The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative

by Florence Williams

people are happiest when they are well enmeshed in community and friendships, have their basic survival needs met, and keep their minds stimulated and engaged, often in the service of some sort of cause larger than themselves.

YES

I’m not a wannabe mountain sprite. There’s a lot I love about cities, like great cheap tacos and smart people in fantastic eyewear.

ABSOLUTELY

Muir wrote of time not in the wilderness: “I am degenerating into a machine for making money.”

vaporize stem oil from hinoki cypress trees, which are common in Japan; other rooms emitted eau-de-nothing. The results? The cypress sleepers experienced a 20 percent increase in NK cells during their stay, and they also reported feeling less fatigued.

evergreen scents—not unlike the thing that dangles from taxicab rear-view mirrors—could help us live longer.

“I use a humidifier with cypress oil almost every night in the winter!”

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.”

Because of this interplay of observation, selective attention and inhibition, humans are able to achieve higher-order cognition, which includes creative problem-solving, goal-following, planning and multitasking. The problem is that all this inhibition and filtering uses up cognitive fuel.

Geosmin, I learned, causes the funky-great smell of earth after a rain. Like many of the phytoncides, it is a turpene, a family of aromatic hydrocarbons and a major component of natural resin (incidentally, turpenes are also a big ingredient of hops, giving dark beer its rich flavor and aroma). Geosmin comes from soil organisms, particularly the streptomyces bacteria that are key to so many antibiotics. According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, we are alert to this rich smell in incredibly small quantities. We can detect the equivalent of seven drops of geosmin in a swimming pool. This sensitivity likely reflects an important evolutionary adaptation because it tipped our thirsty ancestors off to sources of water.

the closer you live to these roads, the higher your risk of autism, stroke and cognitive decline in aging, although the exact reasons haven’t been teased out. Many scientists suspect it has something to do with fine particles causing tissue inflammation and altering gene expression in the brain’s immune cells.