a massive role in fighting off depression. In other words, keeping the environment healthy helps fight illness and maintain happiness—what more could you ask for?

You’ll Eat Better Food

When your environment is healthy, your food will be better tasting and more nutritious. This goes for fruits, vegetables, and meat. When your produce is grown in a healthier environment, it will inevitably taste better and be packed with more nutrients. Additionally, when the animals you eat are raised in healthy environments—with themselves having access to cleaner food and water—they will also taste better and be free of unneeded and unhealthy chemicals. Further, having access to delicious tasting, natural, whole foods will reduce your desire to eat more processed, sugary foods, promoting a healthier overall diet.

Your Chance of Illness Will Decrease

A healthier environment will reduce your risk of disease. Poor air and water quality can have detrimental effects on your bodily health. This is why efforts to purify these things are so important. Toxins in the air can cause respiratory illnesses such as asthma and are also likely to cause diabetes, damage to the cardiovascular system, and certain types of cancer—especially lung cancer. Pollutants in the water, additionally, can cause water-borne illnesses, such as E.coli or giardiasis. All in all, it’s important to keep the environment healthy. When you go outside to play a sport, spend time with your friends, or swim in a lake, you will avoid illness, ensuring you live a long and happy life.

Humans are so connected to the environment; humans are part of the world in which they exist, and much of the damage to the earth’s climate is man-made. Therefore, it’s important to work toward maintaining the health of the plants, water, trees, and air outside. While it might take a few lifestyle changes or mindset switches, a healthier environment will only create a healthier you. And in the end, this will be totally worth it.