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September 15 - October 12, 2020
study participants are significantly and substantially happier outdoors in all green or natural habitat types than they are in urban environments.”
how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Why don’t we do more of what makes our brains happy?
We don’t experience natural environments enough to realize how restored they can make us feel, nor are we aware that studies also show they make us healthier, more creative, more empathetic and more apt to engage with the world and with each other. Nature, it turns out, is good for civilization.
Scientists used to attribute myopia to book-reading, but it instead appears to be closely linked to time spent living like naked mole rats, away from daylight.
There are times when we could all be a little less reactive, a little more empathetic, more focused and more grounded.
yearning is a devastating thing, because it is defined by loss.
Scientists are quantifying nature’s effects not only on mood and well-being, but also on our ability to think—to remember things, to plan, to create, to daydream and to focus—as well as on our social skills.
“the passionate love of life and of all that is alive; it is the wish to further growth, whether in a person, a plant, an idea or a social group.”
Biophilia explains why even today we build houses on the lake, why every child wants a teddy bear, and why Apple names itself after a fruit and its software after noble predators, surfing spots and national parks. The company is brilliant at instilling biophilic longing and affiliation at the very same time it lures us inside.
outdoor environments in general remain some of the only places where we engage all five senses, and thus, by definition, are fully, physically alive.
More recent research shows that the steady stress of urban living changes the brain in ways that can increase our odds of schizophrenia, anxiety and mood disorders.
“If you have time for vacation, don’t go to a city. Go to a natural area. Try to go one weekend a month. Visit a park at least once a week. Gardening is good. On urban walks, try to walk under trees, not across fields. Go to a quiet place. Near water is also good.”
our brains are prone to mistakes, especially when we’re multitasking and dodging distractions.
exercise is the single best way to prevent aging-related cognitive decline.
What leads to brain-resting? I had asked her. “Soft fascination,” she’d said. That’s what happens when you watch a sunset, or the rain.
Geosmin, I learned, causes the funky-great smell of earth after a rain.
people who exercised in nature (as opposed to the city) achieved better fitness and were more likely to keep exercising;
nothing hits the brain’s emotional neurons more powerfully than odor.
Regardless of your income, the closer you live to these roads, the higher your risk of autism, stroke and cognitive decline in aging,
The hypothesis is that the smell of “cleanliness” makes us aspirational.
If you believe something can make you feel better, it sometimes does. The imagination is a powerful healer.
If less pollution makes us feel better, the same could be said of a reduction of noise, crowds, unwelcome distractions and, sometimes, technology.
The quietest place in the country, Hempton discovered, is a spot in the Hoh Rainforest at Olympic National Park. If you want to hear the earth without us, it’s marked by a red stone on a moss-covered log at 47-degrees 51.959N, 123-degrees 52.221W, 678 feet above sea level.
There’s some evidence that more introverted or neurotic people are more annoyed by loud noises. They also may be less likely to become habituated to them.
“We should think about soundscapes as medicine,” he said. “It’s like a pill. You can prescribe sounds or a walk in the park in much the way we prescribe exercise. Do it twenty minutes a day as a lifetime approach, or you can do it as an acute stress intervention. When you’re stressed, go to a quiet place.”
The Australian lyrebird is the world’s best mimic, and can imitate chainsaws, car alarms and the click of a camera shutter (none of which reflects well on its habitat).
“It is a curious thing to observe how almost all patients lie with their faces turned to the light, exactly as plants always make their way towards the light.”
nature views support increased worker productivity, less job stress, higher academic grades and test scores and less aggression in inner-city residents.
looking at an ocean might have a similar effect on us emotionally as listening to Brahms.
“Your visual system is in some way hardwired to understand fractals,”
Color is important, as is saturation, shapes (humans prefer rounded contours to straight lines), the complexity of the contours, and luminescence (we rate brighter, more saturated colors as more pleasurable).
it’s well known that the colors red and orange excite or agitate people (and make us lustful and hungry, as purveyors of fast food well know), while blues, greens and purples tend to relax us.
Red pops out at us because we have more cone cells dedicated to picking up this color, and in many cultures, red was the earliest color given a name after black and white.
Since red makes us vigilant and energized, we walk faster down red corridors than blue ones.
easy-to-process scenes trigger the release of natural opiates in the brain.
“Metsänpeitto is about getting lost in beauty. It could have a taste of freedom, nature-union and joy. The poem is suggesting that.”
Finland scores high on global scales of happiness. Many people assume this is because there isn’t much income disparity here. But perhaps it’s also because everyone has access to what makes them happy—a bunch of lakes, forests and coastlines, combined with ridiculously long, state-sanctioned vacations and a midnight sun.
Finland is the most forested country in Europe, with trees covering 74 percent of the land.
“five hours per month is the lowest amount of time to get the effect, then after, if you can go for ten hours, you will reach a new level of feeling better and better.”
“two to three days per month outside the city would bring the same effect.”
novelty effect, in which things that are new and fresh can make us feel good.
natural environments experienced in solitude seemed especially restorative to people who are mentally fatigued or socially stressed.
Note to self: leave the cell phone at home, or at least deep in your pocket, when in need of a cognitive reboot.
there was surprisingly little scientific investigation of awe, despite the fact that it’s considered one of the core positive emotions, along with joy, contentment, compassion, pride, love and amusement.
seeing Northern Lights for the first time, which can reconfigure your view of the universe. A deeply powerful, awe-inspiring experience can change someone’s perspective for a long time, even permanently.
awe is a unique emotion that turns us away from narrow self-focus and toward the interests of our collective group.
early social skills matter more than academic ones in predicting future success.
human brains seem to grow best when they get some time outside.
We all need a regular check-in for personal introspection, goal-setting and spiritual reflection. Best to turn the phone off.
Until we all fully acknowledge the need for nature that’s driving some of our behavior, we won’t work to make it available for everyone.
