Spending time in nature has always been linked to psychological benefits, but there wasn’t much science to ever really back it up. However, scientists are beginning to discover evidence of the profound positive impact that being in nature can have on our behavior and brains. It can help reduce anxiety, stress, and brooding while increasing our creativity, attention spans, and ability to socialize and connect with others.
Here’s how nature can affect our bodies and brains:
It decreases stress
Any sort of physical activity can reduce anxiety and stress but doing it in nature can augment that impact on many levels. According to a recent experiment in Japan, participants walked through either an urban center or a forest while getting their blood pressure and heart rate measured after filling out questionnaires about their stress levels and mood.
The results showed that walking through a forest lowered their heart rates and stress significantly while increasing relaxation and overall mood more than when walking through urban settings.
In another study, it was discovered that walking through woodland even for 20 minutes can lower stress levels more than when walking through a city center.
It makes you happier
Decreased stress is a major reason of feeling happier overall, and spending time in and around nature has a significant impact on both. Walking in nature has proven to decrease anxiety, rumination, and other negative effects while increasing positive emotions and improving performance on memory-related tasks.
Walking in natural settings versus urban settings results in increased activity in the area of the brain whose deactivation is connected to anxiety and depression, which greatly affects your mood.
Nature increases creativity
We live in a world where technology is constantly pulling at our attention spans, but scientists believe that our brains aren’t made for this constant bombardment of information. It can lead to burnout, mental fatigue, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. We need some sort of attention restoration to go back to a healthy and normal state.
Spending time around nature and restoring our depleted attention circuits helps us be more creative and improve our overall problem-solving skills. This may be due to the different ways nature causes our brains to activate, lowering engagement and arousal and making space for attention restoration to encourage a meditative and open mindset.
Get high-quality nature photography services
One of the best ways to benefit from the visual aspects of nature without actually having to go out into the great outdoors every time is to get landscape photography services to hang nature pictures around your spaces. Healing With Imagery provides top-notch nature art for healthcare, as well as landscape portraits for hotels. You can even hang our beautiful pictures up in your private home to brighten it up. Take a look at our recent installations!
Contact us today for more details.
