Rooted in Nature, Guided by Data: How Wearable Tech Deepened My Healing Journey

There’s always been something powerful and honest about being in nature. Whether hiking through trees, pulling weeds in the garden, or just sitting quietly by water, I’ve always returned to myself outdoors. Nature has a way of calming the system — not by demanding, but by simply allowing.

But 10 years ago, I added something new: a Garmin wearable. I originally just wanted to track my movement and sleep. What I didn’t expect was how deeply motivated and curious I would become about the inner workings of my body — my heart rate, stress response, VO₂ max, sleep cycles, and recovery patterns.

What’s unfolded since then has been a deeply healing, measurable, and empowering journey of learning to listen more closely — not just to nature, but to my nature.

And here’s the thing: the tools that support our nervous system regulation don’t have to come only from wild landscapes (though I love those). They come from movement, breathwork, stillness, creativity, and connection. Whether you’re reading, painting, lifting weights, doing yoga, walking your dog, or watching the sky shift color — you are building your capacity to regulate and restore.

Below are a few of the metrics that helped me make sense of how my body responds to those practices. Some of them were confusing at first — but once I understood them, they became keys to real change.

HRV – Heart Rate Variability

HRV (Heart Rate Variability) measures the space between your heartbeats. The more variation (within a healthy range), the better. It means your nervous system can switch smoothly between stress and rest modes — what we call resilience.

Things like stress, illness, poor sleep, or overtraining can tank HRV. Meanwhile, breathwork, meditation, time in nature, and even writing or creating art can increase it.

My experience: My HRV steadily improved when I started using breathwork, strength training with recovery days, and reducing caffeine.

Resting Heart Rate (RHR)

RHR is your heartbeat per minute at total rest. It’s a window into how efficiently your heart is working and how well your body is recovering.

A lower resting heart rate can reflect better cardiovascular fitness. A higher one might signal stress, dehydration, illness, or poor sleep.

What helped me most? Building aerobic capacity, but also letting myself rest, practicing yin yoga, and gardening in the mornings instead of rushing into high-stimulation tasks.

Sleep Score

Garmin doesn’t just tell you how long you slept — it tells you how restorative that sleep was based on depth, movement, breathing, and interruptions.

I watched my score dramatically improve over time by shifting my bedtime, cutting caffeine after noon, adding magnesium, and creating a ritual of reading or stretching before sleep.

A surprising boost? Getting my hands in the dirt or taking walks in natural light earlier in the day — helping regulate circadian rhythm.

VO₂ Max

VO₂ Max tells you how much oxygen your body can use during physical activity. It reflects your cardiovascular fitness — and is a great indicator of long-term health.

Over the past two years, I’ve improved mine by 4–5 points. Not through high-intensity training alone — but by balancing aerobic movement (like walking and hiking), strength training, yoga, and strategic recovery.

Your body builds capacity through challenge and through rest. This is what polyvagal-informed fitness means: pushing when safe, and restoring when needed.

STRESS

This one changed everything for me.

Garmin calculates your physiological stress throughout the day based on heart rate patterns and HRV. What amazed me was how often my body showed stress even when my mind didn’t — while multitasking, overstimulated, underfed, or just chronically “on.”

But I saw real changes when I started integrating breathwork, meditation, unplugging, and protecting my mornings. And when I was out in nature, my stress score dropped. Every time.

What This Journey Has Taught Me

Wearable tech is not the answer — but it’s a really helpful mirror. It taught me to see the why behind how I felt. It validated what I already knew in my bones: Nature heals. Stillness matters. And recovery is just as powerful as effort.

I’ve used my Garmin to:

• Improve my HRV and resting heart rate

• Track the direct impact of caffeine, movement types, and breathwork

• Recover more intentionally

• Build strength and aerobic capacity

• Sleep deeper and more consistently

Join Me – Let’s Go Deeper

I'm excited to share more over the next two Sundays in our Accountability Group. If you're already using a wearable (Garmin, Fitbit, Oura, Apple Watch — anything!), bring your device, your data, and your curiosity.

We’ll talk through how to interpret confusing metrics, how to align them with your real-life stress and recovery practices, and how to use them to build habits that serve your nervous system, your health, and your joy.

Whether you regulate with a kettlebell or a paintbrush, a forest trail or a breath cycle — your data can help tell the story of your healing.

Next Accountability session is Basic Overview and the one after is a chance for people to bring their data.

RSVP for Part 1 Here

RSVP for Part 2 Here