The Health Benefits of the Great Outdoors
I dare to write that not many people know the benefits of being in Nature. I'm sure they have felt it and appreciated it, but there has been a lot of writing about it and it's hard to understand why any dissertation on the benefits of being in Nature can still feel like "new age" fiction for so many.
The benefits are true and the amazing mind and soul advantages of walking barefoot or just looking through a window into a beautiful nature scenery can be proved.
Unfortunately because of the intense usage of smartphones, urbanisation and digital creep, the crucial fact of where you are, seems no to matter, but that's not true. Where you are makes a huge difference on how you feel, right here, right now.
"In this here place, we flesh;
flesh that weeps, laughs;
flesh that dances on bare feet in grass.
Love it. Love it hard."
-
Toni Morrisson
David Thoreau emphasised the act of walking, and how much benefit it would bring to him, but he would be walking in the "wild". Wondering lonely as a cloud, the poet William Wordworth used his poetry to look at the relationship between Nature and human life, and to explore the belief that Nature can have an impact on our emotional and spiritual lives. He considered Nature as a source of consolation and joy, as well as a great teacher, guardian and nurse.
We've got the art of shinrin yoku, or forest bathing, where the goal is to allow Nature into your body through all five senses. As the Zen student asks his teacher "How do you see so much?" and the teacher responds, "I close my eyes".
It's possible to recover from stress in Nature. Creativity and peace are unleashed when you take off your watch, turn off your devices and head into the wild. Nature allows us to recenter in this time of distraction. The reality is that we have far more information than we can deal with. Most of what the brain is doing is filtering, turning stuff off so we can focus in things that are relevant.
Nature can heal anxiety. How? By pulling people away from stress towards something more meaningful than the punishing grind of work and study.
Nothing hits the brain's emotional neurons more powerfully than odor, and the amazing scent of walking through the woods really elevates your spirit.
The world is also getting louder, and just because you don't notice certain noises anymore doesn't mean your brain is not on some level responding to them. Go into Nature and listen to the sound of the Earth without us. There's something real about the phrase "you can't hear yourself think". Noise, especially if noticed, will annoy you. And the more you start noticing the worst it feels.
Sight will also induce us into certain mental states, as author Diane Ackerman writes about the craving for the "visual opium" of a sunset. It is said that the famous painter Jackson Pollock painted nature's fractals 25 years ahead of their scientific discover. Nanoparticle physicist Richard Taylor chose to study Nature to figure out the most efficient ways to move electricity like those found in river systems, lung bronchi or cortical neurons, and through his studies he saw how in very tiny devices the order of current would break down, and so, as an ordered chaos he saw that the pattern was actually there, but in different scales: fractals. Now he’s actually using “bioinspiration" to build a better solar panel. If trees and plants are branched, why not do the same?
In other cases, the opposite also happens, there’s no aha feeling, insight, but instead a real mind-altering, health-giving effect is induced, but in these cases the subject is immerse in wildish landscapes. As described by journalist and activist Leppanen “Metsanpeitto is about getting lost in beauty. It can have a taste of freedom, nature-union, joy.”
To be grateful is good for your health, and for the economy! Opposite to most countries where usually the right person for the job is selected until it burns out, in Finland, since the pool of workers is very limited, the individuals are kept for as long as possible. How? By keeping them happy. How? By inviting Nature into everyone’s life. They know the more Nature you experience, the better you feel. Scientifically Nature causes immediate effects like lowering our pulse rate and parasympathetic nervous system response of feelings such as peace and well-being.
Even Darwin considered empathy and compassion to be our strongest instinct, one that launched the success of the human species. By taking good care of each other, we thrived through long childhoods, sicknesses and food shortages.
The body’s vagus nerve it’s connected to our oxytocin receptors. This hormone, also called the love hormone, which causes a humming sensation in our upper back, can also be released through a response of the vagus nerve to Awe. An Awe that tis felt as an outward happiness, love, no need for attachment or possessions. This awe feeling also promotes curiosity, murmuration, pushing fear away. When there’s no inner censorship or insecurity, creativity happens. That’s why Nature is such a great channel for distraction from unwelcome thoughts. We are living in an overwhelmed world, and for us, and our children, it’s important to keep learning through exploration, not just by copy paste. As neuroscientist Daniel Levitin affirms, we are consuming averagely 74 gigabytes of data per day. For a strong cognitive and emotional development, we need, specially children, exercise and exploratory play. Both are within our reach.
Please go outside, into Nature, often. Don’t leave any garbage behind. Respect Nature’s holistic space. Turn your phone off. Breathe. Life feels much better when it's simple.
“The faint whisper of rain and running water
was still there
and it had the same tender note of solitude and perfection”
_
Tove Jansson
