Hi there,
This is Sokka Lucía from AQNS and today I would like to talk about the healing power of nature from a scientific perspective.
This topic is really important and I have decided to prepare this talk because I think that many people don't see nature as a fundamental factor for our well-being.
Our visits to nature have become more a recreational thing,
A holiday thing,
Rather than something that is part of our lives.
If we look around,
Noticing the comfort of our modern world,
It is hard to believe that once upon a time none of it existed and that we were one with nature.
We were sharing our first home,
The natural environment,
With other living creatures.
At that time we were somehow equals and we were all at the mercy and kindness of nature.
We are here because our physiology has that extraordinary capacity to adapt and conquer almost all of Earth's environments.
We were born in nature and we developed in nature.
Our body,
Our physiology,
Our emotional responses have been shaped by nature.
At that time we didn't have buildings,
Cars,
Comfortable roads or technology.
And maybe that is key to understand why we feel so comfortable when we are immersed in nature.
Perhaps our genes or our primitive brain have the capacity to recognize nature as home.
What is certain is that we belong here.
With our modern lives,
Things became easier in some ways and more complex in other ways because our needs and wants,
A luxury probably we didn't have before,
Started to take new forms.
To have the essential means for survival became insufficient to have a satisfactory life.
Now having food on the table and a safe and warm place to live away from dangerous animals and dark weather is not enough to be happy.
We are constantly feeling the pressure to adjust to rules imposed by our society or our surroundings about how to look and how to live and how to be successful.
And what we need to do to be recognized as valuable members of our society.
This together with living in this era of thermostress is exposing us constantly to high mental and emotional stress levels.
And all this decreases our quality of life.
In response to the situation in which our emotional and mental health are constantly under threat,
Several nature-based interventions have been developed,
Such as chinrenryoku or nature therapy,
Wilderness therapy,
Horticultural therapy,
Adventure therapy and others,
And these are based on the belief that nature has a hidden effect over us.
At the same time,
Research is being done to assess the existence and reliability of such effects.
The good news is that so far scientists from different neuroscientific backgrounds and using different methods and techniques have shown that indeed interacting with nature has effective and cognitive benefits.
To start with,
Research has shown that the closer we live to nature,
The more well-being we experience,
People that have grown up in rural environments seem to have less stress response than those growing up in urban areas.
Of course,
Not everyone have had the possibility to grow up or live surrounded by nature or to live in the middle of nature.
But this doesn't matter because there are other ways to access nature and to profit from these effects that it has over us.
Studies assessing the effect of forest bathing or chirinryoku have shown that with just 15 to 20 minutes of forest walk while taking in the atmosphere of the forest,
This is a very important attitude to have when doing chirinryoku,
Really embracing being there can really induce a calming effect in the mind,
Reduce anxiety symptoms and decrease stress levels just with 15 minutes of forest walk.
Now walking in the forest for 3 to 6 kilometers has shown to decrease blood glucose levels in diabetic people.
Other positive effects that are caused by walking in the forest are regulation of endocrine activity,
Improved mental coordination,
Positive mood state,
Increased parasympathetic activity,
Reduced heart rate,
Reduced blood pressure,
Reduced cortisol levels.
And of course,
Putting these things together,
We also get reduced stress response.
However,
There was one finding that really caught me interested in this type of research and that motivated me to learn and read more about this topic and even motivated me to start planning my own scientific experiments.
And this finding is related to what happens to our body when we spend several days in nature.
It has been reported that after 3 days and 2 nights of being in the forest,
Our immune system is significantly boosted and our stress levels are significantly reduced.
The cool thing is that this effect can be observed even 7 days after the trip and it has been reproduced by other researchers.
But where this effect comes from?
So maybe the responsible is a substance called phytocyde.
Being in contact with natural substances from trees or plants such as phytocytes significantly increases natural killer cell activity which will boost our immune system and decreases the concentrations of adrenaline in urine.
As you might have heard,
Together with cortisol,
Adrenaline is one of the hormones we release when under stress.
So how beautiful and fascinating this is to know that when we go to the forest and we receive the air of the plants and the trees,
Not only they are giving us fresh air but they are also strengthening our immune system and are helping us to reduce our stress levels.
I find this wonderful and to me it is a clear proof that we belong to nature,
That that is our real home.
Walking in nature mindfully seems to have a restorative effect on individuals suffering from mental fatigue.
Walking in nature for 90 minutes has shown to decrease the activity of brain areas that are overactive when experiencing rumination,
Persistent negative emotions such as guilt,
Sadness or remorse or when we are being rejected.
Although the path to mental and emotional health recovery can be very complex,
This seems to be an important piece of the puzzle that has the potential to facilitate the recovery process.
Then frequent exposure to and interaction with nature can be adopted as a preventive measure for depression and other mental illnesses.
Our relationship with nature is so wonderful that we don't even need to go to the forest every day to feel the benefits or to obtain the benefits of being in contact with nature.
For example,
Viewing fresh roses for 4 minutes has the capacity to induce a calming psychological effect in many individuals.
Visual contact with green plants and flowers in daily environments has restorative effects as it induces physiological relaxation and improves concentration.
It also influences mood positively and even increases job satisfaction.
There is also evidence that recovery of patients after surgery is faster if their rooms have access to natural views or if there are indoor plants.
But how come nature has these wonderful,
Amazing restorative effects?
Well,
Maybe the key is in a theory proposed by Rachel and Stefan Kaplan to researchers that propose a theory called ART that stands for Attention Restoration Theory.
According to ART,
Attention has two components,
One direct and one indirect.
Direct attention happens when a person is engaged in demanding tasks.
After a while,
Due to limited attentional resources,
The person experiences mental fatigue.
When we become tired,
When our brain,
Our mind is fatigued,
It doesn't work properly.
But we can regain optimal functioning,
Going through a restoration process via indirect attention.
The problem is that in our daily lives we have so many things going on,
So many things to do,
That the mind doesn't have enough time to recover.
One way to facilitate this restoration and access this indirect,
Involuntary attention is viewing or being in contact with nature.
Why?
Because natural settings tend to be appealing to most of us.
Yes,
It seems a little bit strange to think that there are people that don't feel or don't like nature,
But in fact these people exist.
But okay,
These natural settings are appealing to us because they are pleasant,
They seem beautiful to us,
Normally these spaces are open and threatening and free of disturbing noises.
They also have this capacity to foster,
To induce soft fascination.
And soft fascination is key for us to experience restoration.
What is soft fascination?
Soft fascination is defined as the capacity to gently shift the attention to fascinating objects,
To captivating objects.
The type of natural environment that will induce a restorative effect is different for every person and it will depend on preferences and personalities as well as possibilities.
This should be taken into account into consideration when trying to embrace nature as a natural preventive healing method.
Regardless of our preferences,
These conditions have the capacity to influence our cognitive and emotional systems,
Inducing in us a sense of belonging that is so important for our well-being,
A sense of being calm,
Feeling comfortable and away from stressful factors.
When we feel like that,
We can say that we are in a restorative environment.
Another explanation comes from a perspective of human evolution,
In which natural elements are part of our evolutionary past.
And stimuli such as green lands,
Sources of clean running water,
Woodlands,
Etc.
Are stimuli that automatically and naturally trigger a calming effect on our physiology,
Similar to our natural fear to snakes or spiders.
As we see,
Being in nature and when I say being,
I mean really being present,
Has great benefits at the physiological,
Mental and emotional level.
The beautiful thing here is that these health benefits are available to all of us in a non-expensive manner.
We all have access to nature in many forms,
Either in natural settings,
Big reserves,
City parks or even just with flowers and plants in our houses.
Notice that the effects of our immersion in nature can be improved by practicing mindfulness,
Because although we may have the intention to be fully present in nature when we are there,
It is easy for the mind to wander and miss the opportunity to really enjoy being there.
Here the interaction is two ways,
In which nature and mindfulness support each other.
A natural inspiring environment will aid mindfulness and mindfulness will reinforce the restorative effect of being in nature.
Keep in mind that to be able to obtain the effects of being in nature,
It is required that we pay attention to it,
That we connect with it.
Studies have shown that the informal practice of mindfulness,
And with informal I mean different to the sitting formal practices,
For example,
Walking,
Dancing,
Playing,
Painting,
Swimming in nature,
Improves the positive outcomes of our immersion in nature.
Let's end here,
But I would like you to keep something in mind,
Something like a take home message.
We have seen that with as little as 15 minutes of forest walking,
We can already obtain benefits from being in nature because we can experience lower anxiety and stress levels.
However,
Longer interactions with nature may bring not only the same effects with longer durations but also other health benefits.
If you have experienced things that I haven't reported here,
Feel free to share with me,
I would love to know.
Finally,
Knowing all this,
I invite you to make nature more present in your life.
Think about it as if it were healthy eating or having a good sleep,
Which are required for you to have a healthy mind,
A healthy body,
And a healthy emotional system.
I am sure that if you do so,
Your body,
Mind,
And heart will be very grateful.
I hope this talk has been interesting for you and it also will be helpful for your well-being.
Thank you very much.
