I've just got to get through extended Christmas festivities - and
subsequent mopping up - and I'll be off on my hols. What am I doing this
year? Same as most years: heading for the bush. This time, we're going
to the mountains.
As a denizen of the inner city, I've long had a
great desire to get out into the country whenever possible. Get into the
grass and trees, where the air is clean and the sleeping seems better.
There's
a place we rent not far up the coast that backs on to a national park. I
call it Lyrebird Lodge. And even when we go overseas, I often find the
country towns beat the big cities.
In recent times, I've been
singing the praises of big cities: how efficient they are and how they
promote creativity and productivity, particularly in the era of the
information economy.
But cities have their dark side and
insufficient grass and trees is it. That's more than just a personal
preference. Environmental psychologists and others have been gathering
impressive evidence of the health-giving properties of greenery.
It's
evidence to support the US biologist E. O. Wilson's "biophilia"
hypothesis: because humans evolved in natural environments and have
lived separate from nature only relatively recently in their
evolutionary history, people possess an innate need to affiliate with
other living things.
Research published last year found that
people who live in urban areas with more green space tend to report
greater well-being - less mental distress and higher life satisfaction -
than city dwellers who do not have parks, gardens or other green space
nearby.
Mathew White and colleagues at the University of Exeter Medical
School used a national longitudinal survey of households in Britain to
track the experience of more than 10,000 people for 17 years to 2008.
They
found that, on average, the positive effect on well-being was
equivalent to about one-third of the difference between being married
rather than unmarried and a 10th of the effect of being employed rather
than unemployed.
A different study followed the experience of more
than 1000 people over five years, in which time some moved to greener
urban areas and some to less green areas. The results showed that, on
average, people who moved to greener areas felt an immediate improvement
in their mental health. This boost could still be measured three years
later.
"These findings are important for urban planners thinking about
introducing new green spaces to towns and cities, suggesting they could
provide long term and sustained benefits for local communities," the
lead author of the study said.
A study from Canada began by
summarising all the various benefits from contact with nature that other
research had found: it can restore people's ability to pay attention,
improve concentration in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder, and speed recovery from illness. It might even reduce the risk
of dying.
Yet another study notes that the first hospitals in
Europe were infirmaries in monastic communities where a garden was
considered an essential part of the environment in that it supported the
healing process.
This study of studies, from Norway, says: "In
most cultures, both present and past, one can observe behaviour
reflecting a fondness for nature. For example, tomb painting from
ancient Egypt, as well as remains found in the ruins of Pompeii,
substantiate that people brought plants into their houses and gardens
more than 2000 years ago."
Many studies find health benefits from
contact with nature. The Norwegian paper says a key element in this may
be nature's stress-reducing effect. Stress plays a role in the causes
and development of cardiovascular diseases, anxiety disorders and
depression.
Contact with nature may help "simply by being
consciously or unconsciously pleasing to the eye".
Office employees seem
to compensate for lack of a window view by introducing indoor plants or
even just pictures of nature. One study found that having a view to
plants from the work station decreased the amount of self-reported sick
leave.
One of my favourite blog sites, PsyBlog, conducted by the
British psychologist Dr Jeremy Dean, notes research estimating that
people now spend 25 per cent less time in nature than they did 20 years
ago. Instead, recreational time is often spent surfing the internet,
playing video games and watching movies.
But this is more up my
line: Dean reports a study finding that taking group walks in nature is
associated with better mental well-being and lower stress and
depression.
The study evaluated a British program called Walking for
Health, and involved nearly 2000 participants, divided into two matched
groups of those who took part in the walks and those who did not.
The
walks, which extended over three months, combined three elements, each
of which you'd expect to make people feel better: walking, being in
nature and being with other people.
Those who seemed to benefit
most were those who had been through a recent stressful life event, such
as divorce, bereavement or a serious illness.
"Our findings
suggest that something as simple as joining an outdoor walking group may
not only improve someone's daily positive emotions, but may also
contribute a non-pharmacological approach to serious conditions like
depression," one of the study's authors said.
You beaut. When I get to the mountains, I'm hoping to do a lot of bush walking.
