Natural environment is able to increase and reduce stress, which in turn impacts our bodies. What you are seeing, hearing, experiencing at any moment is changing not only your mood, but how your nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are working.
These are just some of the reasons why at Seeders Capital we’ve focused our entire business operation on improving the environment. A better natural environment would lead to better health conditions, therefore fostering financial activities.
It’s crucial to dedicate one entire article on Seeders Media to the positive effects of nature on mental health since Circular Economy, Sustainability and Climate Change issues are nothing without the right environmental awareness.
The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause anxiety or sadness. This in turn elevates blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension and suppresses immune system. A pleasing natural environment reverses these bad conditions.
Regardless of age or culture, humans find nature pleasing. In one study cited in the book Healing Gardens, researchers found that more than two-thirds of people choose a natural setting to retreat to when stressed. [1]
Nature heals
Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes feel better emotionally, but it also contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. It may even reduce mortality, according to scientists such as public health researchers Stamatakis and Mitchell[2].
Research done in hospitals, offices, and schools has found that even a simple plant in a room can have a significant impact on stress and anxiety.
Nature soothes
In addition, nature helps us cope with pain. Because we are genetically programmed to find trees, plants, water, and other nature elements engrossing, we are absorbed by nature scenes and distracted from our pain and discomfort.
This is nicely demonstrated in a now classic study of patients who underwent gallbladder surgery; half had a view of trees and half had a view of a wall. According to the physician who conducted the study, Robert Ulrich, the patients with the view of trees tolerated pain better, appeared to nurses to have fewer negative effects, and spent less time in a hospital. More recent studies have shown similar results with scenes from nature and plants in hospital rooms [3].
Nature restores
One of the most intriguing areas of current research is the impact of nature on general wellbeing. In one study in Mind, 95% of those interviewed said their mood improved after spending time outside, changing from depressed, stressed, and anxious to calmer and more balances. Other studies by Ulrich, Kim, and Cervinka show that time in nature or scenes of nature are associated with a positive mood, and psychological wellbeing, meaningfulness, and vitality.
Furthermore, time in nature or viewing nature scenes increases our ability to pay attention. Because humans find nature inherently interesting, we can naturally focus on what we are experiencing out in nature. This also provides a respite for our overactive minds, refreshing us for new tasks.
In another interesting area, Andrea Taylor’s research on children with ADHD shows that time spent in nature increases their attention span later. [4]
Nature connects
According to a series of field studies conducted by Kuo and Coley at the Human-Environment Research Lab, time spent in nature connects us to each other and the larger world. Another study at the University of Illinois suggests that residents in Chicago public housing who had trees and green space around their building reported knowing more people, having stronger feelings of unity with neighbors, being more concerned with helping and supporting each other, and having stronger feelings of belonging than tenants in buildings without trees. In addition to this greater sense of community, they had a reduced risk of street crime, lower levels of violence and aggression between domestic partners, and a better capacity to cope with life’s demands, especially the stresses of living in poverty.
This experience of connection may be explained by studies that used fMRI to measure brain activity. When participants viewed nature scenes, the parts of the brain associated with empathy and love lit up, but when they viewed urban scenes, the parts of the brain associated with fear and anxiety were activated. It appears as though nature inspires feelings that connect us to each other and our environment (ontarioparks.com)[5].
Discover more about what Seeders Capital is doing to improve air quality, increase natural environment conditions and financial revenue for businesses.
[1] https://researchoutreach.org/articles/exploring-mental-benefits-natural-environment/
[2] http://lakecreektx.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Nature-Impacts-Our-Wellbeing.pdf
[3] https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaax0903
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157607/
[5] https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/mental-health-benefits-outdoors/
