Nature: the most natural performance booster?
We all know that getting out for exercise and fresh air in beautiful natural scenery is good for us. But the growing evidence from research is showing us just how much our mental and physical health, ability to regulate our emotions, brain function and performance, and social capacity are influenced by the environment. It might be time to prioritise your relationship with nature if you really want to thrive.
“less than 0.01% of our species’ history has been spent in modern surroundings. The gap between natural settings, to which our physiological functions are best adapted, and the highly urbanized and artificial environment that we inhabit is a contributing cause of the “stress state” in modern people”
Working with our natural roots
We were designed to live in nature, and for virtually our entire existence as a species, we have evolved in nature. Not just ‘in it’, but symbiotically intertwined with it. The increasing awareness and evidence of our dependency on having a healthy gut microbiome is one part of this – having co-evolved with bacteria, we are dependent on certain bacteria to regulate our emotions, digest food and produce essential metabolites.
Our brains and bodies are adapted to thrive in natural environments with access to daylight, exposure to microbes, access to greenery and particular sounds and smells, uneven and texturally varied surfaces to walk on, opportunities to move our bodies in varied ways. All of these are coded for in our brains and bodies as expectations, and play a part in optimal brain development and ongoing function and thriving throughout our lives.
The majority of humans today, living in cities, are attempting to function in an environment that we are not adapted to. There is a growing body of research that shows that when we return to the environment that we are made for – a natural one – even for brief periods, our body and brain systems return closer to optimal functioning. This has relevance for our physical health, our mental and emotional health, our social health, and our ability to think, function and perform effectively.
Whilst many people are tethered to an unnatural environment to be near to work or family or for financial reasons, the more that we understand our inescapable bond with nature, the more we might choose to prioritise re-building that relationship and accommodating nature more, within our modern lives. The research showing the restorative effects of just small ‘doses’ of nature, give us hope: even if we can’t up-and-leave the city or modern life, we can still make choices that nod to our needs as human animals and our design - painstakingly perfected over millions of years.
Read on to find out the potential for your mind, body, soul, relationships and planet when you spend more time in nature.
Body
“Shinrin-yoku” is a practice in Japan meaning “taking in the forest atmosphere through all of our senses”. It is becoming increasingly recognised outside of Japan as an evidence-based form or nature therapy known as “forest bathing”.
It is shown to improve the immune system, prevent illness, and maintain and promote mental and physical health. Studies have shown that being in nature lowers heartrate, lowers levels of cortisol (known as the stress hormone), increases immune cell activity, lowers activation of the sympathetic nervous system (the body’s stress system) and increases activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (the body’s rest and renewal system).
Studies have shown that these protective and restorative effects of nature are flexible and fast-acting, with examples of similar results found with:
Just 15 minutes walking in forests or even just viewing forests
Walking in urban parks
Elderly patients with long term care needs viewing forest from hospital rooftop
Sitting and viewing an urban fruit garden
Sitting and looking at odorless, fresh roses for 4 minutes
Looking at leafy plants for 3 minutes
Exposure to the smell of roses for 90 seconds
The effects of Nature therapy in forests also appear to be long-lasting, with research showing immune cells were elevated even a month after the study.
“Research into the beneficial effects of nature on the human stress response …[has] consistently shown that nature’s restorative effects on the cardiovascular system are demonstrable in the body within a few minutes.”
Gardeners and children who play in the soil are at an advantage compared to the rest of us who only ever touch sterile or unnatural materials. Bacteria from the soil interacts directly with the body and brain:
Elevating chemicals such as serotonin which is known for mood balancing and emotional stability (and has many, many other important roles in our bodies)
Improving memory
Improving brain function
Activating the vagus nerve, which is part of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest, or rest and renewal)
Interacting with the brain’s microglial cells to shift the brain to a more anti-inflammatory state
Mind
“The complexity of our sensory environment has increased dramatically in the last few hundred years. However, our brains have remained essentially unchanged. The cognitive resources that support complex goal-directed behaviors operate differently in urban versus natural environments.”
Modern life demands a lot of effortful, directed attention. Our ability to sustain this type of attention can get ‘used up’, with increasing mistakes, impulsivity, irritability, reduced ability to make and follow plans, and making us more likely to have our attention ‘grabbed’ than being able to consciously decide where to allocate it.
The eventual mental fatigue from operating at max capacity, can also increase vulnerability to stress. According to Attention Restoration Theory, to recover from directed attention fatigue, we need periods of effortless attention or fascination. In particular it is ‘soft fascination’ that is restorative, unlike the attention-grabbing but unrestorative ‘hard fascination’ of TV, for example. Soft fascination, captures attention effortlessly without completely occupying the mind, so that there is ‘headspace’ for emergence of unrelated thoughts and reflection. Nature is a perfect source of soft fascination, such as the sights and sounds of birdsong, waves, trees and leaves. As our visual system is specifically adapted to natural visual stimuli, we can detect and interpret effortlessly and almost automatically, whereas the interpretation and classification of artificial stimuli requires ‘controlled’, effortful attention. Research has shown that people living in remote areas are less distractible, have greater attentional control, and more effectively attune their attention to the task and ignore information that is not relevant to the task. Several studies have shown that for people who are based in urban settings (like the majority of humans), spending time in nature improves performance in cognitive tests.
Being in natural green spaces also seems to change the quality of our thinking and brain activation, and associated emotional state. Research showed, using a mobile EEG recorder to measure brain activity that when participants walked between different zones in an urban setting, their brain patterns reflected a more meditative state, with less frustration and intensity when they were in the natural green zone. Time in nature has also been linked with less time spent ruminating, which can be harmful for wellbeing.
Interacting with nature can be a form of mindfulness. Frederick Law Olmsted, a pioneer in establishing city parks and park systems connecting cities with green spaces (famous for designing New York’s Central Park in 1857) wrote, all those years ago, about the experience of nature in a way that reflects this:
“It is for itself and at the moment it is enjoyed. The attention is aroused and the mind occupied without purpose, without a continuation of the common process of relating the present action, thought or perception to some future end.”
Heart and soul: mental health, wellbeing and emotional regulation
“Beauty calms and revitalises us at the same time”
There are many studies showing the positive effect on mental health, wellbeing and emotional regulation.
This includes projects and research programmes working with people who have experienced severe, complex, layered trauma and deprivation, or who are in ongoing distressing circumstances such as prisons, who are able to heal and recover through interaction with nature.
In addition to the mindfulness and stress-reducing connections already described, research suggests that one of the ways that nature may help us to ‘feel good’ is through the opportunties for awe and beauty that are found within it.
Research studies that exposed participants to beauty (music, art etc) found increased activation in brain regions that are part of our pleasure and reward pathways and are also associated with romantic love. These pathways also play a role in integrating our thoughts, feelings and motivations. They are associated with our dopamine, serotonin, and endogenous opioid systems and dampen down our fear and stress response.
People
Being in nature seems to be important not only for our personal performance, wellbeing and health, but also for how we feel about, and interact with, our fellow humans.
There is a growing body of evidence showing that when we spend time in nature:
We are more prosocial and feel more connected to others
We show more trust, empathy, and generosity
We care for, help, and assist others more
This has been seen directly in behaviour, as well as activation of brain areas associated with these behaviours. It’s been shown with humans and animal studies too.
Planet
Spending time in nature, growing a familiarity, connection and relationship with nature has wider reaching impacts beyond ourselves and our social network. It has been shown to enhance pro-nature conservation and sustainable behaviours. Re-connecting humans to nature is therefore a priority for creating a sustainable future – a sustainable planet environment, and a sustainable way of being for us.
For this reason the Nature Connectedness Research Group was set up in May 2013 to ‘understand people’s connection to the natural environment and design and evaluate local interventions in order to improve connectedness; bringing about the associated benefits in well-being and conservation behaviour’.
Starting small
The research about the impact of nature on physical and mental health, wellbeing, and prosocial behaviour unsurprisingly shows that the greater the level of immersion and time spent in nature, the bigger the effect and the more long-lasting – the more these useful physiological and cognitive states become our default setting. Perhaps surprisingly, what it also shows is that there are similar effects with only brief exposure to nature. Even to a proxy of nature – like a picture or the scent of something natural like pinewood or roses.
Humans can be a bit ‘all or nothing’ and have a tendency to choose ‘certain bad over possible good’. So you might think that living and working in the city, this is not relevant to you. But as with so many topics within psychology – whether motivation, habit change, stress reduction, wellbeing – even small changes can make a difference. In fact, they are often the best way to start making transformative and sustainable change. Even if all you can do is get a plant for your desk, or have a forest image as your screensaver, those are worthwhile changes. It gives you a new set-point from which to take more small steps, as and when the time is right.
So, whatever amount of agency to influence your life you currently feel you have, your heart, mind, body and soul, and the people and planet around you, will appreciate any shift towards your natural roots that you can make.
What differences would you hope to see in your life through more time in nature?
Please get in touch if you would like to know more about anything in this post, or for support to shift your lifestyle to one that is more supportive of your health, wellbeing and performance.
