Mosquitoes, dirt, lack of Wi-Fi… It seems that the city “jungle” is nicer to us than a real green forest. But nature can give us something that we are unlikely to get in the city – peace and tranquility. And this is the best gift for our brain.
Basic Ideas
- Easy walk in the forest can help manage stress (lower cortisol levels in the blood), relieve symptoms of depression, and improve well-being.
- Experiences related to nature can be as strong and deep as during creativity, prayer or meditation.
- The secret of the effectiveness of ecotherapy in that it allows the body to restore its natural rhythm, and the brain to get rid of the sensory loads associated with city life.
Most of us – the inhabitants of the city – can not imagine life without its rhythm, sounds, lights and amenities. But often we do not notice how we have to pay for this attachment. A team of psychologists from the University of Michigan (USA) found that just five minutes spent on a busy street – and our brain begins to retain facts in memory worse, and our self-control decreases.1. As a result, we become impulsive and aggressive. In large shopping centers, this effect is even stronger: the crowd and noise make us excited, and when we get home and look at shopping bags, we wonder – do we really need all these things? “Our brain is not a perpetual motion machine, and it has its own margin of safety,” says Marc Berman, lead author of the study. “Today we understand quite clearly that it is the urban atmosphere (in the broadest sense) that creates a load on the brain.” An increasing number of researchers—anthropologists, ethologists, evolutionary psychologists—are coming to the conclusion that we are not well adapted to living in an urban environment with its enclosed spaces, heavy traffic, and high population density.
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Forest against stress
In recent years, psychologists have paid more and more attention to natural methods of dealing with stress. These include ecotherapy – a technique that is based on the direct contact of man with nature. A few years ago, researchers from the University of Exeter (UK) found that of a group of people suffering from depression, 90% felt an increase in self-esteem after a walk in the park, and almost three-quarters noted relief of their symptoms of depression. Another study by the same team of psychologists found that 94% of people with mental illness believe that being in nature improves their mood. Data from the University of Exeter also shows that those who live in green spaces suffer less mental illness, are less stressed and are more satisfied with life than others.2.
In Japan, there is the practice of shinrin-yoku (literally “forest bath”), which became widespread in the 1980s as a means of dealing with everyday stress. Its meaning is extremely simple: to leave the house, get to the nearest forest and spend some time there, breathing in the forest air with full breasts. To achieve the best result, “bathers” can also meditate or practice yoga. A 2007 study supported the arguments of the practice’s proponents. For example, shinrin yoku has been found to reduce stress: after a walk in the forest, a person has a decrease in the level of cortisol (stress hormone), pulse rate and blood pressure3.
In addition to the fact that contact with nature can heal our mind, it can also cause profound changes in our sense of self and behavior. “For several years I have been studying what I call the “awakening experience” – moments when your perception of the surrounding reality is sharper (and then it becomes more beautiful and meaningful than usual, and we feel a sense of unity with the world and with other people) , says Steve Tailor, psychologist, author of Walking From Sleep. The world becomes harmonious and filled with meaning. This experience is very similar to what the psychologist Abraham Maslow called “peak experiences.” At such moments, a person feels an incredible spiritual uplift and seems to be reborn internally. Maslow attributed creative ecstasy and religious exaltation to such experiences. My observations show that contact with nature is one of the effective sources of these experiences. About 20% of these experiences are related to being in nature.”
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Forgotten sensations
It’s no surprise that nature has such a therapeutic effect, given how much we – like our distant ancestors – are attached to it. Only relatively recently, many of us have replaced natural landscapes with man-made ones. Contact with green spaces is like returning home for us. It fills us with a sense of security and wholeness. We yearn for nature in the same way that a child yearns for its mother, and we are just as comforted when we are reunited with her. “Thousands of exhausted, nervous, downtrodden people are beginning to come to understand that the return to the mountains is the return home,” wrote the famous American ecologist John Muir. “Wild, untouched nature is what we strongly strive for.”
But the main reason why nature can transform us is the calming effect it has on our minds. “When surrounded by nature, our minds process much less information than usual,” says Alan Logan, a naturopath and author of Your Brain in Nature. – In the city, our brain is constantly in an excited state. We are constantly on the lookout. We monitor traffic, the behavior of people who surround us. We constantly see inscriptions of the most different content, moving advertising. In nature, our mind does not overload itself. The flow of our thoughts becomes more even, breathing and other bodily processes become more rhythmic. As a result, we are filled with energy, feelings are sharpened.
Those who don’t want (or can’t) travel far for inspiration can start small by visiting the city’s sensory gardens. These are mobile playgrounds in the parks, where master classes in gardening and plant care are held under the guidance of experienced gardeners, as well as aromatherapy classes and educational games for children. In Moscow, sensory gardens are already operating in Gorky Park, Muzeon, Sokolniki and other places4.
1 Journal of Affective Disorders, 2012, vol. 140, № 3.
2 The results of the study are published on the website of the University of Exeter (UK), exeter.ac.uk.
3 British Journal of General Practice, 2007, vol. 57, № 534.
4 You can learn more about sensory gardens and events, as well as find the nearest garden, by visiting sadvgorode.ru.