How Walking in Nature Changes the Brain
well.blogs.nytimes.com
well.blogs.nytimes.com
[1] https://i.imgur.com/ETu4tsr.jpg
[2] https://i.imgur.com/EsppCVS.jpg
[3] https://i.imgur.com/WwqmZjJ.jpg
One of the most memorable times of my life was hiking through there (Meiringen, Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen specifically). Very peaceful and meditative.
Examples:
Staffordshire: http://roughmini.s3.amazonaws.com/best-places/2015/wp-conten...
Worcestershire: http://hdw.datawallpaper.com/architecture/broadway-tower-wor...
Warwickshire: http://news.warwickshire.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/B...
The Black Country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Country https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=industrial+revolution+blac...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_%28Middle-earth%29#Inspi...
me and my wife used to as well, until we started realizing that sometimes it is complete madness to do so: there are of course the ecological and economical reasons, but the main reason is we figured we don't have to travel to get into nature. A couple of years ago I started hiking around the city where we live and discovered a whole wealth of beautiful nature of different kinds I never even knew was there. Which made me feel stupid and enlightened at the same time. Stupid because of not knowing it was there and being sucked into the 'you must travel at least x times a year to visit nice stuff' which lives strong amongst many people I know. Enlightened because of knowing it was just there for us to visit whenever we feel like.
We took this idea a bit further and instead of travelling abroad we set our minds on discovering all beauty around us by simply taking the bike and doing a short trip (say 20 or 30km) to an area we've never been before. It is simply amazing what we found already.
Granted, this is not for everyone, for starters because not everyone lives in an area where there actually is easy to reach countryside/rural area, but I highly suggest to look at sattelite images of the area around you, look for green spots and ask yourself if you know what they look like. And go figure it out if you don't.
I think I could spend a lifetime experiencing it.
Even if you don't travel around going to the state and national parks, there's a ton of regional parks with trails, trails all over for biking and walking and a lot of nature all around.
I mean... it rains here all the time, and, and, earthquakes and volcanoes, it's probably a bad idea to move here. ;)
while you can find 20 forest preserves nearby, you cannot really experience the vast diversity that truly exists without traveling some significant distance.
Seattle has a lot of greenery, but walking around is a pretty urban experience.
I think that there is also a lot to be said about regularly moving your body (walking 5-10 miles a day), and the effect it has on your mental state. I wouldn't be surprised if your surroundings play a minimal role compared to simply engaging in physical activity and changing your surroundings regularly.
> In an earlier study published last month, he and his colleagues found that volunteers who walked briefly through a lush, green portion of the Stanford campus were more attentive and happier afterward than volunteers who strolled for the same amount of time near heavy traffic.
The study seems pretty handwavy, though. I'm not sure that a walk by a highway counts as a urban area control group. (Although, it also depends on what "highway" they are referring to. The street in front of the campus is not a highway the same way the freeway/interstate is.)
My office is directly underneath the flightpath to London Heathrow Airport, and my house is under the secondary approach path. There's a landing about every 90 seconds for most of the day (average 1290 flights per day, maximum 15 between 23:00-0600). Planes tend to be < 2000ft overhead, and Heathrow has lots of big planes.
I don't need to go to the countryside to notice the peace and quiet, and feel much better rested. Hotels in the centres of Sheffield and Birmingham have had the same effect.
trees++;
Or in other words, urban hiking may have a similar effect, but it is quite likely to be lesser. (And as another poster points out, an urban hike seems to have no effect.)
I'm starting to think that the desire to live in cities in our newest generation has been implanted by marketers. Keep humans in a constant state of rushing and anxiety, then quell them with gastropubs and single-origin coffee and other urbane pleasures, in order reinforce a permanent state of discontent. The goal is to have an insatiable working class that will do anything to afford their $1,500/month Brooklyn closet, without realizing that you can be much happier and more relaxed anywhere else.
Reasons I think people in that age range would prefer to live in a city: 1 - More people, more events and places to socialize == more opportunities to find a mate
2 - Since people in those age groups right now are sacked by debt, or working jobs lower on the totem pole (or even super low paying internships)...living in a city means they can avoid car ownership
3 - This might sound ridiculous, but...along with point 1, socializing frequently means drinking, and in suburbs, that usually goes hand in hand with drunk driving. Not an issue in the city.
Honestly modern suburbs just make you feel isolated.
Well, almost everyone around me prefers to live in the countryside. I do, too. The thing is, most jobs in IT and other domains that were pushed on the young at school are not in the countryside, and telecommuting jobs aren't plentiful either. A sizable amount of people dream of having a small farm or something in the mountains, some of my friends actually have done it, but it's not easy.
Some people prefer cities, but the only reason you might think all "millennials" do, is that more of them have worked for a shorter time yet, and do not yet miss a better environment.
I prefer to be in a city because I like the things cities offer, but I am aware that it would probably be better for my health to live in the country side.
Do they? Most of the people who live and work in mountain towns are millennials, and I see far more millennials hiking, camping, and generally doing things outdoors than the older generations. Granted, I'm sure far more millennials live in cities, but many also prefer a 'simpler' life.
On a separate note though, the allure of cities is that they're nicer to live in than the suburbs. And they're where most jobs are. I think it's necessity more than anything.
Because urbanization makes some people depressed and anxious, but not others. Also, wage-density and productivity are now substantially higher in urban areas than in suburbs or rural villages.
"Urbanization" and "concrete jungle" with "a constant state of rushing and anxiety" are also very different: I now live in, what is it, the 4th or 5th most densely-populated city in the United States (Somerville, MA), and it's downright pleasant and leafy. We have parks, tree-topped walk/bike-ways, long trails that go out into marshlands and riversides (even though I don't particularly like marshes), and greenery everywhere in town.
We also have hipster shops and a reasonable commute to a large number of professional, high-paying workplaces.
Of course, our housing is pretty unaffordable, but that's because the bloody NIMBYs won't let anyone build more of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_bathing
there may also be a biochemical process here involving the inhaling of phytoncides
we don't really need another reason to respect and protect trees and nature but there is ample evidence that we need them much more than they need us
But there are other ways to enjoy Nature -- the beach for instance. It doesn't have to be a stroll through the woods or a hike. It can be just as freeing and relaxing to be on a beach.
Well, except I'm a pseudo-ginger (red beard, blonde hair, pale and freckled). So I'm usually under a giant umbrella, coated in the strongest SPF blocker I can be. And a big straw hat to boot.
Hell, now that I think about it, the Outside is trying to kill me. I should stay home more.
And then a decent 4" brim hat. OR (outdoor research) makes a very good, highly rated one. Or just military surplus model.
Makes it much faster and simpler to just get outside than having to deal with sunblock. If at beach/swimming, you can substitute the shirt for a longsleeve rashguard. I swim/surf in the ocean with my hat on. No problem.
In nature the people are scarce and also all share an appreciation for nature, so it's natural for us to want to connect.
So waking through a particularly beautiful part of Stanford campus leads to better mental health than waking along a noisy highway. No shit.
Lots of science is about looking at "no shit, Sherlock" phenomena. The hope is you can find principles beneath the commonsense aspects. Ideally, you see the commonsense and allow yourself to get puzzled by it.
For example, physicists can't tell you much about what goes on outside your window; it's too complex. They isolate little things in highly controlled environments which remove as much as possible. ("Experiments".)
Unsubscribe.
I live on the rim of one of its bigger cities. 10 minutes walk and I'm in the forest.
Kettering in England is a typical town — few people would recommend visiting it. Look at the official (government-produced) map: http://binged.it/1SDXCaH (the layer should say "Ordnance Survey", I hope it works outside the UK). The pink dotted/dashed lines are walking, cycling or horseriding paths. There are lots!
Kettering was chosen at random. Scroll north and some pink lines have pink diamonds — these are long-distance leisure routes, often with some kind of theme or historical purpose to the route.
I spent a lot of time as a child touring the USA with my parents. The national parks were great! But outside these parks, are footpaths rare?
The regional path thing is changing somewhat as rail easements are converted to trails, but those tend to be a little bland.
There are also national trails like, for example, the Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles) and North Country Trail (4,600 miles planned, 2,700 miles completed).
For us who work in engineering, this makes it easy to live in the forest, and commute to work through the forests.
Urban structures maintain the illusion of permanence.
A Kookaburra stole my sandwich and now i'm stressed as fuck and angry at the world.
/anecdote
Nature, and being in nature, is soothing and palliative because your sophistication/environment ratio goes to infinity.
At any point, you can be in an environment (city, highway, coffee shop) and you have a certain level of sophistication, and no matter how sophisticated you are, there's a ratio to the environment you are in. Quiet main street in your home town ? Very high ratio. Formal wedding in a foreign country surrounded by strangers ? Low ratio. Stress. Uncertainty.
But in nature, no matter how unsophisticated you are, the "nature" you are in is (essentially) zero complexity (at least in terms of technology and cultural sophistication). So the ratio goes to infinity. No matter what.
That's probably nice for a brain...
I also like to go on a few hours long photo-shooting trips through my city and it relaxes me more, no matter the relative lack of nature. I think the point is - it makes me focus on different things, after a while I'm in the "flow" and forget about daily problems.
All those walks start and end at rail stations. You'll need a compass, but no sophisticated orientation skills are required.
Clearly, that math works for some people, and good on them. I just can't make the odds work.
And if you remove it in a non optimal way you can still be contaminated.
On French websites you can still find the wrong advice to use ether to make the tick sleep. In fact it makes it sick and it can throw up in your bloodstream thus contaminating you.
That said, I get it, I avoid skiing with the same fervor; too much risk of bodily harm for little reward, also things like tree wells and avalanches? No thanks. People look at me as weird as you probably feel we are looking at you. (it's also expensive, so there's that excuse)
[0] - http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/13/us/lyme-disease-is-hard-to...
We know lyme disease well. It is horrible. But you might get a tick from some patch of lawn in a city.