WEBVTT - Why Nature? 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:05.640 We need the tonic of wilderness. To wade sometimes in marshes, 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:08.520 where the bittern and the meadow hen lurk, and hear 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.080 the booming of the snipe, to smell the whispering sedge, 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:16.040 where only some wilder and more solitary foul builds her nest, 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.320 and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:22.280 At the same time that we are earnest to explore 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.880 and learn all things, we require that all things be 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:30.600 mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed, 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.600 and unfathomed by us. Because unfathomable, we can never have 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.680 enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:42.000 of inexhaustible vigor, the vast and titanic features, the sea 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.280 coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.800 its decaying trees, the thunder cloud, and the rain which 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.080 lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.680 our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:05.280 we never wander. Welcome to stot to blow your mind 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:14.880 production of My Heart Radio. Hey, you welcome to stuff 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.800 to blow your mind. My name is Robbert Land and 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.400 I'm Joe McCormick, and that opening reading was from Walden 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.320 by Henry David Thureaux, a classic piece of of literature 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.600 appreciating nature. So today is a Monday, which is usually 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:31.119 the day of the week we would feature a bit 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.120 of listener mail, but instead, today we've got a special 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.840 bonus episode for you. Unlike in our regular episodes, this 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.479 is what we call in the industry a branded episode, 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:46.240 which means it was created in partnership with our sponsor today, Mazda. Basically, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.040 Mazda came to us with a set of themes, mostly 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.800 relating to the well documented positive effects of spending time 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.960 in nature, and we thought, yeah, well we could absolutely 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.000 do an episode on that, because the effective nature on 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.120 the human body and is a huge, fascinating and complex subject, 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.960 worthy probably of an entire series in itself. But in 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.639 today's episode, we're going to focus on a few interesting 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.240 questions and studies in the subject area that really struck us. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.560 So today's bonus episode will be our branded feature with 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.720 Mazda called Why Nature, which we hope you really enjoy. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.600 And then we're going to be back to our regular 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.519 schedule with a new Core episode tomorrow, and when I 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.080 first started pondering the subject, I was thinking about how, 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.880 you know, there are really multiple ways that we can 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.480 frame our personal relationship with nature, because, of course, there 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.799 is the very blunt fact that life depends on life, 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.520 and that nature is the word we use for that 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.919 complex web of relationships between the sun, the earth, the water, 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.760 and all the different life forms that inhabit this environment, 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.920 which in a literal sense, we could not live without, 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:52.560 even with all of our technology. There's a line from 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.040 the poet Denise Levertov where she writes that we call 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.840 it nature only reluctantly admitting ourselves to be nature too. 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.920 We could not live without it because we are it. Yeah, 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.400 even when we put up walls against nature, often to 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.280 distance ourselves from the aspects of nature that we're not 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.280 crazy about, it's still there with us inside, hopefully in 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.919 the plants and animals and works of art that we 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:22.560 surround ourselves within our our unnatural habitats. But also nature 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.239 is there in the biological reality of our existence and 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:31.000 in the environmental conditions our senses are heightened to appreciate. Yeah, exactly. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.080 So that's like the first level. It's just like we 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.000 bluntly needed. We can't live without it. The second thing, 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.760 of course, is that there's a sort of metaphysical or 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.440 metaphorical facet of nature, which I think is the main 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.520 subject of that passage I read from thorough in the beginning. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.280 We're creatures that search the environment not only for aid 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.040 and physical survival. You're not only looking for food and 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.960 shelter and water in the in the landscape around you. 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.360 But you know, because of our complex brains, we also 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.360 search for meaning. And I think it's a surprisingly widespread 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.720 suspicion that there is somehow meaning to be found in nature, 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.480 that somehow the rocks, the trees, the birds, the vines, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.600 the algae, and the insects in some profound and ineffable 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.400 way have implications for our lives. So you take a 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.040 walk in the woods, and somehow it tends to suggest 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.800 conclusions about the meaning of life and your place in 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.640 the universe. So these conclusions can often be very difficult 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.440 to put into words. Sometimes people like throw give it 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.720 a try. Yeah. I think of it in two ways. First, 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:38.080 there's the metaphorical side of the situation. Linguistically and cognitively, 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.960 we need things to make sense of life, and everything 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.960 in it, from skyward branches of the tree to tow 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.360 its deep diving roots, from soaring hawks the snunbering dogs. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.800 We find metaphorical mirrors for our world and our thoughts 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.200 in all of nature's details. But on the other hand, 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.240 and this is something driven home by spiritual teacher at Cartole, 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.400 if we engage with, say a flower in the wild, 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.760 and experience it all of itself in the moment, and 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.359 then we have in that case we have an excellent 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.520 tool by which to momentarily step outside of our egos, 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.040 uh quiet the voices of the default mode network and 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.200 our head worrying about the past and the future, and 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.200 simply experienced the now like that that flower. And the 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.320 flower is especially good because of its enhanced if if 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:30.719 a marility, it becomes a window into the now, a 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.040 window into the timeless, and we're able to sort of 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.279 let everything else, all the human complexities, fade away, and 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.719 we become quite literally one with nature in the moment. 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:42.640 I think we've all had some of these moments of 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.720 a kind of profound connection with the natural environment. I 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.880 think often in solitude, but sometimes with other people around 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:51.799 as well. I mean, I think particularly of a time 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.599 I felt a really strange kind of relationship to all 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.320 of the dry desert brush when I took a very 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.200 brief solo hike and Big Ben National Park. Um, you know, 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.159 this was like half an hour. But but but something 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.400 happened to me on that walk and I still remember it. Yeah. 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.000 Nature is is pretty weird though, when you stop and 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.760 think about it, because we do have countless reasons to 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.000 wish to avoid it. Uh, let's let's not deny it. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.320 There are risks in nature, and for most of human history, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.320 nature itself pose the greatest risk to life and well being. 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.080 Even today, our relationship with nature is often strained. Is 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.440 it a thing we seek to distance ourselves from? Is 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.400 it a thing we wish to dominate and control? I 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:36.719 find that I find that even myself, when I venture 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.520 into nature, I can still feel myself very much on 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.960 the path. You know, I'm experiencing nature on my own 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.480 particular terms. But then sometimes when you let that go, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.839 you can experience nature on its own terms and allow 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.840 yourself to sort of dilute just a little bit back 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.119 into the thing that we've always been a part of. 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.080 So for my own part, I'd say some some of 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.040 the more pronounced. Experiences like this that I've had include 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:05.520 glimpsing a wild sloth in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.760 um tracking the movement and shifting form of an octopus 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.520 beneath the waters in Maui. And and I have to say, 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:15.120 you know, the encounters, of course, don't have to be 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.280 anywhere near this exotic. I finally remember spotting some wild 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.800 turkeys with my family while strolling through a local cemetery. 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.680 Year around town, and on certain days in different parts 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.280 of my life, you know that the sky has been 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.800 just blue enough, something about a particular shade of blue sky, 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:37.040 the clouds wispy enough, uh, that it kind of kind 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.600 of forges as a renewing moment that is kind of 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.080 unshackled from time itself. And when I get to experience 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.200 the sky in just such a way, a combination of 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.280 circumstance and awareness of the moment, it's the same sky 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.160 you know that I saw these other times, and I'm 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.800 the same person, and it's, uh, you feel this kind 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.360 of connection to yourself into nature, and you get this 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.720 a great sense of calm, and and that's something I 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:04.800 could potentially experience anywhere as long as the sky looked 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.200 just right, and I took the time out of my 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.560 day to appreciate it. Right. So lots of us have 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.680 these moments, we remember, these profound moments of connection with 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.080 with nature and the natural environment. But of course those 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.080 can be um, you know, difficult to put into words, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.640 much less to study in an organized way. Though when 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.520 you want to get down to to quantifiable effects, you 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.240 can actually look at like empirically documented effects of nature 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.319 on our health, both mental and physical, and on our 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:37.480 thoughts and behavior, Like what can scientific experiments and surveys 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.760 tell us about the measurable impact of proximity to or 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:46.080 immersion in natural environments? And to go a step deeper, 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.080 do we have any idea why these effects would hold true? 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.800 And it's this last set of questions that we're going 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.760 to be primarily focusing on for the rest of this episode. 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.720 So to start off by mentioning a few of the 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.920 huge human health and life outcomes that have been correlated 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.400 with exposure to nature or what sometimes called green space, 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.280 a pretty self explanatory concept. Uh, this is by no 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.040 means going to be a comprehensive overview, but it's we're 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.400 worth mentioning a few things that seem to have good 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.480 evidence behind them and caught our attention. Now, Fortunately, at 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.040 this point there has been enough research on exposure to 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.000 nature that we don't have to pick through all of 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.960 the individual uh papers over the decades this has been 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.840 looked into. We can actually look at meta analyzes that 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:35.160 compile these existing studies to see what kind of trends emerge. Now, 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.679 there is some difficulty in this domain because uh, not 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.560 all studies that look into the benefits of nature study 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.079 the exact same thing. Like one might look at people 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.840 making trips out into the woods, and another might look at, uh, 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.760 the outcomes in neighborhoods with nearer access to parks and 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.880 urban forests, and other ones might just look at what 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.439 are the effects of people looking at pictures of trees 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.920 and stuff. But despite that heterogeneity, there is enough research 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.480 now that you can kind of do this meta analysis 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.600 and some signals come through pretty strong. So in terms 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.040 of physiological health benefits benefits to the body, I was 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:16.600 looking at an article by two big Bennett and Jones 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:21.160 published in Environmental Research in called The Health Benefits of 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.200 the Great Outdoors. A systematic review and meta analysis of 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.880 green space exposure and health outcomes. So this review looked 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.040 at a hundred and forty three studies on the health 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.560 effects of exposure to green space, and when analyzed together, 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:38.959 these studies show statistically significant reductions in diastolic blood pressure, 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.360 in heart rate, and in salivary cortisol. Now you might wonder, 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.679 what is that last one, salivary cortisol. This would be 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.520 a measure of the concentration of the hormone cortisol in 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.640 your spit. Cortisol is usually interpreted as a physical biomarker 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.760 of stress. Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands and 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.160 is largely responsible for can trolling the body's fight or 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:05.000 flight response. The meta analysis also found reductions in the 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:09.679 incidents of diabetes and cardiovascular mortality. And again these are 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:11.960 not the only correlations that have been found, just the 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:16.160 most significant and consistent ones. So these are some physiological 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:18.160 outcomes measured in the health of the body. But what 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:22.600 about like mental well being and cognitive performance. Well, first 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:24.720 of all, I would say there is the simple, well 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.720 documented fact that people seem to just really like nature 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.280 in a subjective sense. Lots of people have a baseline 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.280 preference for looking at nature, for hearing nature, for touching it, 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.200 for being in it, and this has been measured dozens 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.480 of different ways. Uh, this actually would probably be a 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:47.760 good place to talk about the idea of the biophilia hypothesis. Yes, 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.440 the biophelia hypothesis that was brought to us by American 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.920 biologist E. O. Wilson. Now I do have to to 0:11:55.000 --> 0:12:01.280 mention briefly that that on December one, EO. Wilson passed 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.640 away at the age of ninety two. Uh. So you know, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.680 rest in peace, U E. O. Wilson. But he leaves 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.080 behind a career full of admiration for and study of 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.400 the natural world, with a special focus on the world 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.760 of ants. He's widely known and respected for his work 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.199 and mermacology, but he will always be remembered as well 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:26.080 for what he called the biophilia hypothesis. So Wilson proposed 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.080 the term love of life in a short publication back 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:34.040 in Biophilia the human bond with other species, and he 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.640 defined it as humanities innate tendency to focus on living 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.640 things as opposed to the inadamant. In effect, he argued 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:45.280 for an innate love of nature. He wrote, quote, the 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:49.920 object of my reflection can be summarized by a single word, biophilia, 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.199 which I will be so bold as to define as 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.760 the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.599 quote from Infancy. We concentrate happily on ourselves and other organisms. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.920 We learn to distinguish life from the inanimate and move 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.360 toward it like moths to a porch. Light. Novelty and 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:11.640 diversity are particularly esteemed. The mere mention of the world 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:16.720 extraterrestrial evokes reveries about still unexplored life, displacing the old 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.439 and once potent exotic that drew earlier generations to remote 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.640 islands and jungle interiors. That much is immediately clear, but 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:26.880 a great deal more needs to be added. I will 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.480 make the case that to explore and affiliate with life 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.920 is a deep and complicated process in mental development, to 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.880 an extent, still undervalued in philosophy and religion. Our existence 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:42.080 depends on this propensity. Our spirit is woven from it. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.760 Hope rises on its currents, and he goes on to 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.560 state that the modern scientific understanding of biology allows us 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.160 to place a greater value upon them and ourselves quote, 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.600 the living environment is what really sustains us. The living 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:00.240 environment creates, the soil creates most of the atmosphere. It's 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.679 not just something out there. The biosphere is a membrane, 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.600 a very thin membrane of a living organism. And we 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.120 have to stress that this hypothesis goes beyond the mere 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.400 generalities of hey, people love nature. It gets into the 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.160 idea that there's at least impart a genetic link involved, 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.240 that there are genes for biophilia. In the same way 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.760 that humans are wired, hardwired, as we say, to respond 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.360 to an infant's laughs and cries, we are also wired 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.960 to respond to various things in nature. Uh, and it's 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.520 been a part of our evolution, or so argues the hypothesis, 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.920 and in the end Wilson ultimately argues that yes, nature 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.800 is out there, it's in here, and nature is the 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.360 thing that sustains us. Wilson also embodied biophilia in a 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.840 very inspiring way. I think you you'll recall that documentary 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.440 we watched where he goes up to a mound of 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.800 fire ants and he plunges his hand into it and 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.600 he's just beaming with delight, saying, look at how they're 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:03.720 biting me, and he just loves these ants. Yeah, I 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.400 mean my son likes to um to carefully stir up 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.280 a fire ant nest and watch them swarm and uh, 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.480 and just observe them, you know, not not harm them 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.800 in any way. It make can make walks very slow. 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.920 But in a sense like this drives home the difference 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.240 between what sometimes a busy adults walk can be and 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.440 what like the pure biophilic walk of a child is like, 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.040 I just want to get from point A to point 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:28.960 B and back. I need to get a certain amount 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:30.680 of steps in and I needed to be back to 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.240 work on something. But to to the child, uh, it 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.160 is that you're just on the way and here is 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.320 some nature. Let us observe it, let's watch it, even 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.160 though Dad thinks that a walk at least this afternoon 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.520 is supposed to be there and back again in under 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.120 a certain amount of time. Yeah. So there are tons 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.760 of demonstrations that people have this this baseline attraction to 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.200 and subjective aesthetic preference for nature, and this this is 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.520 translated even to very abstracted form. So it's not just 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.680 like people like being out nature. You can even show 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:03.640 like there are a lot of experiments that show people 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:08.280 prefer looking at pictures of nature as opposed to pictures 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.400 of other things, you know, built human environments or objects, 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.680 inanimate objects, or other types of imagery. There was one 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.440 study I was looking at from nineteen seventy two that found, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.880 interestingly that there was a preference not just for imagery 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.600 that had nature in it, but especially imagery that had 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.440 nature in it with a certain amount of visual complexity. 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:31.120 People kind of like an intermediately complex natural scene, something 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:35.280 that might involve many different kinds of plants, landscape patterns 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:39.280 and shapes, and so forth. Yeah, there's been some interesting 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.320 work on this talking about these these vistas and paintings 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.800 that you could essentially walk into and then once you're 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:50.120 in there, you could develop a foraging strategy. You can 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.200 decide where you might seek shelter, where you might get 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.600 the best view of the surroundings, and so forth. But 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.280 there have also been empirical studies into the effect acts 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.760 of exposure to nature on mental health and cognitive performance, 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.200 so not just physiological health like we already mentioned. Uh, 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.920 some of the things that have been found are that, 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:14.199 like access to green space has associations with lower levels 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.359 of stress and anxiety. This would sort of go along 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.440 with the lower concentrations of salvary cortisol that we mentioned 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:25.760 in the Physiological Review, fewer symptoms of depression, improved mood. 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.080 And some studies have found that immersion in or interaction 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.520 with nature gives a sort of time dependent power up 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:36.080 to some forms of cognition. Just to cite one study, 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.120 there have been many like this, but one was by 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.960 Andrea Faber Taylor and Francis E. Co published in Journal 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.199 of Attention Disorders in two thousand nine called children with 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:50.639 Attention deficits concentrate better after a walk in the park. 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.639 And so this points out that other pre existing studies 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.359 had already found that working memory and the ability to 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.840 pay attention are enhanced after spin time in certain physical environments, 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.720 particularly in natural settings, and this study tried to apply 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.280 the principle to children diagnosed with a d h D 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.560 between seven and twelve years of age. So the study 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.679 compared the children's performance on a test of attention and 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:21.520 working memory known as the digit span backwards test. Basically, 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.399 you read out a sequence of numbers and then you 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.880 test how well the subject can repeat those numbers back 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.919 to you in reverse order. And so they tried this 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.600 test with children after three different walks of twenty minutes 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.080 in length, that walk through a neighborhood, will walk through 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.960 a downtown area, and to walk through a foliated park 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:45.400 most resembling the natural setting, and the children apparently performed 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.840 substantially better after the walk in the park than after 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.680 the other two walks, adding to this pile of evidence 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.800 that for some reason, people including children with a d 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:58.520 h D, can pay attention and use their working memory 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.439 better after a short period of immersion in nature, and 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.200 the author has used this finding to suggest it's possible 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.720 that regular quote doses of nature, just nature walks or 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.560 other ways of immersing yourself in those kind of surroundings 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.040 might be helpful to kids with a d h D 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:18.320 on on attention taxing tasks. But it doesn't stop there. 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.280 There have been plenty of other findings about cognitive improvements 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:25.120 after periods of exposure to nature. One example I came 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:30.439 across was a study by heartig at All published in 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:34.080 Environment and Behavior in nineteen one called Restorative Effects of 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:39.480 Natural environment Experiences. This apparently found that compared to relaxing 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.400 indoors or taking a walk in the city, people who 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:44.960 took a walk in nature scored better on a proof 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.640 reading task that's something else that is sort of taxing 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.119 on your your find a control of attention. And another 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.879 common finding seems to be that spending time in nature 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:58.399 may improve our ability to block out distracting stimuli or 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:03.840 unnecessary information when we're trying to focus, which I would 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.520 say that absolutely checks out with my experience when my 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.360 brain is taxed and like I can't read the words 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.600 on the computer screen anymore, going for a walk in 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:17.280 in the forest does noticeably make a difference there for me. Yeah, 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:19.600 And and it's interesting how it can work in both ways, 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.440 like just on a not only on an audible level, 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:26.680 but also visual level. Walk in nature can give you 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.080 less stimuli when you're over stimulated, and it can also 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.320 give you the stimulation you need when you feel understimulated. 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:38.440 So regardless if you're you know, especially in today's work environment, 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.760 you might be at home and working most of the 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:43.479 day and then you're just like, I gotta get out. 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.359 I've got to see something different than what I've seen, 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.479 and here's something different than what I've been listening to. 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:50.679 And then likewise, you could be in the office across 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.440 town and you've had back to back meetings and constant 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.720 stimuli and you're like, I need to bring it down 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:57.639 a notch. You can also you can both go to 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.840 the same forest and you can find your relief. Yes, 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:02.840 And I think we'll come back to that a little 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.960 bit later in the episode because that connects to ideas 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.919 about different types of stimuli that capture our attention in 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.720 different ways. Um, but this whole thing we've been talking about, 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.359 like the the ability of nature to say, improve cognitive 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.080 performance in certain ways. This is what is often referred 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:23.600 to in the scientific literature as the quote restorative potential 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.440 of nature immersion. The finding is that natural environments tend 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:32.720 to speed our recovery from conditions like stress or mental fatigue. 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:36.360 So we have pretty strong evidence from many different studies 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:41.120 over decades now that exposing oneself to nature and green 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.439 space is correlated with a range of positive effects on 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:49.920 body health, on psychological well being, and on temporary mental performance, 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.720 which brings us to the big question why nature. If 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.280 exposure to nature does in fact bring these measurable benefits 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.240 to mind and body, Why why nature in particular, and 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:06.200 what is the biological mechanism leading to these positive effects. Now, 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:08.800 I think it's worth noting that it's possible that different 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:12.640 effects have different explanations, or that a single effect could 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:17.120 arise from a combination of inputs. For example, one question 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.240 that immediately occurred to me when I was reading about 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:23.119 some of the physiological benefits benefits to body health. Could 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.640 things like lower blood pressure and lower risk of cardiovascular 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.919 disease from spending time and nature be due to the 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.160 fact that green space encourages people to get more exercise. 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:37.200 That seems possible, so I found one study directly addressing 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:40.640 this question when I looked. This was by Richardson at 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.840 All published in Public Health in called Role of Physical 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:49.160 Activity in the Relationship between Urban green space and Health. Basically, 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.560 it found that exposure to green space was in fact 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.919 correlated with better mental and physical health outcomes, and this 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:58.800 was true when you controlled for other confounding factors, and 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.160 people who lived in places with more access to green 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:06.640 space did actually get more exercise, but that difference wasn't 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:09.720 enough to explain the full green space effect on health. 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:13.600 So just as a hypothetical, it's possible that part, but 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:17.520