Nature: Its Healing Power

Time printed a succinct article on the benefits of being in a natural environment ("The Healing Power of Nature" by Alexandra Sifferlin, July 14, 2016 ).  It both affirmed and expanded my understanding of this important truth.  For the benefit of those who need an even more abbreviated version than is present in the original article, or to whet your appetite I’ll repeat the main points here.  Every claim made is followed by supportive research.  I’m sorry that I can’t link to the article.  It’s worth your time to look it up.  Right now only subscribers to Time can access the online version.

1.       It can lower blood pressure.  Fresh air and the natural fragrance of trees may be the most important influences on blood pressure.

2.       Exposure to it can increase awe.  This can affect behavior positively and reduce the levels of inflammatory compounds in the body.

3.        It promotes cancer fighting cells.  Natural killer cells increase in number after a person walks through a forest.

4.       It can help with depression and anxiety.  The mechanism is not clear, but the effect is well-known.  High levels of negative ions in natural areas may be involved.

5.       It may help with ADHD symptoms.  Children who were diagnosed with ADHD took 20-minute walks in three different environments, a park, a neighborhood, and an urban area.  After the walk in the park, the children could concentrate better than after walking in other areas.

6.       Even fake nature has benefits.  Nature images, sounds, and smells, can reduce stress, improve attention, and promote physical healing.  Patients in hospital rooms with a view of trees heal faster than those without such a view.

One of the uncertainties about the next school year is where at school my home base will be.  Since the school moved during my sabbatical, I’ve never staked out a spot in the new location or had one assigned to me.  I have a strong preference for a place that offers window views, preferably of something other than brick walls, concrete, metal fences, playground equipment or bare dirt.  Obviously I can’t stay glued to one spot all day in any case, so perhaps even a hemmed-in location could be partially redeemed by frequent trips away from it.  I presume that’s how the high school students survive, since their home base has windows so high that only the sky is visible through them. 

Being at home more during the past year has revealed how hungrily I consume what I can see of the natural environment.  Abundant rainfall during most of the growing season has created lushness that we don’t always see in a Kansas summer, and I’m so very grateful for this blessing.  With this nature craving so amply supplied, my sense of optimism and well-being sky-rockets, and I can hardly bear to think of doing without all day every day.  True, the drive to and from school offers a tiny slice of observation time, but most of that drive happens at 65 miles per hour, which demands more attention to driving than observing nature.  If only I could soak it up throughout the day—while I’m doing my job.  I wish the same for the students. 

Working on the grant application to OWLS (Outdoor Wildlife Learning Site) stokes my dreams of how natural spaces can be created within the confines of the school grounds.  Fortunately, with the offer of a generous amount of money from OWLS comes also a generous offering of advice and help for how this can be accomplished.  It’s a good thing since the application process is sufficiently daunting that only a substantial reward could keep me energized for the task.  Money.  That and lots of sweat equity are the other necessities for creating a natural environment in an area where most of the natural elements have been removed or forcibly altered by mowing, spraying or other such interventions. 

Time helped us all by offering information discovered by researchers.  Information like this is the raw material of dreams.  If knowledge and dreams can be followed by time investment, plans, money, and work, and a healing natural environment can eventually be created on the school grounds, I believe hundreds of people will eventually benefit, even in ways no one has yet anticipated.