Benefits of Nature in Well-being

Restoritortion from spending time in nature is no new idea, it has been around arguably as long as urbanization and development. Nature has been the inspiration for art, music and literature. However, considering nature in medical practices has only been studied widely in the last century. Nature’s healing effect and potential for physiological treatment began when it was noticed that patients in a hospital rooms with windows reported faster recover from illness than those without a window by Robert Ulrich in the 1980s. This led to a number of experiments that suggest that Nature– whether it be a national forest, nearby neighborhood park, garden, or even a window or house plant — can have a positive effect on a person’s wellbeing and overall health.

The notion of human’s natural affinity towards nature was first coined by Edward O Wilson in the 1980’s. He called it Biophilia Hypothesis, or biophilia effect. Biophilia research suggests that visual stimulus such as sunlight, greenery even through windows, auditory stimulus that sound like nature such as waves crashing or bird calls, or activities involving touching nature such as gardening can all reduce stress and negative feelings (Wilson). Today there has been enough evidence to suggest that practitioners go as far as giving a prescription for nature to patients dealing with anxiety. Biophilia has made a major impact on architecture and design, there has been a push for building hospitals and healthcare programs using billiphia principles –Biophilic design.

The positive emotional states induced by natural stimulus are part of the mechanism underlying the landmark Ulrich’s finding that hospital patients with greater access to natural stimulus had shorter recovery after surgical operations, complained less, had fewer complications, were less likely to be hospitalized, and required less pain relief medication (Ulrich). Research suggests that the explanation for these amazing responses is that the positive experiences from natural environments offer distracts patients from stressful or painful situation. Another study showed that dental patients had less heart-rate variability and reported better states of emotion when there was exposure to natural environments in the office. Patients were more relaxed when a picture of a forest in the room compared to when the wall was left blank. It is possible that their attention was more focused on the pleasant natural stimulus and less on the painful or stressful dental procedure. Beyond healthcare, biophilic design has been implemented into office spaces, schools, and retirement homes to improve the wellbeing of people in stressful environments by bringing them closer to nature. The importance of the quality of spaces for made for homeless like shelters, clinics, navigation centers ect. is a concern among service providers. Building soundings that promote healthy living and better wellbeing for this vulnerable and stressed group could have major implications better managing homeless populations bring people closer to getting help.

As I have discussed earlier homeless populations have higher rates of physical, mental and emotional health issues. These issues can be positively or negatively affected by their physical surroundings. Nature and natural elements in shelters could have implications on better wellbeing, and better behavior, one study has shown that prisoners with a cell window facing rural landscape compared to the concrete courtyard or no window displayed fewer stress symptoms such as digestive illness, headaches, skin rashes as well as fewer visits to nurse. Small changes in surrounding can have a large overall impact a person’s ability to feel safe and well enough to calm down and get the help they need. The Biophilia hypothesis and design asserts that physical environments impact stress levels and emotional states of individuals. Recent research indicates that natural surroundings may also play a more direct role in reducing and recovering from physiological stress and mental exhaust. Building off of Biophilia ideas, Stress Recovery Theory and Attention Restoration Theory are more recent models that further distinguish the relationship between stress, well being and natural environments. Urban settings usually include intense and frequent stressors like loud noises, lots of distracting movements, and bright attention-grabbing colors. These characteristics demand mental energy of the person to process, filter and make sense of lots of information. Natural Environments, in contrast, offer less demanding stimulus that is softer and more pleasant. For this reason, nature has been found to reduce distress and restore attention.

Natural environments reduce physiological stress symptoms such as activation of the SNS, cortisol levels and brain activity associated with stress responses. Spending time in nature also improves mood and restores some of the decreases in cognitive abilities that accompany chronic stress. In sum, there are many psychological, emotional, cognitive, physiological, and behavioral benefits of spending time in nature. “Stress” in the stress reduction and attention restoration model differs from the physiological model which is characterized by hormonal, blood, nervous, bodily responses. Stress in these models is thought of as an interaction between person and environment that results in the person feeling threatened enough to demand energy from the body. Exposure to nature can be a help a person cope with and manage stress.

According to Arousal Theory, being in nature deactivates the stress response and activates parasympathetic system; and that with frequent time around natural elements arousal is less severe and return to equilibrium occurs more quickly. These effects are attributed to the qualities of natural settings. Natural environments tend to have less demanding stimulus, less complexity, less intense or rapid movement compared to urban settings. Faster recuperation after activating the stress response occurs because natural environments are less stimulating. Too much stimulus is taxing on the brain and requires more directed attention causing cognitive overload. Rachel and Stephen Kaplan developed the ART. When they found individuals favor depictions of nature over industrial scenes. In further studies, they found that exposure to nature improved focus. Their theory is based on the notion that state that a person has two kinds of attention that is voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary attention require less effort, yet involuntary or directed attention demands more cognitive energy and causes mental overload. The mental fatigue make people more susceptible to stress and increases arousal. Likewise, a mental fatigue depletes cognitive energy that could be used for managing daily stresses. Negative emotions associated with mental overload such irritability, impulsiveness, impatience, reduced tolerance, or frustration, reduced empathy, decrease altruistic, interpersonal behaviors, reduced cognitive performance, increased risk-taking behavior, overall incompetence and lack of function. The outcome is bad moods and feelings, decreased work performance and interpersonal relationships.

Nature engages involuntary attention which protects a person from mental fatigue; in contrast urban settings demand more voluntary attention. The quality of nature that draws attention rather than demands it is called “soft fascination”. In nature, the executive cognitive system deactivates, negative thoughts and emotions are reduced. In addition to soft fascination, nature is categorized by other “restorative factors”. One of these factors is the feeling of “being-away.” Escaping the demands of the world can allow someone to clear their mind and recover their focus. Another factor is “extent” or the feeling of being submerged in nature and taking it in from every sense. The last factor defined in the ART model is “compatibility” which is a person’s own inclination to be in nature and enjoy it. Central to the recovery from psycho-physiological stress are positive changes in emotional states. Exposure to natural stimuli can mediate the negative effect of stress reducing the negative mood state and at the same time enhancing positive emotions. Spending time in nature has been shown to suppress a state of brain activation that is associated with repetitive and negative thoughts and rumination. These findings have had implications in practice. For example, children playing in highly natural school playgrounds showed fewer attention and concentration problems, and improved cognitive and physical functioning than children playing in less natural school playgrounds.

At workplace, a view of natural elements was found to buffer the negative impact of job stress, intention to quit and it had a positive effect on general well being and cognitive functioning. Research has shown that natural settings might have restorative effects that include increased performance on task requiring attention and cognitive processing. Cognitive restoration following visual exposure to the natural environment, as reflected in improved performance on attentional tasks, has been established in a variety of experimental studies involving either the use of videos or actual field trips, or image slideshows of natural scenes. Nature not only has direct effects on stress recovery and mental fatigue restoration, but it may also have indirect effects by serving as a buffer against the health impacts of stressful events. Many people seek out nature in time for stress. Unfortunately due to increasing urbanization, the life of homeless have become more removed from green environments. Restricted access to green spaces may increase people’s vulnerability to the impact of stressful life events and environmental stressors affecting physical and psychological well being. Higher accessibility to park/forest-like area correlates with higher happiness, lower stress, anger, depression and tension, improved mood and concentration. This can have positive effects on sense of control, privacy, encouraging personal relationships and physical exercise, and offering natural fascinating distractions that promotes positive emotions and mood. Loss of control and the lack of privacy can aggravate the stress condition and threaten individual’s capacity to cope with stressful situations. Exposure to nature offers the opportunity to display control through a “temporary being-away” or “temporary escape” from reality.

Estrangement from habits/routines means to go away from the source of stress. There are also social benefits, Outdoor spaces and gardens can promote social relationships and enhance the sense of community. Mental health services engage nature-related programs (horticulture, gardening) to provide opportunities that enhance multiple aspects of health and wellbeing, increase constructive interpersonal relationships that enhance social inclusion, and support the de-stigmatization of mental illnesses. Participants benefit from the increase of positive emotions, expand healthy relationships with peers and staff, improve physical activity, have greater involvement in familiarity within the community and exhibit skills that enable acceptance in the community and the perception of being part of the community. Active participation in nature has additionally been found to reduce mental distress, enhance self-confidence and improve physical health of the participants. Nature has an effect on physiology, Exposure to natural environments had a direct influence on urine and blood levels of cortisol, a stress-related hormone.

More recently, literature has shown that independently from the type of exposure: plants, poster, slides, video, VR settings or views of natural environments/stimuli, people experience a general reduction of symptoms related to psycho-physiological stress. Natural environments elicit greater calming physiological and psychological responses than urban environments. The SRT proposes exactly that perceiving particular qualities and contents in a place can support recovery from physiological stress. Using a paradigm in which stressed individuals were exposed to simulations of either natural or urban environments, Ulrich encompassed the range of restorative effects of the natural environments on human beings. Research showed different rates of recovery from stress depending upon the type of environmental exposure. Physiological measures of stress (e.g., electromyography, skin conductance response, pulse transit time, cardiac response, partial thromboplastin time) indicated that recovery was quicker and more complete in the natural environment exposure conditions, even when recovery was measured over a 10-minute period only. In the initial minutes of recovery the parasympathetic component response was recorded to the natural environments, whereas there was no evidence of the parasympathetic involvement in response to the urban settings.

The parasympathetic system, often called “rest and disgest” is the branch of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) responsible for recuperating and returning to a balanced state (homeostasis) after experiencing a stressful situation; it reacts to return the body to a state of equilibrium by slowing down heart rate, dilating blood vessels, activating digestion, and storing energy. In contrast, the sympathetic system, the other branch of the ANS, activates in response to stressors; it is also known as the “fight or flight” response, because its activation is central in the taxing mobilization involved in responding to unexpected stressful events.The relaxing effect of nature is supported by electroencephalogram (EEG) data as well. EEG measures are sensitive to conditions such as fatigue and sleep deprivation. If so, perhaps neuro-physiological measures, such as the EEG or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), might be used to differentiate stress states of the organism from normal or restored states. Unstressed subjects who viewed slides of natural landscapes and urban scenes, or single natural elements such as plants with flowers and pots without plants, or who were seated in an outdoor setting watching greenery or a concrete block fence had greater brain electrical activity in the alpha frequency range. High alpha amplitude is associated with lower level of physiological arousal as well as feeling of wakeful relaxation. Generally, feeling of anxiety are related to high arousal and accordingly to low alpha amplitude. All these results suggest that subjects are less aroused physiologically and more relaxed but wakeful, during exposure to natural stimuli. EEG studies identify tranquility as an outcome of viewing natural settings. Recently, Korean researchers used the fMRI to investigate brain activation patterns in participants viewing nature vs.urban scenes. The urban scenes showed enhanced activity in the amygdala, which is linked to impulsivity, anxiety and increased stress.

By contrast, the natural scenes promoted activity in the anterior cingulate and the insula – where increased activity is associated with heightened empathy and altruistic behavior.Nature has been known to have behavioral effects as well. people deprived of nature will display behaviors caused by weary minds: inhibition is essential to delay and reflection, lacking this capability an individual behaves in a less adaptive and appropriate fashion. Moreover, without the patience and endurance necessary to carry out difficult or unpleasant tasks, performance becomes more oriented to the short term. In fact, directed attention fatigue not only leads to the inability to focus, but it has also several unfortunate consequences, including performance errors, inability to plan, social incivility and irritability. Researchers Taylor, Kuo and Sullivan found also a relationship between exposure to nature and self-control; in studying a group of girls living in the same housing complex, the researchers found that those with greener views scored higher than those deprived of nature on several tasks related to discipline, higher concentration, inhibited impulsivity and ability to delay gratification. Regarding social behavior, which also depends upon inhibition, it becomes less appropriate and there is also a greater inclination to be impulsive, to take unnecessary risks, and to act in an impatient and hasty manner. Kuo and Sullivan reported significantly lower levels of aggression and violence in residents with apartments near nature than in those who looked onto barren lands; the researchers suggested that if fatigued attention is related to irritability, and irritability leads to impulsivity and aggression, then perhaps people deprived of nature’s restorative qualities would be overly aggressive. In general, exposure to nature enhances sense of attachment, social life, mental and physical health, quality of life and the occurrence of activities and events that enhance wellbeing. In particular, green vegetation in neighborhood common spaces correlates with stronger ties, higher sense of safety and adjustment, less aggressive behavior, and fewer property and violent crimes reported to the police than areas without greenery.

In conclusion, Given the many benefits from contact with nature, plans for urban settings should consider the human need for restoration. For this, research must offer practical guidelines for the accessibility and quality of urban green areas. A well-designed urban landscape can contribute to creating a less stressful day and to providing an opportunity for physical, cognitive and emotional restoration. This, research can help integrate natural elements and structural features into built environments in order to plan urban environments that are “cognitive sustainable” and restorative from mental fatigue and the stresses of urban life.

Works Cited

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