Blog #162--Nature Provides Us with Physical and Emotional Benefits

We live in a typical middle class neighborhood. But not far from us, there is an area where rich people live adjacent to a private country club golf course. The homes there are farther apart, and they are surrounded by mature trees. Many residents can afford gardeners and/or lawn specialists to beautify their surroundings. It is a peaceful area, somewhat secluded from the rat race of modern life.

I like taking walks along their winding streets. It is about as close to Nature as a city dweller can get without driving to a more distant park or recreation area. Large, beautiful evergreens dot the area, as do a wide variety of other tree species. There are a number of tulip trees that produce attractive yellow flowers each spring. And there are at least two varieties of linden trees. One of these produces large clumps of small, highly aromatic white flowers mid-June. The unusual shape of its trunk and lower branches, coupled with its sweet smelling flowers, made it so valued that homes were built around it. It lives on a small island in the middle of the street.

Rabbits live in or near our backyard, but they rarely show themselves out of fear of predators and untrustworthy people. But in the area where I walk, rabbits can often be seen chasing each other playfully around dusk each evening. They have less to fear than their cousins living a couple blocks away.

I have even enjoyed walking there after a snowfall. If the snow is powdery and the moon is out, the snowflakes tend to glisten in the moonlight. When walking prior to Christmas, I’ve also enjoyed house decorations that adorn a number of the homes. This is especially true when the multi-colored lights reflect off new snow.

I had the good sense to visit this area frequently without realizing how much benefit I was deriving from it. But a recent article by Jill Suttie in the publication The Greater Good shared research that has demonstrated how nature provides us with a number of benefits. Suttie quotes David Strayer, a researcher at the University of Utah:

“People have been discussing their profound experiences in nature for the last several hundred years—from Thoreau to John Muir to many other writers. Now we are seeing changes in the brain and changes in the body that suggest we are physically and mentally more healthy when we are interacting with nature.”

Suttie pointed out several benefits in her article:

1. Nature can help us decrease stress and anxiety. Researchers in Japan demonstrated that people who walked in forests had lower heart rates, more relaxation, less stress, better moods and less anxiety than those who walked the same distances in urban environments. Both groups had the same level of exercise, a known stress reducer, so the results were accomplished by more than exercise alone.

2. Nature can make us happier and less brooding. Gregory Bateman of Stanford University found that those who walked in nature had less anxiety, less attention on negative aspects of themselves, and more positive emotions than those who walked the same length of time in an urban setting. They also performed better on tasks requiring short-term memory. He also did brain scans on two similar groups of people after walks in woodland or urban settings and found there was increased activity in the part of the brain that helps prevent depression and anxiety, suggesting being around nature has a positive effect on mood.

3. Nature can relieve attention fatigue and increase creativity. In our technologically complex, multi-tasking world, we can suffer mental fatigue and ultimately burnout due to excessive attentiveness. For example, frequent cell phone use can reduce the cognitive functions of the brain. Strayer is one of those who now believes nature can restore depleted attention circuits in the brain. This can lead to more creativity and ability to solve problems. Strayer suggests putting down our cell phones or shutting off our computers so we can commune with nature for awhile to recharge our batteries, as it were.

4. Nature can also improve our ability to be kind and generous. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley tested groups of people using the Dictator Game and the Trust Game after exposure to more or less beautiful nature scenes. Those exposed to the more beautiful nature scenes were more generous and trusting than their counterparts.

In another study, people filled out a survey regarding their emotions while sitting at a table where more or less beautiful plants were placed. After completion of this task, they were told they could leave, or they could stay and help make paper cranes for a relief effort in Japan. People exposed to the more beautiful plants produced a much larger number of cranes than those who sat near less beautiful plants.

Research by Paul Piff at the University of California at Irvine also demonstrated how witnessing the beauty of nature can lead to more positive emotions and more kindness toward others. He found that people who looked upward at a grove of tall trees for as little as one minute were more helpful toward others and more ethical relative to moral dilemmas than those who stared toward the tops of tall buildings.

Those who appreciate and explore nature frequently in their lives swear by it, as do I. Now there is research demonstrating that nature can help us physically, emotionally, mentally and behaviorally.

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