nature benefits essay

Nature Essay for Students and Children

500+ words nature essay.

Nature is an important and integral part of mankind. It is one of the greatest blessings for human life; however, nowadays humans fail to recognize it as one. Nature has been an inspiration for numerous poets, writers, artists and more of yesteryears. This remarkable creation inspired them to write poems and stories in the glory of it. They truly valued nature which reflects in their works even today. Essentially, nature is everything we are surrounded by like the water we drink, the air we breathe, the sun we soak in, the birds we hear chirping, the moon we gaze at and more. Above all, it is rich and vibrant and consists of both living and non-living things. Therefore, people of the modern age should also learn something from people of yesteryear and start valuing nature before it gets too late.

Significance of Nature

Nature has been in existence long before humans and ever since it has taken care of mankind and nourished it forever. In other words, it offers us a protective layer which guards us against all kinds of damages and harms. Survival of mankind without nature is impossible and humans need to understand that.

If nature has the ability to protect us, it is also powerful enough to destroy the entire mankind. Every form of nature, for instance, the plants , animals , rivers, mountains, moon, and more holds equal significance for us. Absence of one element is enough to cause a catastrophe in the functioning of human life.

We fulfill our healthy lifestyle by eating and drinking healthy, which nature gives us. Similarly, it provides us with water and food that enables us to do so. Rainfall and sunshine, the two most important elements to survive are derived from nature itself.

Further, the air we breathe and the wood we use for various purposes are a gift of nature only. But, with technological advancements, people are not paying attention to nature. The need to conserve and balance the natural assets is rising day by day which requires immediate attention.

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Conservation of Nature

In order to conserve nature, we must take drastic steps right away to prevent any further damage. The most important step is to prevent deforestation at all levels. Cutting down of trees has serious consequences in different spheres. It can cause soil erosion easily and also bring a decline in rainfall on a major level.

Polluting ocean water must be strictly prohibited by all industries straightaway as it causes a lot of water shortage. The excessive use of automobiles, AC’s and ovens emit a lot of Chlorofluorocarbons’ which depletes the ozone layer. This, in turn, causes global warming which causes thermal expansion and melting of glaciers.

Therefore, we should avoid personal use of the vehicle when we can, switch to public transport and carpooling. We must invest in solar energy giving a chance for the natural resources to replenish.

In conclusion, nature has a powerful transformative power which is responsible for the functioning of life on earth. It is essential for mankind to flourish so it is our duty to conserve it for our future generations. We must stop the selfish activities and try our best to preserve the natural resources so life can forever be nourished on earth.

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The Positive Effects Of Nature On Your Mental Wellbeing

Just a walk in the woods or a stroll by the beach on a sunny morning can awaken the innermost feelings of happiness and peace, and Environmental Psychology has gone a long way proving this fact (Bell, Greene, Fisher, & Baum, 1996).

Our affinity toward nature is genetic and deep-rooted in evolution. For example, have you ever wondered why most people prefer to book accommodations that have a great view from the balcony or the terrace? Why patients who get a natural view from their hospital bed recover sooner than others? Or why does it happen that when stress takes a toll on our mind, we crave for time to figure out things amidst nature?

Frank Lloyd Wright had said, “ Study Nature, love Nature, stay close to Nature. It will never fail you. ” This article investigates the human-nature relationship in detail. Why we feel so empowered when we are close to Nature?

What happens to us when the soft breeze or the warm sun touch us? With research-backed evidence and useful environment-support hacks, this piece explores and acknowledges the sheer boon of the ‘Nature Contact’.

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This Article Contains:

A look at the positive effects of connecting with nature, a look at the psychology of environment, 4 examples of nature in psychology, what does the research say, 5 interesting studies.

• The Importance of Nature To Wellbeing

The Relationship Between Nature And Human Health

5 proven benefits of being in nature, a brief look at psychoevolutionary theory, attention restoration theory, 5 ways to apply the positive effects of nature in our life, a take-home message.

Author Richard Louv mentioned ‘Nature-Deficit Disorder’ in his famous book ‘ Last Child In The Woods .’

According to Louv, nature-deficit disorder is not the presence of an anomaly in the brain; it is the loss of connection of humans to their natural environment. Staying close to nature improves physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. It makes us feel alive from the inside, and we should not compromise it for recent developments like urbanization, technology, or social media (Louv, 2015).

As mentioned above, the benefits of staying close to nature are diverse. We can enjoy the positive effects of connecting to the environment at all levels of individual wellbeing.

Let’s see how:

Nature impacts health

• Forest bathing, or Shinrin-yoku , as they call it in Japan, is a famous way of spending time in nature. Research has shown that people who practice forest bathing have optimum nervous system functions, well-balanced heart conditions, and reduced bowel disorders (Mao et al., 2012).
• Outdoor activities reduce the chances of developing eyesight problems like hypermetropia and myopia. A survey conducted on children in Australia revealed that school-aged kids who participated in outdoor activities had better vision than kids who spent more time indoors (Rose et al., 2008a).
• Studies have related nature connections to lower BMI. People who exercise outdoors are less fatigued and have fewer chances of suffering from obesity and related conditions (Wolch et al., 2011).
• The Forest Bathing research also suggested that by stimulating the production of anti-cancer proteins, frequent walks or trips into the wilderness help patients in fighting terminal diseases. Although this is ongoing research and firmer evidence are awaited, this suggestion is strong enough to prove the benefits of being outdoors (Mao et al., 2012).

Nature improves psychological wellbeing

• Nature helps in emotional regulation and improves memory functions. A study on the cognitive benefits of nature found that subjects who took a nature walk did better on a memory test than the subjects who walked down the urban streets (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008).
• Nature walks benefit people suffering from depression. Studies had shown that people suffering from mild to major depressive disorders showed significant mood upliftments when exposed to nature. Not only that, but they also felt more motivated and energized to recover and get back to normalcy (Berman et al., 2012).
• Recent investigations revealed that being outdoor reduces stress by lowering the stress hormone cortisol (Gidlow et al., 2016; Li, 2010).
• Nature walks and other outdoor activities build attention and focus (Hartig, Mang, & Evans, 1991). There are pieces of evidence that indicate strong environmental connections to be related to better performance, heightened concentration, and reduced chances of developing Attention Deficit Disorder (Faber Taylor & Kuo, 2009).
• A study at the University of Kansas found that spending more time outdoors and less time with our electronic devices can increase our problem-solving skills and improve creative abilities (Atchley, Strayer, & Atchley, 2012).

Spiritual enhancement

• Environmental psychologists have argued that there is a value component added to the human-nature relationship. By staying close to nature, we feel more grateful and appreciative of what it has to offer to us (Proshansky, 1976).
• Seeing the wonders of the world outside automatically fosters within us the urge to protect it.
• Breathing in nature gives us wholesome sensory awareness. When we spend time outdoors, we are more mindful of what we see, what we hear, what we smell, and what we feel (Howell et al., 2011).

It is the offshoot of brain science that focuses on the relationship living beings (especially humans) have with nature and studies the dynamics of the person-environment coexistence.

The psychology of the environment is a relatively contemporary concept. It emerged as a branch of psychology following research by Proshansky and colleagues on person-place interactions in the 1970s.

Environmental psychology is rooted in the belief that nature has a significant role in human development and conduct. It believes that nature has a vital contribution to the way we think, feel, and behave with others.

A fascinating story of the role of nature in shaping human behavior was mentioned in Marco Polo’s diary. It said that in 1272 when Polo was traveling through the different parts of Western Asia, he noted that the people of Kerman were polite, humble, and well-behaved, while the people in Persia, which was in the neighborhood, were cruel, unkind, and threatful (Spencer & Gee, 2009).

When exploring the reason for this stark behavioral difference, the people said that it was the ‘soil’ that was responsible for it. And as the story goes, when the King ordered soil from Isfahan in Persia and kept it in his banquet hall, his men started to shower each other with curse words and assaulted their folks.

Environmental psychology is for the most part problem-oriented. It aims to bring to notice the ongoing hazards and the faltering human-nature connections that we need to address.

By identifying the problem areas, it opens ways for solution-focused research and explorations. The psychology of nature and environment continuously facilitate climatic moderation. It also digs into the ways we can change the physical environment that we live in, to feel more connected and coexisting with nature.

Environmental psychology promotes healthy natural ecosystem and suggests how malfunctions in habitat have and will continue to affect human behavior, demographic variants, and the society as a whole.

Basic tenets of the psychology of environment

The psychology of environment works around the following main ideas (Gifford, 2007).

• Human dependence on nature validates evolution. We are more adaptive to natural settings than human-made habitats.
• Contact with natural light is therapeutic and has immediate positive effects on stress, blood pressure, and immune system.
• Strong connections to the environment enhance the person-space idea and increase environmental perception.
• Humans are always capable of improving the environment they live in.
• Humans are active adapters to changes in society and the environment. They reshape their social identities and affiliations according to the physical space they live in.

Nature has a deep-rooted meaning in psychology that encompasses the core components of our existence, including our genes. The popular nature-nurture concept in developmental psychology explores all the variables that shape and influence the relationship that our internal (personality traits and genetic factors) and external worlds (physical environment that we live in) share.

The Biophilia Hypothesis delved into the human relationship with nature in 1984. The concept was initially used by German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm who described biophilia as the ‘ love for everything that is alive .’ The idea of biophilia was later expanded by American biologist Edward O. Wilson, who proposed that the human inclination towards nature has a genetic basis (Rogers, 2019).

1. Stress and nature

A large-scale experiment conducted on 120 subjects ascertained the ‘nature-connection’ in stress reduction and coping. Each participant observed visuals of either a natural landscape or an urban environment. The data obtained from this survey revealed that participants who looked at the picture of natural setting had low scores on stress scales and had better heartbeat and pulse counts (Ulrich et al., 1991).

Furthermore, investigators also found that the stress recovery rate was much higher in participants who got a natural exposure than the ones who saw urbanized ambiances. The flow of this study strongly indicated the role nature plays in improving our general mental health conditions, including stress (Ulrich et al., 1991).

2. Nature for building attention

The fact that staying close to nature improves focus and attention span, was suggested in the Attention Restoration Theory by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan (1989). The theory explains why staying close to nature re-energizes us and reduces fatigue.

Encounters with any aspect of the natural environment – sunset, beach, clouds, or forests grab our positive attention without us paying much effort to it, and the whole process restores the life energy that negative emotions had taken away from us.

3. Climate crisis and denial

An immensely significant example of nature in human psychology is the research on climate crisis or climate change.

Climate crisis and global warming are international concerns today, and some psychologists argue that the impact of climate change is so vast and unimaginable, that we often choose not to respond to it.

Nevertheless, the effect of climate change on human psychology and mental health is well-established now. Studies show that climate change over the years has had a dramatic impact on the way we think, behave, decide, and execute plans (Lorenzoni, Pidgeon, & O’Connor, 2005).

The Australian Psychological Society has provided some mind-boggling figures . At the time of writing, they estimate 5-8% of the population across the US, UK, and Australia denies that climate change is happening, while 97% of climate scientists accept the fact and are concerned about it.

However small the denial rate may seem, researchers suggest that it is enough to create a judgment gap that may cause people to doubt their contribution behind the climatic adversities. No matter which direction the judgment travels, it is undeniable that climate crisis has and will continue to impact human minds in some way or the other.

4. Psychology, values, and nature

An experiment conducted on the landowners on Pennsylvania disclosed that staying close to nature adds a sense of value toward the self, others, and toward Mother Nature.

It builds connectivity and lets the way for gratitude and appreciation.

Results showed that respondents who had higher connectivity with nature and spent more time outdoors were more environmentally responsible, concerned, and happier in their interpersonal relationships (Dutcher, Finley, Luloff, & Johnson, 2007).

The Human-Nature Relationship And Health

The research paper on ‘ Human-Nature Relationship And Its Impact On Health: A Critical Review’ explores all the aspects of the interconnection we have with nature and how it affects our general health and wellbeing (Seymour, 2016).

Author Valentine Seymour (2016) defined our relationship with nature in close association with Darwinian principles of Evolutionary psychology . The study explained concepts of evolutionary biology, social economics, psychology, and environmentalism and scouts how the interplay of all these influence human health. The interdisciplinary research model suggests that:

• Staying close to nature improves physical conditions like hypertension, cardiac illness, and chronic pain.
• A strong connection to the natural environment enhances emotional wellbeing and alleviates feelings of social isolation. Besides, it also helps individuals suffering from mental health conditions like attention disorders, mood disorders, and different forms of anxiety.
• Nature-friendly people are more environmentally conscious and responsible. They have a rational sense of using their physical space and are more proactive to enact on issues that might help in sustaining the environment they live in.

A Multi-Disciplinary Study On Human-Nature Relationship

The multi-disciplinary HNC (Human-Nature Connection) study was a vast exploration of the kinetics involving the relatability we bear with our physical environment and also why many people are still unaware about the benefits of staying close to nature (Ives et al., 2017).

The study included a heap of psychometric assessments and personal interviews, and the results obtained by Ives et al. (2017) provided a strong lineup of why the human-nature connection is vital for human life and sustainability.

The University Of Tasmania Study On Nature And Affective Experience

David Hayward published this thesis in 2016 and studied the effect of nature connection with enhanced mental health conditions in students.

With strong evidence and research-backed examples, he suggested that teaching students from a broad perspective is way more effective than showing them only the subject matter (Knapp, 1989).

He studied the implications of outdoor education and concluded that kids who received outdoor training were more satisfied and emotionally well-balanced.

Not only that, outdoor educators, according to the researcher, were possessors of sound mental health and loved their jobs more than teachers in a controlled setting. The study attracted many educational sectors and have encouraged educators and facilitators to embrace outdoor activities as an integral part of educational courses.

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We found that only four studies were not enough to mention, as there have been so many different and interesting approaches. Here is another five interesting studies.

1. A Study On Climatic Conditions And Its Effects On Personality Traits

A team of psychologists in the US, UK, China, and Australia investigated how climatic changes affect human personality. The study aimed to examine and explore the aetiological causes of why character and behavioral patterns differ with climatic variations (Wei et al., 2017).

The sample population for the research were individuals from China and the US, two different places in terms of climatic conditions, and the report explained personality variances concerning the Big Five Personality Factor Theory .

Results indicated that people who lived in a moderate climate, with temperature up to 22-24 degrees, score higher on personality traits such as sociableness, openness, extraversion, and agreeableness. This study was a basic authentication of the fact that the physical environment we live in plays a crucial role in shaping our personality disposition, and why there should be more awareness about protecting the Nature from mayhem.

2. A Study On Nature And Human Emotions

Scientists Ryan Lumber, Miles Richardson, and David Sheffield published a research paper in 2017 focused on the affective components of associating with nature. The authors suggested that being close to nature evokes positive emotions (Lumber et al., 2017).

Outdoor activities such as hiking, gardening, or birdwatching, enhance the nature-human connection and acts as a catalyst to happiness. The study used the Nature Relatedness Scale and recorded responses on a basic Likert Scale.

The results culminated from the study positively correlated outdoor experiences with positive emotions and expanded HNC (Lumber et al., 2017).

3. Climate Change And Its Effect On Human Personality

Charles Q. Choi (2017) published an enthralling paper on how global warming and climate crisis is expected to bring about changes in human behavior and personality traits.

The researcher argues that if climate has a role to play in framing our dispositions, then it is only logical to believe that the climate crisis and the changes that follow will also impact human mannerisms significantly.

The research-based explanations and pieces of evidence of this paper, has raised questions that are yet to be answered by experts.

4. Psychological Changes Associated With Living In The Polar Areas

This study was published by Zimmer et al., in 2013 and discussed how life in polar regions might impact the physical and mental wellbeing of the residents.

The study, besides establishing facts about being in the Poles, also firmly ascertained that we could not escape human-nature connection when talking about mental health and wellbeing.

The research suggested that geographically isolated regions of Antarctica are highly prone to get affected by climatic variations and global setbacks (Bradbury, 2002).

The lack of sunlight and extreme weather conditions in these regions impact cognitive functioning, anxiety levels, and causes a static low mood condition for its inhabitants (Paul, Mandal, Ramachandran, & Panwar, 2010a; Paul, Mandal, Ramachandran, & Panwar, 2010b).

5. Nature And Spirituality

The prime focus of research done by Professor Lockhart (2011) was to spread awareness about human disconnection from nature and explain why we must reconstruct this to promote happiness.

Investigator of this study, Prof Lockhart, indicated that the socio-ecological crisis the world is seeing today is due to this breach of connection between humans and nature. She highlights in her study that there is a spiritual enhancement that is linked to the human-nature relationship.

Each encounter with the natural environment takes us deeper into exploring the truth behind our existence and what a happier world would look like. The subject matter of this study was that materialistic gains has blindfolded us and has made us spiritually bankrupt (Okri, 2008).

Furthermore, the research also indicated that since humans are genetically conditioned to stay in close coexistence with nature, an absence of nature-human connection creates a sense of loneliness and unhappiness within us.

It is this feeling of gloom, as the researcher suggests, that is the reason for societal disruptions and human immorality today, and while we may seek for answers outside, the real solution lies in the nature-human relationship.

The Importance of Nature to Wellbeing

The study revealed that subjective feelings of happiness and wellbeing were positively correlated with natural activities such as gardening, animal feeding, bird watching, and bushwalking (Richardson, Cormack, McRobert, & Underhill, 2016).

Dr. Miles Richardson, the face of this research, cited valuable evidence on how proximity to the nature improved mood, enhanced respiratory functioning, regulated hormonal malfunctions, and impacted on the thought structure of individuals as a whole.

Just by being outdoors and using all our senses to appreciate nature, we can be more mindful of the present, gain emotional resilience, and combat stress with more vitality.

We become naturally immune to anxiety, emotional ups and downs, and thought blocks, thereby feel more lively and energetic than before.

The survey further pointed that people who lived close to natural wilderness like the beach, mountains, or parklands, had better mental health and reported of falling sick lesser than those living in congested urban settings.

Such families had fewer instances of domestic violence, said of feeling less fatigued, and showed increased productivity at the professional front.

A recent survey report launched by scholars out of Deakin University (Maller et al., 2009) demonstrated some practical points as to how human and nature are entwined with each other.

Although the study had other focal areas and did not concentrate on a massive global sample, the report that came out was used and shared widely by environmental psychologists and social scientists to explain the relationship we have with our physical habitat.

The major assertions of this report were:

• Staying close to greeneries such as farms, parks and fields increase chances of related outdoor activities (walking, gardening, farming, playing, etc.). This improves mental health and physical fitness in adults and children who live there.
• Nature-friendly urban settings can be useful in promoting social connections and interpersonal communication.
• Contact with nature in any form enhances spiritual health and fills the mind with a deeper insight into life.
• Children who are encouraged to spend more time outdoors are owners of good physical and mental health. They are less prone to problems like obesity, asthma, childhood anxiety, and depression, and are more focused on their lives than others.
• Adolescents who had a close connection to nature were emotionally well-balanced and had better coping skills than other children of their age.
• Aged people, who had access to green parks felt more positive and hopeful.

Sir David Attenborough, one of the most popular nature enthusiasts the world has seen in a long time, had fairly quoted that

“We must cherish the natural world because we’re a part of it and we depend on it.”

It is difficult to gauge the benefits we can derive from being close to nature. Be that on the mind, body, or the soul, it leaves a lasting positive impression on every single aspect of our existence.

1. Nature provides

A day out in the sunshine can suffice us with vitamin D, a nutrient we don’t get from food as much we need it.

The right level of Vitamin D in the body immunes us against diseases like osteoporosis, cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Besides, it also ensures the smooth functioning of the immune system.

Studies have indicated that a large chunk of the population today is deficient of the ‘sunshine vitamin,’ which explains the massive increase in fatal diseases today, and rather than relying on human-made supplements, a close connection to nature can help in replenishing the deficit (Naeem, 2010).

2. Nature improves

Computer Vision Syndrome (CSV) is a condition that arises from staring at the screen for prolonged hours. Naturally, such exposures take a toll on our eyesight and develop problems like dry eyes, myopia, or chronic headaches.

Spending time outdoors, especially in the greeneries is the best natural solution to this. Looking at the green grass, the trees, the flowers, and all the other aspects of the environment improve focus and eyesight.

Interestingly, studies have shown that children who spend more than four hours a day in the outdoors are four times less likely to develop eyesight problems than children who spent less than one hour outdoors every day (Rose et al., 2008b).

3. Nature cleanses

The environment is a natural purifier. Spending some hours outdoors helps in releasing the toxins from our body and leave us all fresh and rejuvenated.

The amount of bad air that we breathe in because of the pollution, industrial fumes, and indoor pollutants, is potent enough to dysregulate our respiratory tract, giving birth to breathing troubles, bronchitis, and asthma.

And there is no other solution to this except for spending more time in the natural environment and getting some fresh air every day.

4. Nature builds

Mostly, the time we spend outside involves physical activity in some form. It may be walking, jogging, cycling, diving, surfing, playing, or anything alike. Any exercise in the outdoors helps in burning fat and improves the metabolism rate in the body.

Research in this area has revealed that people who exercise outdoors enjoy their workout sessions more and are more likely to practice it regularly, than people who exercise indoors (Thompson Coon et al., 2011). Besides, outdoor activities are related to longer life span and fewer health problems.

5. Nature heals

“A walk in nature walks the soul back home.”

Nature is undoubtedly the best healer. Spending time in nature awakens our senses and provides clarity.

Many studies have proved that people who have a close connection to the landscapes are happier from the inside – they indulge themselves in positive thinking and have better coping mechanisms than others.

A strong human-nature relationship means emotional balance, more focus, solution-oriented thinking, and an overall resilient approach to life.

The Psychoevolutionary Theory is built on the proposition that our personality, actions, and thoughts are shaped genetically by natural selection.

Roger Ulrich (1984), the face of this theory said that humans have a deep-rooted affinity towards nature, which is due to the thousands of years that early humans had spent living amid the wild landscapes. It is due to this fact that staying close to nature brings a feeling of positivity and happiness in us.

Furthermore, the PET (Psychoevolutionary Theory) asserted that staying in a human-made environment invites disorders like stress, depression, obesity, and cardiac diseases, and is a challenge to our overall wellbeing (Ulrich & Simons, 1986).

Spending long hours indoors is likely to bring negative thoughts and fatigue. Through extensive research and survey, scientists have proved that when we feel low and less energetic, an encounter with the natural elements can instantly make us feel better (Zuckerman, 1977).

The psychoevolutionary model of Ulrich (1983) suggested that:

• Staying close to nature is a genetically influenced preference of humans.
• Spending more time outdoors has a replenishing effect on emotions, memory, and cognition.
• Restraining oneself in enclosed artificial physical settings can evoke anger, despair, and depression – together affecting our wellbeing.
• Nature has an in-built restoration component that helps in stress reduction and emotional regulation.

The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) was proposed by Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan (1989) and reflected upon the gospel that staying close to the natural environment builds focus.

The proponents of the theory first mentioned about this in their book ‘The experience of nature: A psychological perspective ’ where they discussed how effortlessly witnessing natural phenomena like watching the leaves move, or the clouds float, make us more observant and attentive.

They identified two types of attention:

• Voluntary attention – where we willingly focus on something and spend our mental energy fully into internalizing the experience.
• Involuntary attention – where we unknowingly pay attention to something and get invested into that.

The ART suggests that any attention can be built and redeemed through exposure to natural settings. By establishing a strong connection to nature, we can stay away from everyday stressors, experience positivity and joy, regain intrinsic motivation, and become more aware of our sensory stimulations (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008; Kaplan, 1995).

The theory indicates that nature has some ‘soft fascinations’ that help in restoring attention when we get distracted or mentally tied down. The soft fascinations are nothing but soothing natural elements (for example flowers, breeze, or gentle sunshine) that we all love to be close to. When we stay close to these pleasant aspects of nature, we do not have to put any effort into attending to it; we effortlessly immerse ourselves into the experience.

They bring feelings of pleasure and contentment, which is why people who spend more time in nature are more intuitive, energetic, and consciously attentive (Fuller et al., 2007; Keniger, Gaston, Irvine, & Fuller, 2013).

Several studies and large-scale surveys had been conducted to validate the theory and is still an intriguing area of research for environmentalists (Ohly et al., 2016).

Mycobacterium Vaccae: The Happy Bacterium?

The term Mycobacterium Vaccae originated from the Mycobacteriaceae , a type of soil bacteria and the Latin word Vacca, meaning ‘cow’ (as it was first found in a cow dung sample taken from Austria).

The reason for the popularity of this microorganism is because of the incredible links it has with health improvement and psychological wellbeing. Studies indicate that the Mycobacterium Vaccae, more commonly known as the ‘happy bacteria’ or the ‘happiness bacteria’ is useful for treating asthma, cancer, depression, phobia, dermatitis, and even tuberculosis.

A study conducted by O’Brien and colleagues (2004) explained how, by injecting the bacteria in patients with chronic lung disease, she made them recover faster and with a better prognosis. Besides, the research also suggested that using this microbe improves mood, induces positive emotions, and produces more vitality.

Another study headed by Dr. Christopher Lowry, a neuroscientist at the University of Bristol, explored the effect of the ‘Happiness Bacterium’ on stress and burnout by injecting the bacteria on mice and conducting a series of stress tests on them after that.

The results showed that the group of mice that received the Mycobacterium injections acted as if they were on antidepressants. But no such reaction was noticed in the group that did not receive the treatment. The research report indicated that the Mycobacterium Vaccae activates the neurotransmitters in the brain that release serotonin or the ‘happy hormone,’ resulting in inducing happiness and positivity (Lowry et al., 2007).

Besides boosting happiness, happy bacteria also makes us immune to flu, infections and gives a significant boost to brain functioning. Now we know why they say “ The dirtier the feet, the happier the heart. ”

The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, and the air is getting warmer.

As the weather improves, we tend to spend more time outside, which is great for our physical and mental health.

Studies suggest that spending time in nature can have therapeutic benefits for our attentional capacities (Berto, 2005).

The Attention Restoration Theory (ART; Kaplan, 1995) explains how nature can restore our attention after working mentally.

Accordingly, our attentional system constitutes two separate systems. First, we engage in “directed attention” when we focus extensively on working tasks and disregard all other distractions. With repetition, we deplete our mental capacities and show a limited span of our attention.

On the other hand, spending time in nature increases effortless reflection, which is considered the secondary attentional system of ART (Kaplan & Berman, 2010). Frequent walks in nature help decrease stress and prevent burnout symptoms like attentional depletion (Passmore & Holder, 2016).

Taking walks in nature is a powerful way to increase your mood, decrease depressive symptoms and improve memory (Berman, Jonides & Kaplan, 2008).

Choose a natural area, such as a city park, for a peaceful and quiet walk. During the walk, attend to the smells, sounds, and sights surrounding you. Allow your mind to wander and appreciate the wonders of nature.

Although there are so many suggestions in this article, let’s focus on five practical options.

1. Walk more

We know walking is good for the heart, muscles, and the overall metabolism rate. And now scientists have proved that walking in the natural environment improves our emotional health too.

A study conducted and published by Stanford University, California revealed that participants who walked in the green parklands showed increased attention and focus, more so than participants who walked in closed urban settings or on a treadmill (Bratman, Daily, Levy, & Gross, 2015).

Not only that, but the former group also showed less engagement in negative thinking and felt more confident about themselves than the other group.

2. Keep a nature journal

A nature journal is a creative and unique way of imbibing the positive vibes of nature into our everyday lives. Many people who encourage this habit express feelings of inner peace and joy. In a nature journal, we can collect and note everything about our encounters with the outer world.

For example, after a walk by the beach on a cloudy evening, we can sketch some clouds in the journal or draw the sea and write how we felt when we were walking through the breezy shore. Many people collect small things like a pebble, flowers, feathers, or leaves, and glue them in the nature journal with their thoughts poured into it.

A great way to spend some quality ‘me-time,’ nature journaling inevitably brings a part of nature in our usual lives.

Watch this video to get started on nature journaling:

3. Spend some working hours outside

Most working professionals today have the flexibility to access daily tasks outside (thanks to technology). We can choose to spend a part of our working day out to avoid the monotony of the cubicle and the same old office space.

It may be one conference in the garden or lunch at the local park, anything that can logically amalgamates with nature. Spending some time outside alone or with co-workers gives an instant boost of freshness to the mind, thereby reducing the stress and frustration that comes from working tonelessly for hours at a stretch.

4. Plant at home

Growing plants at home not just add aesthetic beauty to your space, it also contributes to purifying the air you breathe in.

Having plants at home balances and soothes the home ambiance and aids in respiration and breathing. Studies have proved that indoor plants or a garden are beneficial for the mental health of the people who live there. They help in improving sensory awareness, cognitive functions, and enhances focus (Orwell et al., 2004).

Indoor plants reconnect us to nature, please our senses, and brings a serene feeling when we stay close to them.

5. Balance the diet with more natural elements

Diet is undoubtedly a great way of establishing a strong connection to Mother Nature. By consuming more plant-based proteins, vitamins, and minerals, we can help our body maintain its optimal state of functioning and homeostasis level.

Healthcare research proved that the consumption of plant-based protein is correlated to lower mortality rates as opposed to animal-based proteins (Song et al., 2016). It is not a bad idea, after all, to replace meat with vegetables and grains – if that brings good health and long life to us!

17 Top-Rated Positive Psychology Exercises for Practitioners

Expand your arsenal and impact with these 17 Positive Psychology Exercises [PDF] , scientifically designed to promote human flourishing, meaning, and wellbeing.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

“All the trees are losing their leaves, and not one of them is worried.”

Donald Miller

Staying close to nature, observing all the little and significant elements of it, and appreciating it from the very core, is therapeutic and self-healing.

Even by saying and doing nothing, we can learn so much from connecting to our natural surroundings. It gives us the perspective for healthier living, the motivation to carry on, and the energy to keep trying. For there is no bond more primitive and ingrained in us than our love for nature and nature’s care for us.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

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What an excellent article! So thorough, and lays out all the evidence to support the idea that exposure to nature is good for us – something I strive to account for in my architecture practice. Thank you.

I would have to say for so many kindness can save their day They could be lost they can find their way Make the most out of each day Thinking before expressing what did I say I can’t believe I can do that I know its wrong that’s a human fact I’m supposed to love not attack I shouldn’t always look behind my back No one is playing games with me Perhaps one day my vision they’ll clearly see Its not cool to make others think of fear and complete dispair When you yourself maybe in a state of disrepair There’s hope for something good to happen to anyone Do good works and you’ll be happy when your done Life can be rewarding life can be fun Share that simple sentence with someone

Nice article. Feel to go through again and again.

This IS a nice article. What a perfect justification for our outdoor classroom! 🙂

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How nature can make you kinder, happier, and more creative, we are spending more time indoors and online. but recent studies suggest that nature can help our brains and bodies to stay healthy..

I’ve been an avid hiker my whole life. From the time I first strapped on a backpack and headed into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I was hooked on the experience, loving the way being in nature cleared my mind and helped me to feel more grounded and peaceful.

But, even though I’ve always believed that hiking in nature had many psychological benefits, I’ve never had much science to back me up…until now, that is. Scientists are beginning to find evidence that being in nature has a profound impact on our brains and our behavior, helping us to reduce anxiety, brooding, and stress, and increase our attention capacity, creativity, and our ability to connect with other people.

“People have been discussing their profound experiences in nature for the last several 100 years—from Thoreau to John Muir to many other writers,” says researcher David Strayer, of the University of Utah. “Now we are seeing changes in the brain and changes in the body that suggest we are physically and mentally more healthy when we are interacting with nature.”

While he and other scientists may believe nature benefits our well-being, we live in a society where people spend more and more time indoors and online—especially children. Findings on how nature improves our brains brings added legitimacy to the call for preserving natural spaces—both urban and wild—and for spending more time in nature in order to lead healthier, happier, and more creative lives.

Here are some of the ways that science is showing how being in nature affects our brains and bodies.

1. Being in nature decreases stress

It’s clear that hiking—and any physical activity—can reduce stress and anxiety. But, there’s something about being in nature that may augment those impacts.

In one recent experiment conducted in Japan, participants were assigned to walk either in a forest or in an urban center (taking walks of equal length and difficulty) while having their heart rate variability, heart rate, and blood pressure measured. The participants also filled out questionnaires about their moods, stress levels, and other psychological measures.

Results showed that those who walked in forests had significantly lower heart rates and higher heart rate variability (indicating more relaxation and less stress), and reported better moods and less anxiety, than those who walked in urban settings. The researchers concluded that there’s something about being in nature that had a beneficial effect on stress reduction, above and beyond what exercise alone might have produced.

In another study , researchers in Finland found that urban dwellers who strolled for as little as 20 minutes through an urban park or woodland reported significantly more stress relief than those who strolled in a city center.

The reasons for this effect are unclear; but scientists believe that we evolved to be more relaxed in natural spaces. In a now-classic laboratory experiment by Roger Ulrich of Texas A&M University and colleagues, participants who first viewed a stress-inducing movie, and were then exposed to color/sound videotapes depicting natural scenes, showed much quicker, more complete recovery from stress than those who’d been exposed to videos of urban settings.

These studies and others provide evidence that being in natural spaces— or even just looking out of a window onto a natural scene—somehow soothes us and relieves stress.

2. Nature makes you happier and less brooding

I’ve always found that hiking in nature makes me feel happier, and of course decreased stress may be a big part of the reason why. But, Gregory Bratman, of Stanford University, has found evidence that nature may impact our mood in other ways, too.

In one 2015 study , he and his colleagues randomly assigned 60 participants to a 50-minute walk in either a natural setting (oak woodlands) or an urban setting (along a four-lane road). Before and after the walk, the participants were assessed on their emotional state and on cognitive measures, such as how well they could perform tasks requiring short-term memory. Results showed that those who walked in nature experienced less anxiety, rumination (focused attention on negative aspects of oneself), and negative affect, as well as more positive emotions, in comparison to the urban walkers. They also improved their performance on the memory tasks.

In another study, he and his colleagues extended these findings by zeroing in on how walking in nature affects rumination—which has been associated with the onset of depression and anxiety—while also using fMRI technology to look at brain activity. Participants who took a 90-minute walk in either a natural setting or an urban setting had their brains scanned before and after their walks and were surveyed on self-reported rumination levels (as well as other psychological markers). The researchers controlled for many potential factors that might influence rumination or brain activity—for example, physical exertion levels as measured by heart rates and pulmonary functions.

Even so, participants who walked in a natural setting versus an urban setting reported decreased rumination after the walk, and they showed increased activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain whose deactivation is affiliated with depression and anxiety—a finding that suggests nature may have important impacts on mood.

Bratman believes results like these need to reach city planners and others whose policies impact our natural spaces. “Ecosystem services are being incorporated into decision making at all levels of public policy, land use planning, and urban design, and it’s very important to be sure to incorporate empirical findings from psychology into these decisions,” he says.

3. Nature relieves attention fatigue and increases creativity.

Today, we live with ubiquitous technology designed to constantly pull for our attention. But many scientists believe our brains were not made for this kind of information bombardment, and that it can lead to mental fatigue, overwhelm, and burnout, requiring “attention restoration” to get back to a normal, healthy state.

Strayer is one of those researchers. He believes that being in nature restores depleted attention circuits, which can then help us be more open to creativity and problem-solving.

“When you use your cell phone to talk, text, shoot photos, or whatever else you can do with your cell phone, you’re tapping the prefrontal cortex and causing reductions in cognitive resources,” he says.

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In a 2012 study , he and his colleagues showed that hikers on a four-day backpacking trip could solve significantly more puzzles requiring creativity when compared to a control group of people waiting to take the same hike—in fact, 47 percent more. Although other factors may account for his results—for example, the exercise or the camaraderie of being out together—prior studies have suggested that nature itself may play an important role. One in Psychological Science found that the impact of nature on attention restoration is what accounted for improved scores on cognitive tests for the study participants.

This phenomenon may be due to differences in brain activation when viewing natural scenes versus more built-up scenes—even for those who normally live in an urban environment. In a recent study conducted by Peter Aspinall at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and colleagues, participants who had their brains monitored continuously using mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) while they walked through an urban green space had brain EEG readings indicating lower frustration, engagement, and arousal, and higher meditation levels while in the green area, and higher engagement levels when moving out of the green area. This lower engagement and arousal may be what allows for attention restoration, encouraging a more open, meditative mindset.

It’s this kind of brain activity—sometimes referred to as “the brain default network”—that is tied to creative thinking , says Strayer. He is currently repeating his earlier 2012 study with a new group of hikers and recording their EEG activity and salivary cortisol levels before, during, and after a three-day hike. Early analyses of EEG readings support the theory that hiking in nature seems to rest people’s attention networks and to engage their default networks.

Strayer and colleagues are also specifically looking at the effects of technology by monitoring people’s EEG readings while they walk in an arboretum, either while talking on their cell phone or not. So far, they’ve found that participants with cell phones appear to have EEG readings consistent with attention overload, and can recall only half as many details of the arboretum they just passed through, compared to those who were not on a cell phone.

Though Strayer’s findings are preliminary, they are consistent with other people’s findings on the importance of nature to attention restoration and creativity.

“If you’ve been using your brain to multitask—as most of us do most of the day—and then you set that aside and go on a walk, without all of the gadgets, you’ve let the prefrontal cortex recover,” says Strayer. “And that’s when we see these bursts in creativity, problem-solving, and feelings of well-being.”

4. Nature may help you to be kind and generous

Whenever I go to places like Yosemite or the Big Sur Coast of California, I seem to return to my home life ready to be more kind and generous to those around me—just ask my husband and kids! Now some new studies may shed light on why that is.

In a series of experiments published in 2014, Juyoung Lee, GGSC director Dacher Keltner, and other researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, studied the potential impact of nature on the willingness to be generous, trusting, and helpful toward others, while considering what factors might influence that relationship.

As part of their study, the researchers exposed participants to more or less subjectively beautiful nature scenes (whose beauty levels were rated independently) and then observed how participants behaved playing two economics games—the Dictator Game and the Trust Game—that measure generosity and trust, respectively. After being exposed to the more beautiful nature scenes, participants acted more generously and more trusting in the games than those who saw less beautiful scenes, and the effects appeared to be due to corresponding increases in positive emotion.

In another part of the study, the researchers asked people to fill out a survey about their emotions while sitting at a table where more or less beautiful plants were placed. Afterwards, the participants were told that the experiment was over and they could leave, but that if they wanted to they could volunteer to make paper cranes for a relief effort program in Japan. The number of cranes they made (or didn’t make) was used as a measure of their “prosociality” or willingness to help.

Results showed that the presence of more beautiful plants significantly increased the number of cranes made by participants, and that this increase was, again, mediated by positive emotion elicited by natural beauty. The researchers concluded that experiencing the beauty of nature increases positive emotion—perhaps by inspiring awe, a feeling akin to wonder, with the sense of being part of something bigger than oneself—which then leads to prosocial behaviors.

Support for this theory comes from an experiment conducted by Paul Piff of the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues, in which participants staring up a grove of very tall trees for as little as one minute experienced measurable increases in awe, and demonstrated more helpful behavior and approached moral dilemmas more ethically, than participants who spent the same amount of time looking up at a high building.

5. Nature makes you “feel more alive”

With all of these benefits to being out in nature, it’s probably no surprise that something about nature makes us feel more alive and vital . Being outdoors gives us energy, makes us happier, helps us to relieve the everyday stresses of our overscheduled lives, opens the door to creativity, and helps us to be kind to others.

No one knows if there is an ideal amount of nature exposure, though Strayer says that longtime backpackers suggest a minimum of three days to really unplug from our everyday lives. Nor can anyone say for sure how nature compares to other forms of stress relief or attention restoration, such as sleep or meditation. Both Strayer and Bratman say we need a lot more careful research to tease out these effects before we come to any definitive conclusions.

Still, the research does suggest there’s something about nature that keeps us psychologically healthy, and that’s good to know…especially since nature is a resource that’s free and that many of us can access by just walking outside our door. Results like these should encourage us as a society to consider more carefully how we preserve our wilderness spaces and our urban parks.

And while the research may not be conclusive, Strayer is optimistic that science will eventually catch up to what people like me have intuited all along—that there’s something about nature that renews us, allowing us to feel better, to think better, and to deepen our understanding of ourselves and others.

“You can’t have centuries of people writing about this and not have something going on,” says Strayer. “If you are constantly on a device or in front of a screen, you’re missing out on something that’s pretty spectacular: the real world.”

About the Author

Jill Suttie

Jill Suttie, Psy.D. , is Greater Good ’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer and contributing editor for the magazine. She received her doctorate of psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1998 and was a psychologist in private practice before coming to Greater Good .

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How Does Nature Impact Our Wellbeing?

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The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause you to feel anxious, or sad, or helpless. This in turn elevates your blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension and suppresses your immune system. A pleasing environment reverses that.

And 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.   

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 you feel better emotionally, it 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.

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 . 

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 more calm and balanced . 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.   

Real-life examples of people helped by nature

Nature helped Cheryl, Terry, and James recover from depression and stress and get a new perspective on their lives.

Real-Life Examples of People Helped by Nature

After months fruitlessly searching for a job after graduation, Cheryl was losing confidence in herself. Seeing she was depressed, her parents gifted her with two weeks of wilderness training. Cheryl returned a new person.

Of her experience, she said, “I learned the depth of my strength and how much I could accomplish. My courage surprised me…Being surrounded by nature reminded me to keep the Big Picture in mind not only during my wilderness experience, but also when I returned home. Life is in front of me and I have lots of options.”

It was winter, and Terry noticed the way the wind slapped him in the face when he got out of his truck. Snow covered the flat land as far as the horizon line. Terry’s boots sank into the snow as he walked. He settled beside a frozen pond and noticed that the sensory input from his surroundings—the frigid wind, the blinding snow—had distracted him from his own depressed mental chatter.

Sitting next to the pond, he began to think about what lay underneath the ice. The fish and frogs and larvae that normally thrived under the water were all sleeping, he realized. As the snow began to fall on his own body, he realized that he was not separate from the sleeping animals and organisms below the surface of the pond. “I realized that my depression is like the snow,” he said. “It covers everything in me, and it’s like my heart has gone to sleep…but I’m not dead inside. I’m resting.”

James was awed by the natural display of the trees and the quiet hum of wildlife along the hiking trails. The group gradually began jogging and rock climbing. Within a few months, James’s blood pressure had decreased, he had lost several pounds, and he had more energy. “Just by spending time outdoors each week I felt rejuvenated and relaxed when I came into the office on Monday,” he said.

Stories adapted from The Healing Earth and Nature-Guided Therapy.

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.

Too much time in front of screens is deadly

“Nature deprivation,” a lack of time in the natural world, largely due to hours spent in front of TV or computer screens, has been associated, unsurprisingly, with depression. More unexpected are studies by Weinstein and others that associate screen time with loss of empathy and lack of altruism. 

And the risks are even higher than depression and isolation. In a 2011 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology , time in front of a screen was associated with a higher risk of death, and that was independent of physical activity!   

Breaking an addiction to technology

Kelly McGonigal, author of The Willpower Instinct , shares tips for breaking an addiction to texting, emailing, and social media.

Limit your children's screen time

The Mayo Clinic recommends limiting children's exposure to screens—including computers, televison, hand-held devices, and video games—to two hours per day. More than that can have serious consequences, including obesity, behavioral problems, irregular sleep, violent tendencies, poor academic performance, and dampened creativity.

Instead, encourage your child to engage with nature, whether that's playing an outdoor sport, reading next to a window, or taking a walk around the block.

Learn more in this webinar

In this free webinar, Dr. Jean Larson, director of nature-based therapeutics at the Bakken Center and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, introduces the rationale, evidence, and benefits of Nature-Based Therapeutics and explains the critical role of nature in self-care, community-building, and planetary health.

Berman, M. G., Jonides, J., & Kaplan, S. (2008). The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature. Psychological Science, 19 (12), 1207-1212.

Bowler, D. E., Buyung-Ali, L. M., Knight, T. M., & Pullin, A. S. (2010). A systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments. BMC Public Health, 10 , 456.

Bringslimark, T., Patil, G., & Hartig, T. (2008). The Association Between Indoor Plants, Stress, Productivity And Sick Leave In Office Workers. Acta Horticulturae, 775 , 117.

Cervinka, R., Röderer, K., & Hefler, E. (2012). Are nature lovers happy? On various indicators of well-being and connectedness with nature. Journal of Health Psychology, 17 (3), 379-388.

Coley, R., Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (1997). Where does community grow? The social context created by nature in urban public housing. Environment and Behavior, 29 (4), 468.

Devries, S. (2003). Natural environments -- healthy environments? An exploratory analysis of the relationship between greenspace and health. Environment and Planning, 35 (10), 1717.

Diette, G. B., Lechtzin, N., Haponik, E., Devrotes, A., & Rubin, H. R. (2003). Distraction therapy with nature sights and sounds reduces pain during flexible bronchoscopy: A complementary approach to routine analgesia. Chest, 123 (3), 941-948.

Dijkstra, K., Pieterse, M., & Pruyn, A. (2006). Physical environmental stimuli that turn healthcare facilities into healing environments through psychologically mediated effects: Systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 56 (2), 166-181.

Hartig, T. (1991). Restorative effects of natural environment experiences. Environment and Behavior, 23 , 3.

Hu, Z. (2008). Linking stroke mortality with air pollution, income, and greenness in northwest florida: An ecological geographical study. International Journal of Health Geographics, 7 , 1.

Kim, T. (2010). Human brain activation in response to visual stimulation with rural and urban scenery pictures: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study Science of the Total Environment, 408 (12), 2600.

Kuo, F. (2001). Aggression and violence in the inner city: Effects of environment via mental fatigue. Environment and Behavior, 33 (4), 543.

Largo-Wight, E., Chen, W. W., Dodd, V., & Weiler, R. (2011). Healthy workplaces: The effects of nature contact at work on employee stress and health. Public Health Reports (Washington, D.C.: 1974), 126 Suppl 1 , 124-130.

Lohr, V. (2007). Benefits of nature: What we are learning about why people respond to nature. J. Physiol Anthropol: 26(2), 83.

Marcus, C., & Barnes, M. (eds). (1999). Healing gardens ( Trans.). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.

Mind Organization. (2007). Ecotherapy: The green agenda for mental health . UK: Mind Publications.

Mitchell, R., & Popham, F. (2008). Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: An observational population study. Lancet, 372 (9650), 1655-1660.

Morrison, C., & Gore, H. (2010). Relationship between excessive internet use and depression: A questionnaire-based study of 1,319 young people and adults. Psychopathology, 43 (2), 121-126.

Park, S., & Mattson, R. (2009). Ornamental indoor plants in hospital rooms enhanced health outcomes of patients recovering from surgery. Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, 15 (9), 975-980.

Raudenbush, B, et al. (2001). Enhancing athletic performance through the administration of peppermint odor. J Sport Exerc Psychol; 23 :156–60.

Stamatakis, E. (2011). Screen-based entertainment time, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular events: Population-based study with ongoing mortality and hospital events follow-up. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 57 (3), 292-299.

Selub, E., Logan, A. (2012).  Your brain on nature. Mississauga, Ontario: Wiley.

Shepley, M.  Gerbi, R., Watson, A. Imgrund, S.  Patient and staff environments: The impact of daylight and windows on ICU patients and staff .  World Health Design .  Accessed May 11, 2013 at http://www.worldhealthdesign.com/Patient-and-staff-environments.aspx

Taylor, A., Kuo, F.  (2008). Children with attention deficits concentrate better after walk in the park. Journal of Attention Disorders; 12 (5), 402-09.

Ulrich, R. S. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science, 224 (4647), 420-421.

Ulrich, R. S., Simons, R. F., Losito, B. D., Fiorito, E., Miles, M. A., & Zelson, M. (1991). Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 11 (3), 201-230.

Weinstein, N. (2009). Can nature make us more caring? Effects of immersion in nature on intrinsic aspirations and generosity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35 , 1315.

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Ecopsychology: How Immersion in Nature Benefits Your Health

A growing body of research points to the beneficial effects that exposure to the natural world has on health, reducing stress and promoting healing. Now, policymakers, employers, and healthcare providers are increasingly considering the human need for nature in how they plan and operate.

By Jim Robbins • January 9, 2020

How long does it take to get a dose of nature high enough to make people say they feel healthy and have a strong sense of well-being?

Precisely 120 minutes.

In a study of 20,000 people, a team led by Mathew White of the European Centre for Environment & Human Health at the University of Exeter, found that people who spent two hours a week in green spaces — local parks or other natural environments, either all at once or spaced over several visits — were substantially more likely to report good health and psychological well-being than those who don’t. Two hours was a hard boundary: The study, published last June, showed there were no benefits for people who didn’t meet that threshold.

The effects were robust, cutting across different occupations, ethnic groups, people from rich and poor areas, and people with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

“It’s well-known that getting outdoors in nature can be good for people’s health and well-being, but until now we’ve not been able to say how much is enough,” White said. “Two hours a week is hopefully a realistic target for many people, especially given that it can be spread over an entire week to get the benefit.”

The study by White and his colleagues is only the latest in a rapidly expanding area of research that finds nature has robust effects on people’s health — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The studies “point in one direction: Nature is not only nice to have, but it’s a have-to-have for physical health and cognitive function.”

“When I wrote Last Child in the Woods in 2005, this wasn’t a hot topic,” said Richard Louv, a journalist in San Diego whose book is largely credited with triggering this movement and who coined the term Nature Deficit Disorder. “This subject was virtually ignored by the academic world. I could find 60 studies that were good studies. Now it’s approaching and about to pass 1,000 studies, and they point in one direction: Nature is not only nice to have, but it’s a have-to-have for physical health and cognitive functioning.”

These studies have shown that time in nature — as long as people feel safe — is an antidote for stress: It can lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels, reduce nervous system arousal, enhance immune system function, increase self-esteem, reduce anxiety, and improve mood. Attention Deficit Disorder and aggression lessen in natural environments, which also help speed the rate of healing. In a recent study , psychiatric unit researchers found that being in nature reduced feelings of isolation, promoted calm, and lifted mood among patients.

The growing body of research — combined with an intuitive understanding that nature is vital and increased concerns about the exploding use of smart phones and other forms of technology — has led to tipping point at which health experts, researchers, and government officials are now proposing widespread changes aimed at bringing nature into people’s everyday lives.

For example, researchers and policymakers now talk about “park deserts” in urban areas. Cities are adding or enhancing parks, and schools and other institutions are being designed with large windows and access to trees and green space — or blue space, as in aquatic environments. Businesses are increasingly aware of the desire among employees for access to green spaces. “It’s needed to attract a skilled work force,” said Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix . “Young people are demanding high-quality outdoor experiences.”

A park ranger leads a hike through the Kahuku unit of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. NPS Photo/ Janice Wei

The number of “forest schools” — which have long been a tradition in Scandinavia and where much of the learning takes place in natural settings in the outdoors — has mushroomed in the United States, up by 500 percent since 2012, according to Louv. Oregon recently passed a ballot measure to raise money for outdoor schools, and the state of Washington just became the first state to license outdoor preschools, where much of the play and learning occurs outside.

The organization Children & Nature Network , founded by Louv and others, advocates for more time in nature for children, tracks the research, and has a long list of abstracts that summarize studies on the subject on its website.

And The Trust for Public Lands (TPL) has just finished a seven-year project to map the parks of the U.S., with the aim of identifying places in need of parkland. “We’ve mapped 14,000 communities, 86 percent of the nation, and looked at who does and doesn’t live within a 10-minute walk of a park,” said Adrian Benepe, a senior vice president of TPL. The organization has a Ten Minute Walk campaign to work with mayors across the U.S. to make sure all people have that kind of access.

An increasing number of healthcare providers are also embracing the back-to-nature paradigm. One organization, Park RX America , founded by Robert Zarr of Unity Healthcare in Washington, D.C., declares its mission “to decrease the burden of chronic disease, increase health and happiness, and foster environmental stewardship, by virtue of prescribing Nature during the routine delivery of healthcare by a diverse group of health care professionals.” The organization has 10,000 parks in its “prescribing platform.”

One expert says he’s concerned that the growing interest in more contact with nature relies too much on only experiencing it visually.

The global Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides shows clients how to use immersion in nature for healing. “The forest is the therapist,” the group’s slogan reads. “The guides open the door.”

Studies show that the effects of nature may go deeper than providing a sense of well-being, helping to reduce crime and aggression. A 2015 study of 2,000 people in the United Kingdom found that more exposure to nature translated into more community cohesion and substantially lower crime rates.

And while more vegetation is thought to encourage crime by providing security for criminals, another study found the opposite — vegetation abundance is associated with a reduction in assault, robbery, and burglary, although not theft.

Still, many of these studies are correlational rather than causal. That means it’s hard to show that natural landscapes cause these effects, though these things happen when people are in a natural environment.

Sara L. Warber, professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan, noted that there are no “randomized, controlled studies” on the effects of nature on human health. Nonetheless, she said, there are epidemiological studies and measurements of before and after exposure to nature, and the results from this research are robust.

The view from atop Swiftcurrent Mountain in Montana. Brendan T Lynch/ Flickr

Peter H. Kahn, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington who has worked on these issues for decades, is encouraged by the new focus on the subject but concerned that the growing interest in more contact with nature relies too much on only experiencing it visually. “That’s important, but an impoverished view of what it means to interact with the natural world,” he said. “We need to deepen the forms of interaction with nature and make it more immersive.”

What are the active ingredients in a dose of nature? Pioneers in this work, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, who began studying the subject in the 1970s, devised Attention Restoration Theory, which holds that paying attention in bustling cities, at work, or in other stressful environments requires a good deal of effortful attention. In a natural environment, however, the Kaplans found that people paid attention more broadly and in a less effortful way, which leads to far more relaxed body and mind.

Japanese researchers have studied “forest bathing” — a poetic name for walking in the woods. They suspect aerosols from the forests, inhaled during a walk, are behind elevated levels of Natural Killer or NK cells in the immune system, which fight tumors and infections. A subsequent study, in which essential oils from cedars were emitted in a hotel room where people slept, also caused a significant spike in NK cells.

However this growing field might be defined, it is gaining momentum. In a recent paper , 26 authors laid out a framework to create a formal role for the positive impacts nature has on mental health and to formulate a model for conserving nature in cities and integrating it into planning for these health effects.

“There is an awakening underway today to many of the values of nature and the risks and costs of its loss,” says one researcher.

“We have entered the urban century, with two-thirds of humanity projected to be living in cities by 2050,” said Gretchen Daily, director of the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University and a senior author of a recent paper arguing that the cognitive and emotional benefits of nature should be factored into economic ecosystem service models. “There is an awakening underway today to many of the values of nature and the risks and costs of its loss. This new work can help inform investments in livability and sustainability of the world’s cities.”

While the research has grown leaps and bounds, Kahn and others argue in a recent review paper that research into the topic is still lacking in many ways, and they lay out a research agenda they say would help formalize the role of nature in public health policy.

Understanding nature’s therapeutic effects may be arriving at a propitious moment. Some studies have found that anxiety over climate change is a growing phenomenon. Ironically, one of the best antidotes for that might be a dose of green space.

“If I am feeling depressed and anxious and worried about the environment,” Warber said, “then one of the best things I can do is go out in nature.”

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What Role Does Nature Play in Your Life?

By Jeremy Engle

• April 19, 2019

What are your experiences with nature?

How often do you take a leisurely stroll through the grass, a garden or the woods? How often do you stop to look at, touch or smell a flower?

How do you feel when you are alone in nature? Do you find it relaxing, invigorating, healing?

In “ The Healing Power of Gardens ,” Oliver Sacks, a neurologist who died in 2015, wrote:

As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit. The importance of these physiological states on individual and community health is fundamental and wide-ranging. In 40 years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and gardens.

The essay continues:

I have lived in New York City for 50 years, and living here is sometimes made bearable for me only by its gardens. This has been true for my patients, too. When I worked at Beth Abraham, a hospital just across the road from the New York Botanical Garden, I found that there was nothing long-shut-in patients loved more than a visit to the garden — they spoke of the hospital and the garden as two different worlds. I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication. My friend Lowell has moderately severe Tourette’s syndrome. In his usual busy, city environment, he has hundreds of tics and verbal ejaculations each day — grunting, jumping, touching things compulsively. I was therefore amazed one day when we were hiking in a desert to realize that his tics had completely disappeared. The remoteness and uncrowdedness of the scene, combined with some ineffable calming effect of nature, served to defuse his ticcing, to “normalize” his neurological state, at least for a time. An elderly lady with Parkinson’s disease, whom I met in Guam, often found herself frozen, unable to initiate movement — a common problem for those with parkinsonism. But once we led her out into the garden, where plants and a rock garden provided a varied landscape, she was galvanized by this, and could rapidly, unaided, climb up the rocks and down again. I have a number of patients with very advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, who may have very little sense of orientation to their surroundings. They have forgotten, or cannot access, how to tie their shoes or handle cooking implements. But put them in front of a flower bed with some seedlings, and they will know exactly what to do — I have never seen such a patient plant something upside down.

The essay concludes:

Clearly, nature calls to something very deep in us. Biophilia, the love of nature and living things, is an essential part of the human condition. Hortophilia, the desire to interact with, manage and tend nature, is also deeply instilled in us. The role that nature plays in health and healing becomes even more critical for people working long days in windowless offices, for those living in city neighborhoods without access to green spaces, for children in city schools or for those in institutional settings such as nursing homes. The effects of nature’s qualities on health are not only spiritual and emotional but physical and neurological. I have no doubt that they reflect deep changes in the brain’s physiology, and perhaps even its structure.

Students, read the entire Opinion piece, then tell us:

— What role does nature play in your life? Do you actively seek it out? How much time do you spend there? Tell us about your experiences in nature.

— Have you ever experienced any of the restorative or healing powers of nature and gardens — physical, spiritual, emotional — that Mr. Sacks describes? Where do you go to relax and find peace when you are feeling stressed out or down?

— What is your reaction to the stories of nature’s effect on people with mental and physical illnesses that Mr. Sacks recounts? Which story stands out or fascinates you the most and why?

— How accessible is the natural world where you live? Are there many gardens available to stroll through or sit in? Do you have any plants in your school or home? Are you more likely to seek out nature after reading this article? Do you think young people spend enough time in nature?

— Look through the photos featured in the article. Select one that you find most beautiful, or one that shows a place you would like to visit and experience. If inspired, write a poem about the picture.

Further Resources:

Heal Me With Plants

Take a Walk in the Woods. Doctor’s Orders.

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Biodiversity — The Beauty of Nature

The Beauty of Nature

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Published: Mar 16, 2024

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The aesthetic appeal of nature, the healing power of nature, the importance of biodiversity, the role of nature in human creativity.

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The Healing Power of Nature

I t sounded more like a lark than a scientific study when a handful of Japanese researchers set out to discover whether something special–and clinically therapeutic–happens when people spend time in nature. They were inspired by a new recommendation from the Forest Agency of Japan, which in the early 1980s began advising people to take strolls in the woods for better health. The practice was called forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, and it was believed to lower stress–but that hadn’t been proved. Since then, a large body of evidence has shown that spending time in nature is responsible for many measurable beneficial changes in the body.

In one early study, Yoshifumi Miyazaki, a forest-therapy expert and researcher at Chiba University in Japan, found that people who spent 40 minutes walking in a cedar forest had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which is involved in blood pressure and immune-system function, compared with when they spent 40 minutes walking in a lab. “I was surprised,” Miyazaki recalls. “Spending time in the forest induces a state of physiologic relaxation.”

Another researcher, Dr. Qing Li, a professor at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, found that trees and plants emit aromatic compounds called phytoncides that, when inhaled, can spur healthy biological changes in a manner similar to aromatherapy, which has also been studied for its therapeutic benefits. In his studies, Li has shown that when people walk through or stay overnight in forests, they often exhibit changes in the blood that are associated with protection against cancer, better immunity and lower blood pressure.

Recent studies have also linked nature to symptom relief for health issues like heart disease, depression, cancer, anxiety and attention disorders.

“The quiet atmosphere, beautiful scenery, good smells and fresh, clean air in forests all contribute to the effects,” says Li.

1 IT CAN LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE

Spending time outside is good for the heart, research shows, and since high blood pressure costs the U.S. approximately $48.6 billion per year and affects 1 in 3 Americans, visiting green spaces may be a simple and affordable way to improve heart health. A large June 2016 study found that nearly 10% of people with high blood pressure could get their hypertension under control if they spent just 30 minutes or more in a park each week. “If everyone were to make time for nature, the savings on health care costs could be incredible,” says study author Danielle Shanahan, a research fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia.

The fresh air could be one factor, since air pollution has been linked to a higher risk for heart attacks, but since the study participants lived in cities (and therefore were also being exposed to air pollution), that likely isn’t the only driver. Scientists think stress reduction also plays a part. “Nature is undemanding,” says Shanahan. “It requires effortless attention to look at the leaves of a tree, unlike the constant emails at work or the chores at home.”

Trees’ natural fragrance may also play a role, as some studies have shown that phytoncides lower blood pressure by quelling the body’s fight-or-flight response, which stresses the body.

2 EXPOSURE TO IT CAN INCREASE AWE

Looking at a stunning waterfall or undulating countryside can do more than enrich your Instagram feed: it can also elicit feelings of awe that bring a number of health benefits. In a 2015 study, researcher Paul Piff of the University of California, Irvine, found that people who spent 60 seconds looking up at towering trees were more likely to report feeling awe, after which they were more likely to help a stranger than people who looked at an equally tall–but far less awe-inspiring–building.

“Experiences of awe attune people to things larger than themselves,” says Piff. “They cause individuals to feel less entitled, less selfish, and to behave in more generous and helping ways.” The benefits of awe are physical too: regularly experiencing moments of awe has been linked to lower levels of inflammatory compounds in the body.

Everyday interactions with nature can also benefit. An April 2016 study of 44 cities found that urban areas with more parks scored higher on measures of community well-being. That’s likely because parks give people opportunities to socialize and be active with their neighbors, which could improve health, the researchers say. People in cities with lots of green space were more likely to report having more energy, good health and a sense of purpose too.

3 IT PROMOTES CANCER-FIGHTING CELLS

An April 2016 study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reported that women living in areas with a lot of vegetation had a 12% lower risk of death from all causes compared with people in the least green places. That could be thanks to cleaner air, but nature may also offer its own medicine. Li’s research at Nippon Medical School shows that when people walk through a forest, they inhale phytoncides that increase their number of natural killer (NK) cells–a type of white blood cell that supports the immune system and is associated with a lower risk of cancer. NK cells are also thought to have a role in combating infections and autoimmune disorders and tamping down inflammation, which contributes to a wide range of ailments, including heart disease and diabetes.

In a 2010 study, researchers found that people who took two long walks through forests on consecutive days increased their NK cells by 50% and the activity of these cells by 56%. Those activity levels remained 23% higher than usual for the month following the walks. In another study, Li and his co-authors found that infusing people’s hotel rooms with phytoncides had some of the same anti-cancer-cell effects as those seen among people walking through forests.

4 IT CAN HELP WITH DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY

Not surprisingly, urban dwellers are far more likely to have anxiety and mood disorders than people who live in rural areas. That’s the bad news, since about 80% of Americans live in cities. The good news is that a small 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural setting, such as a forest or a nature park, were less likely to ruminate–a hallmark of depression and anxiety–and had lower activity in an area of the brain linked to depression than people who walked in an urban area. “Accessible natural areas may be vital for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world,” the study authors write.

The exact mechanism of how nature helps mood disorders is unclear, but researchers agree that at the very least, time in nature tends to lift spirits. “When you have a short blast of nature exposure, people’s moods go up,” says Ming Kuo, an environment and behavior scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Another possibility is that the air near moving water, forests and mountains contains high levels of negative ions, which are thought to potentially reduce depression symptoms, according to a study in Frontiers in Psychology.

5 IT MAY HELP WITH ADHD SYMPTOMS

Small studies in kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have suggested that nature walks could be a potential natural treatment to improve attention. In one study, a team led by Kuo of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had kids with ADHD take three 20-minute walks, without their medication, in different locations: a park, a neighborhood and an urban area. When the researchers tested the children afterward, they found that after a park walk, the kids were able to concentrate substantially better than after a walk in the other settings. In a separate 2011 study, Kuo and her colleagues found that children who regularly played in outdoor areas had milder ADHD symptoms, according to their parents, than children who played indoors or in areas with less nature access. “Nature gives the part of the brain that’s used in effortful concentration a rest,” says Kuo. “If you spend time doing something mentally relaxing, you feel rejuvenated.”

People without ADHD symptoms can also improve their attention and concentration by interacting with nature, evidence suggests. One University of Michigan study found that people improved their short-term memory by 20% after a nature walk but had no changes after walking through city streets.

6 EVEN FAKE NATURE HAS BENEFITS

Before you start planning your escape to the countryside, consider this: “There is plenty of evidence that you will get a range of benefits even if all you can manage is putting a plant in your room or looking at trees through your window at home,” says the University of Queensland’s Shanahan.

Research shows that even if they’re artificial, the images, sounds and smells of nature can have positive health effects. Listening to nature sounds over headphones, for instance, has been shown to help people recover faster from stress–which might explain why so many spas employ nature sounds in their treatment rooms.

Several studies have also shown that having a window view can improve attention, reduce stress and even help people in hospitals heal after operations. One widely cited study of people recovering from abdominal surgery found that those with tree-lined views were released faster from the hospital, experienced fewer complications and required less pain medication than people whose rooms faced a brick wall.

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Header menu - drawer | united kingdom, nature: how connecting with nature benefits our mental health, our relationship with nature – how much we notice, think about and appreciate our natural surroundings – is critical in supporting good mental health and preventing distress..

Nature is an important need for many and vital in keeping us emotionally, psychologically and physically healthy.

Regarding mental health benefits, nature has a very wide definition. It can mean green spaces like parks, woodland or forests and blue spaces like rivers, wetlands, beaches or canals. It also includes trees on an urban street, private gardens, verges and even indoor plants or window boxes. Surprisingly, even watching nature documentaries is good for our mental health. This is great news as it means the mental health benefits of nature can be made available to nearly every one of us, no matter where we live.

This report provides a summary of the evidence of how and why our relationship with nature is so important and beneficial to our mental health. The report highlights the unequal access to nature’s benefits for specific groups and the steps needed to address that inequality.

Download and read the full report here

Nature has played a critical role in our mental health during the pandemic

Quality counts. connecting with nature is critical, people with good nature connectedness tend to be happier, green and serene. we benefit from “high quality” nature spaces, nature is everywhere, but high quality nature isn’t available equally.

Through our research at the Mental Health Foundation, we know that spending time outdoors has been one of the key factors enabling people to cope with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, nearly half (45%) of people in the UK told us that visiting green spaces, such as parks, helped them to cope.

Our findings are echoed by other research that found that people visiting  and noticing  nature, mainly, was important in supporting their wellbeing. This is a really important point, as it helps us understand that a connection with nature helps unlock mental health benefits and gives us essential clues on how to maximise these benefits for our well-being.

Spending time in nature is good for us for lots of reasons. “Fresh air and exercise” have long been recommended as a way for many to feel better, physically and mentally.

Now evidence shows us that the quality of our relationship with nature is part of the reason for its positive impact on our wellbeing. Researchers use the term “connectedness” to describe the ideal relationship.

Connectedness refers to the way we relate to nature and experience nature. A strong connection with nature means feeling a close relationship or an emotional attachment to our natural surroundings. 

There are ways that we can develop our connectedness with nature. Activities that involve the senses can help to develop our connection with the natural world, as can activities where we feel emotions such as compassion, perceive beauty or find meaning in nature.

For instance, we might notice the beauty of nature by listening intently to birdsong or touching the bark of trees. Smelling flowers or feeling the soil between our fingers whilst planting bulbs in the garden are also highly sensual ways to connect with nature. We don’t always have to be in nature to further our relationship with the natural world: writing a poem about our favourite nature spot or reflecting on preferred walks helps us consciously notice, consider and pause to appreciate the good things in nature.

Research shows that people who are more connected with nature are usually happier in life and more likely to report feeling their lives are worthwhile. Nature can generate many positive emotions, such as calmness, joy, and creativity and can facilitate concentration.

Nature connectedness is also associated with lower levels of poor mental health, particularly lower depression and anxiety.

Perhaps not surprisingly, people with strong nature connectedness are likelier to have pro-environmental behaviours such as recycling items or buying seasonal food. This is likely to lead to further benefits if these pro-environmental activities can lead to natural improvements that we can then go on to enjoy. At a time of devastating environmental threats, developing a stronger, mutually supportive relationship between people and the environment will be critical.

“High quality” natural spaces are better for us and our wellbeing.

Quality can mean higher biodiversity (a wide variety of plants and wildlife). Specific characteristics of nature are particularly important in rural or urban spaces. These include the amount of “green” in trees, plants, and grass, the variety of plants and wildlife, and “serene” landscapes that feel calm and quiet.

Cleanliness, such as the absence of litter, in natural spaces is also a factor in how much our mental health benefits from spending time outside. Cleaner nature areas are linked to lower rates of depression.

Whilst nature can be found anywhere, high-quality nature spaces, which we know are most likely to help support good mental health, are not available equally to everyone in the UK. This is a more complicated picture than just how far we live from a high-quality nature space.

Proximity is certainly a factor, with deprived communities least likely to live near a high-quality nature space. Perhaps unsurprisingly, our poll found that people living in urban areas were less likely than rural residents to connect with nature as much as they wanted. People without gardens were less likely than those with gardens. Younger adults, in particular, may face many barriers to connecting with nature.

People living with a disability or health condition often face particular barriers to access when natural spaces are not equipped with inclusion in mind, or there is a lack of accessible routes.

For some groups, including many women, younger people, disabled people and people from ethnic minorities, nature spaces may feel inaccessible or less enjoyable because they are not safe – from the risk of physical harm, sexual harassment, hate crime or discrimination.

For many of these groups, this inequality has a double effect. Several groups described above not only get less of the well-being benefit of connecting with nature due to these access barriers, but they are the groups within our population most at risk of mental health problems. 

There are good examples of initiatives in nature spaces to reduce the inequality of access and allow all groups to benefit from connecting with nature to support their well-being. High-quality urban parks, designed with accessibility in mind, can enable more people to enjoy and connect with nature. Other solutions include planting flowers and trees along our streets or even recreating natural habitats where new human developments such as a road have been built. These are known as “green corridors”.

The key message of this research evidence is a need to shift our attention from getting people to visit natural and sometimes remote spaces to focus on how people can tune in and connect with “everyday” nature close to home through simple activities. We can develop a new relationship with the natural world by noticing nature, which has been found to bring benefits to mental health.

We would like to extend our thanks for his contribution to  Professor Miles Richardson , from the University of Derby, for his support in reviewing this report.

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Importance of nature

Are you getting enough nature?

It’s easy to think nature will always be with us. But even in my lifetime, birds like starlings and house sparrows have declined so much they’re now listed as endangered.

In fact, nature is faring worse in the UK than in most other countries. The 2020 State of Nature report shows that over half our wild species – plants, insects, birds, mammals – are in decline.

Overlooking the importance of nature, as we go about our busy lives, makes it easier for it to disappear right in front of our eyes.

Are you in nature deficit?

First, how was your last holiday? Did you spend any time in nature? Shut your eyes and see if you can recall how you feel about the last time you spent time in nature.

What about your normal busy day away from stunning views, beaches and sunsets? Does your daily routine give you any experiences of nature?

Perhaps you don't have the time to notice the birds calling, the bees buzzing and to enjoy the colours of the changing seasons in a local park, even in your own street.

If you’re not getting enough nature you're not alone.

Dealing with nature deficit

Seven out of 10 people admit they’re losing touch with nature. And more than a third of parents admit they could not teach their own children about British wildlife.

Pressures of daily life mean we’re increasingly detached from nature even though nature in many forms is there for us. Yes, like love, nature is all around – and it’s free.

Even watching wildlife programmes online or on the TV costs — but it’s still no substitute for experiencing nature direct. You don’t have to go on safari, to the Amazon rainforest or to the Grand Canyon for fulfilling experiences of nature.

Great as those places are, nature is also on our doorstep all year round. Even in winter. Just add your own curiosity, a chunk of attention span and a dollop of patience.

What do people think about the importance of nature?

Asked to give their favourite views, Britons tend to put natural heritage before buildings and cityscapes. Yes, Brits favour views of Wales’ Gower Peninsula and Northern Ireland’s Mountains of Mourne over sights like Waterloo Bridge, Blackpool Tower and Stonehenge.

Not even the poet William Wordsworth put people off voting for the “long, stern and desolate" views of Cumbria’s Wastwater and its scree slopes to the Scafell peaks as Britain’s favourite.

Dramatic landscapes fire our imagination, fill our hearts and put our lives into perspective. But everyday experiences of nature give us a boost too. It’s like having our very own free Natural Health Service.

Wild child: importance of nature to children

Children especially have a natural affinity with nature. Evidence is growing of how regular contact with nature boosts new born children’s healthy development, supports their physical and mental health and instils abilities to assess risk as they grow. It even underpins their informal learning and academic achievement.

For children and adults alike, daily contact with nature is linked to better health, less stress, better mood, reduced obesity – an amazing list of features no other product can ever match.

This affinity tends to get knocked out of them as they grow. They come under pressure to put away childish things in favour of passing exams and getting a "proper job".

Along with digital distractions and legitimate fears about playing outdoors, the pressures are removing children from nature before our very eyes. Who can blame them for thinking an apple is a gadget first and a fruit second?

Yet for children and adults alike, daily contact with nature – being in green, open space, near healthy rivers, exploring nature’s colours, sounds, tones and textures — is linked to better health, less stress, better mood, reduced obesity. That’s already an amazing list of features no other product can ever match.

Nature’s importance to our health

Nature performs major miracles for us every day – from giving us great views and helping to prevent floods to regulating the weather and keeping us supplied with clean water, fresh air and plentiful food.

When running the tap or doing the shopping it’s easy to forget that without healthy soils and diverse plant and animal species doing their thing our lives would be tougher and poorer.

Trees in towns cool us in summer and trap air pollution. Bees pollinate our crops, putting food on our table and in our stomachs. Even much-maligned wasps have uses such as controlling aphids.

However smart we’ve become as a species, without diverse nature and a healthy functioning natural environment we’ll be as lost as a tourist without a map app.

Loss of nature

Beyond our shores, tropical forests regulate global temperatures and support countless wild species — from berries used in medicines to gorillas and other primates a few genes away from ourselves. Yet the forests are being felled for timber, mining and cattle ranching.

Mangroves help absorb storm surges and shelter small fry from big fish until they’re ready to venture into the open seas. Yet mangroves are being destroyed by coastal development.

We're removing the vital links in the safety chain of life — pulling away life’s building blocks in a risky global game of Jenga

Healthy seas and oceans regulate the planet’s temperature. But we’re undermining their ability to do this by turning them acidic with our wasteful energy policies and by removing species, as we over-exploit the seas for short-term profit.

We’re busy taking out sharks, tuna and other top predators from the oceans and leaving squid and jellyfish to take their place in the food chain. This is upsetting millions of years of natural balance in less than a century.

We're recklessly removing the vital links in the safety chain of life — pulling away life’s building blocks in a risky global game of Jenga.

The value of nature

Talking of risk, on one level it's absurd to even try to work out the financial value of nature to us all. How can we ever accurately value bees pollinating apples or healthy soils and forests holding back flood waters?

The UK’s Office of National Statistics put the financial value of just 3 of the UK’s natural ecosystems (woodlands, farmland and freshwater habitats such as lakes) at £178bn. That’s 9 noughts on the end: 178,000,000,000.

It’s a mind-bending amount and is similar to the value of exports from the Euro zone (€) to the rest of the world. NHS spending is about £140bn.

It’s easy to think nature will always be with us. But such wishful thinking depends on whether we let nature go to the wall or act to repair, restore and maintain it.

What about the value of the world’s natural ecosystem services? A first estimate was put at an average $33 trillion annually – that’s 12 noughts or a million million.

More to the point, this value of nature is nearly twice global GNP of $18 trillion.

The figures will have changed since these first calculations but it underlines the obvious - that nature is both invaluable and priceless. Put another way, if we’re silly enough to let nature decline can we afford to put it back? Three guesses.

That matters when one considers another big global study of the state of nature and its value. The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found that approximately two-thirds of the world’s natural ecosystems are degraded or being used in irresponsible, unsustainable ways. “Every year we lose three to five trillion dollars’ worth of natural capital, roughly equivalent to the amount of money we lost in the financial crisis of 2008–2009”, the report said. Every year.

It’s easy to think nature will always be with us. But it depends on whether we let nature go to the wall or act to repair, restore and maintain it. Right now species are going extinct and the natural systems that support all life on Earth are being eroded faster than ever before.

Even once common species like bees, hedgehogs, starlings and house sparrows are in trouble – going missing from our streets and neighbourhoods. The bees and birds lose out big time – and so do we.

Is it beyond the wit of humankind to bring nature back from the brink? It’s in our own interests to do so. That said, we do seem to be the only species on Earth that actively destroys its own home and life-support systems.

“The effect that human beings are having on the natural world is profound. Because we are out of touch with the natural world… most of us don’t see the effects.” Sir David Attenborough

Yet, with nature doing so much for us day in and year out, the advertising industry should be rushing to promote it… ‘New, improved nature. It will change your life.’

Nature in our hands

Friends of the Earth has a 45-year track record of working with people to protect nature. There are plenty of ways to support our nature work, including signing our petition to double tree cover in the UK, or donating today . Thank you.

This article has been updated. It was originally published in October 2017.

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Essay on Benefits of Nature

Students are often asked to write an essay on Benefits of Nature in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Benefits of Nature

The healing power of nature.

Nature is a great healer. It brings peace to our minds and bodies. When we spend time in nature, we feel calm and relaxed. It reduces stress and improves our mood.

Nature and Physical Health

Being in nature can also benefit our physical health. It encourages us to exercise and stay active. Walking, running, or playing in green spaces helps us stay fit and healthy.

Learning from Nature

Nature is a fantastic teacher. It teaches us about the cycles of life, the importance of diversity, and the need for balance. It inspires creativity and sparks curiosity in young minds.

250 Words Essay on Benefits of Nature

The therapeutic power of nature.

The natural world has been a source of solace, inspiration, adventure, and delight for generations. It is a sanctuary for the human spirit, offering a sense of peace and tranquility that is often lacking in our fast-paced, technology-driven lives.

Mental Health Enhancement

The benefits of nature on mental health are well-documented. A growing body of research suggests that exposure to natural environments can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. The calming effect of nature, often referred to as ‘green therapy’, can significantly improve our mood and cognitive functioning.

Physical Health Improvement

In addition to mental health, nature also contributes to our physical well-being. Activities such as hiking, cycling, or simply walking in a park can improve cardiovascular health, enhance physical strength, and boost the immune system. Moreover, exposure to sunlight helps the body produce Vitamin D, crucial for bone health and disease prevention.

Fostering Creativity and Mindfulness

Nature can stimulate our creativity and foster a sense of mindfulness. The beauty and complexity of natural patterns, shapes, and colors can inspire artistic and innovative thoughts. Moreover, the quietude of nature encourages mindfulness, promoting a deep sense of connection with our surroundings and ourselves.

Sustainable Living and Climate Change Mitigation

Finally, nature teaches us the principles of sustainable living. Understanding and appreciating the intricate balance of ecosystems can inspire us to adopt more sustainable practices, reducing our carbon footprint and contributing to climate change mitigation.

In conclusion, the importance of nature in our lives cannot be overstated. As we navigate through the complexities of the modern world, let us remember to take the time to reconnect with nature and reap its numerous benefits.

500 Words Essay on Benefits of Nature

The natural world has a profound impact on our well-being. A growing body of research suggests that exposure to nature can lead to a wealth of health benefits, both physical and mental. The Japanese practice of ‘Shinrin-Yoku’, or ‘forest bathing’, has been scientifically proven to reduce stress levels, lower blood pressure, and improve mood.

The Physical Benefits of Nature

Engaging with nature can have remarkable effects on our physical health. Regular outdoor activities such as hiking, gardening, or simply walking in a park can boost fitness levels and enhance cardiovascular health. The fresh air and sunlight we experience outdoors are rich in vitamin D, which is essential for bone health and has been linked to reduced risks of certain types of cancer and heart disease.

Nature and Mental Health

The mental health benefits of nature are equally significant. Natural environments can act as a buffer against stress, helping to restore our attention and relax our minds. A study published in the journal “Environmental Science & Technology” found that just five minutes of exercise in a green space can dramatically improve mood and self-esteem.

Nature and Cognitive Function

Nature’s impact extends to our cognitive abilities as well. Research indicates that exposure to natural settings can enhance memory and attention span. A study from the University of Michigan found that walks in nature could improve short-term memory by 20%. The calming effect of nature helps to clear the mind, allowing for better concentration and creativity.

Connecting with Nature

Despite these benefits, urbanization and technology have led to a disconnection from nature. It is crucial to reintegrate nature into our daily lives. This can be as simple as taking a walk in a local park, gardening, or even bringing plants into your home or workspace.

Nature and Sustainability

Lastly, immersing ourselves in nature fosters a deeper appreciation for our planet and its ecosystems. This can lead to more sustainable behaviors, such as recycling, composting, and adopting a plant-based diet. These actions not only benefit our health but also contribute to the preservation of our environment.

In conclusion, nature offers a plethora of benefits to our physical and mental well-being. It is a powerful yet underutilized tool for health and happiness. As we move forward in an increasingly urbanized world, it is crucial to reconnect with nature and reap its many benefits.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Bear
• Essay on Visit to a Bank
• Essay on Privatisation of Banks

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• Nature Essay

Essay About Nature

Nature refers to the interaction between the physical surroundings around us and the life within it like atmosphere, climate, natural resources, ecosystem, flora, fauna, and humans. Nature is indeed God’s precious gift to Earth. It is the primary source of all the necessities for the nourishment of all living beings on Earth. Right from the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the house we live in is provided by nature. Nature is called ‘Mother Nature’ because just like our mother, she is always nurturing us with all our needs. 

Whatever we see around us, right from the moment we step out of our house is part of nature. The trees, flowers, landscapes, insects, sunlight, breeze, everything that makes our environment so beautiful and mesmerizing are part of Nature. In short, our environment is nature. Nature has been there even before the evolution of human beings. 

Importance of Nature

If not for nature then we wouldn’t be alive. The health benefits of nature for humans are incredible. The most important thing for survival given by nature is oxygen. The entire cycle of respiration is regulated by nature. The oxygen that we inhale is given by trees and the carbon dioxide we exhale is getting absorbed by trees. 

The ecosystem of nature is a community in which producers (plants), consumers, and decomposers work together in their environment for survival. The natural fundamental processes like soil creation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, and water cycling, allow Earth to sustain life. We are dependent on these ecosystem services daily whether or not we are aware.

Nature provides us services round the clock: provisional services, regulating services, and non-material services. Provisional services include benefits extracted from nature such as food, water, natural fuels and fibres, and medicinal plants. Regulating services include regulation of natural processes that include decomposition, water purification, pollution, erosion and flood control, and also, climate regulation. Non-material services are the non-material benefits that improve the cultural development of humans such as recreation, creative inspiration from interaction with nature like art, music, architecture, and the influence of ecosystems on local and global cultures. 

The interaction between humans and animals, which are a part of nature, alleviates stress, lessens pain and worries. Nature provides company and gives people a sense of purpose. 

Studies and research have shown that children especially have a natural affinity with nature. Regular interaction with nature has boosted health development in children. Nature supports their physical and mental health and instills abilities to access risks as they grow. 

Role and Importance of Nature

The natural cycle of our ecosystem is vital for the survival of organisms. We all should take care of all the components that make our nature complete. We should be sure not to pollute the water and air as they are gifts of Nature.

Mother nature fosters us and never harms us. Those who live close to nature are observed to be enjoying a healthy and peaceful life in comparison to those who live in urban areas. Nature gives the sound of running fresh air which revives us, sweet sounds of birds that touch our ears, and sounds of breezing waves in the ocean makes us move within.

All the great writers and poets have written about Mother Nature when they felt the exceptional beauty of nature or encountered any saddening scene of nature. Words Worth who was known as the poet of nature, has written many things in nature while being in close communion with nature and he has written many things about Nature. Nature is said to be the greatest teacher as it teaches the lessons of immortality and mortality. Staying in close contact with Nature makes our sight penetrative and broadens our vision to go through the mysteries of the planet earth. Those who are away from nature can’t understand the beauty that is held by Nature. The rise in population on planet earth is leading to a rise in consumption of natural resources.  Because of increasing demands for fuels like Coal, petroleum, etc., air pollution is increasing at a rapid pace.  The smoke discharged from factory units and exhaust tanks of cars is contaminating the air that we breathe. It is vital for us to plant more trees in order to reduce the effect of toxic air pollutants like Carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc. 

Save Our Nature

Earth’s natural resources are not infinite and they cannot be replenished in a short period. The rapid increase in urbanization has used most of the resources like trees, minerals, fossil fuels, and water. Humans in their quest for a comfortable living have been using the resources of nature mindlessly. As a result, massive deforestation, resultant environmental pollution, wildlife destruction, and global warming are posing great threats to the survival of living beings. 

Air that gives us oxygen to breathe is getting polluted by smoke, industrial emissions, automobile exhaust, burning of fossil fuels like coal, coke and furnace oil, and use of certain chemicals. The garbage and wastes thrown here and there cause pollution of air and land. 

Sewage, organic wastage, industrial wastage, oil spillage, and chemicals pollute water. It is causing several water-borne diseases like cholera, jaundice and typhoid. 

The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in agriculture adds to soil pollution. Due to the mindless cutting of trees and demolition of greeneries for industrialization and urbanization, the ecological balance is greatly hampered. Deforestation causes flood and soil erosion.

Earth has now become an ailing planet panting for care and nutrition for its rejuvenation. Unless mankind puts its best effort to save nature from these recurring situations, the Earth would turn into an unfit landmass for life and activity. 

We should check deforestation and take up the planting of trees at a massive rate. It will not only save the animals from being extinct but also help create regular rainfall and preserve soil fertility. We should avoid over-dependence on fossil fuels like coal, petroleum products, and firewood which release harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. Non-conventional sources of energy like the sun, biogas and wind should be tapped to meet our growing need for energy. It will check and reduce global warming. 

Every drop of water is vital for our survival. We should conserve water by its rational use, rainwater harvesting, checking the surface outflow, etc. industrial and domestic wastes should be properly treated before they are dumped into water bodies. 

Every individual can do his or her bit of responsibility to help save the nature around us. To build a sustainable society, every human being should practice in heart and soul the three R’s of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. In this way, we can save our nature.  

Nature Conservation

Nature conservation is very essential for future generations, if we will damage nature our future generations will suffer.

Nowadays, technological advancement is adversely affecting our nature. Humans are in the quest and search for prosperity and success that they have forgotten the value and importance of beautiful Nature around. The ignorance of nature by humans is the biggest threat to nature. It is essential to make people aware and make them understand the importance of nature so that they do not destroy it in the search for prosperity and success.

On high priority, we should take care of nature so that nature can continue to take care of us. Saving nature is the crying need of our time and we should not ignore it. We should embrace simple living and high thinking as the adage of our lives.  

FAQs on Nature Essay

1. How Do You Define Nature?

Nature is defined as our environment. It is the interaction between the physical world around us and the life within it like the atmosphere, climate, natural resources, ecosystem, flora, fauna and humans. Nature also includes non-living things such as water,  mountains, landscape, plants, trees and many other things. Nature adds life to mother earth. Nature is the treasure habitation of every essential element that sustains life on this planet earth. Human life on Earth would have been dull and meaningless without the amazing gifts of nature. 

2. How is Nature Important to Us?

Nature is the only provider of everything that we need for survival. Nature provides us with food, water, natural fuels, fibres, and medicinal plants. Nature regulates natural processes that include decomposition, water purification, pollution, erosion, and flood control. It also provides non-material benefits like improving the cultural development of humans like recreation, etc. 

An imbalance in nature can lead to earthquakes, global warming, floods, and drastic climate changes. It is our duty to understand the importance of nature and how it can negatively affect us all if this rapid consumption of natural resources, pollution, and urbanization takes place.

3. How Should We Save Our Nature?

We should check deforestation and take up the planting of trees at a massive rate. It will save the animals from being extinct but also help create regular rainfall and preserve soil fertility. We should avoid over-dependence on fossil fuels like coal, petroleum products, and firewood which release harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. We should start using non-conventional sources of energy like the sun, biogas, and wind to meet our growing need for energy. It will check and reduce global warming. Water is vital for our survival and we should rationalize our use of water. 

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To raise mental health awareness, read personal stories of how nature can nurture human wellbeing

Manomet staff share how gardening, hiking, and other ways of connecting with nature have made a difference in their mental health and wellness. Photo credit: Megan Gray.

By Radhika Bohra

With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, I’ve been thinking about the role technology plays in modern mental health and how intentionally carving out time to reconnect with the natural world can bring mental and physical benefits alike.

I began by asking myself: how much time do we spend on our phones daily? How much news do we consume online? Where do we form most of our connections nowadays? Personally, I mostly access both news and my social circles via social media or other digital platforms I can access from the confines of my room.

For me and many of my Gen Z peers, as well as millennials who grew up in a post-internet and smartphone society, the time we spend outside has become less and less as we often find ourselves immersed within our digital worlds.

However, research shows that the time we spend outside can have a very beneficial impact on our mental health. Researchers from Arizona State University found that setting aside just 20 minutes a day to stroll outside and get some sun exposure or sit in a place that puts you in contact with some aspect of nature can significantly lower your stress hormone levels.

To hear personal stories about the impact nature can have on positive mental wellbeing, I reached out to a couple of colleagues at Manomet who often help cultivate opportunities for our team members to nurture their wellbeing through meditation and connecting with nature. Here, they describe their personal experiences with nature and share ideas about how all of us can step into the outdoors to lower stress.

Kim Goggin , master gardener and accounting, HR, and administrative coordinator, has been with Manomet for over 30 years. She shares a special connection with the land at Manomet that she has tended to with great care. Since Kim was a young girl, she says she has always found a friend in nature.

“I feel at peace when I’m surrounded by nature,” she says. “Just being outside and working in the garden, or walking in the woods or on the beach… it gives me so much peace. In winter, I especially like having bright colors around me to cheer me up! If I bring flowers into my home or office, for me, that’s my medicine to keep away the winter blues.”

For Goggin, her personal connection to the living world not only has a positive influence on her mental wellbeing, but also brings deeper meaning to her life.

“It’s more than just my mental health for me,” she says. “It’s my spiritual health, which is so important to me. It’s just where I feel connected to some greater source and also to other people I’ve met. I think what really makes [nature] so special is the community of people that you can meet who love nature. If you go on a hike, everybody’s saying ‘hi’ to each other and ‘have a wonderful day!’ I find that people who seek nature are warm and friendly.”

Goggin’s connection to the outdoors also inspires her poetry; in addition to being a nature lover, she’s also a lover of the arts.

“Especially here at Manomet’s headquarters, we have this beautiful history,” she says. In 1969, the former owners of Manomet’s 40-acre coastal property donated their home and land to the then-called Manomet Bird Observatory. They also left behind family memories and materials that are now precious archives cherished by Goggin, who earned a degree in anthropology and loves the history of people.

“ Ellen Ernst and her family kept journals about their life here at Manomet. When I read those journals, I hear their voices come to life,” she says. “There’s a beautiful writing in the journals about an evening when they’re sitting on the bluff, in 1906, and a violinist from Warsaw, Birnbaum, joined them as he played his violin on the bluff in the moonlight. They also provided refuge to an artist, Maurice Fromkes, during the Great War. Coming from the art centers of Europe, he became their friend and neighbor as he used the garden house as a studio to create his beautiful works of art.”

Goggin says journal entries like that one—there are three journals written over almost 60 years, from 1896 to 1954—have made her more appreciative of the land at Manomet’s headquarters, and have sparked a deeper sense of devotion in her efforts to carry that history and reverence for the land forward for future generations.

Since Goggin is Manomet’s master gardener, and I was inspired by listening to her talk about her connection with Manomet’s gardens, I asked her if she had any tips for people who are interested in getting into gardening for the first time. She says one way to reap deep benefits from gardening is to approach it with the idea that caring for plants is about building a network of relationships within our living world.

“When people move from this ego-centric place of ‘I want a beautiful garden’ to ‘I want to take care of plants and provide for wildlife,’ they become more compassionate gardeners,” she says. If folks don’t have access to their own gardening space, Goggin recommends seeking out community gardens that many cities and neighborhoods have, especially throughout the Greater Boston area. “It’s the small interactions with nature that can help us get started on a lifelong journey to building upon our relationship with nature.”

Access to nature and green space is no doubt good for us, but that access isn’t equitably shared among all people. Many people can grow up isolated from nature or come from backgrounds that haven’t had the equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of nature like others have. I reached out to Nadia Elysse , Manomet’s director of diversity and belonging, to learn more.

“Over the years since colonization [of land and communities within the present-day United States], people of many different backgrounds have felt differentiated and discriminated against, and tend to stay in spaces that feel comfortable out of concerns for safety,” Elysse says. “For example, there are several subgroups and communities in the country that don’t feel welcome or safe outdoors due to the gatekeeping of public spaces and the systems put in place to oppress people based on their identities. In many cases, even in present time, those people have chosen to stay indoors for that reason,” she says.

“The most effective way to see a change on this front is to educate people [of more privilege] on the unconscious biases that underlie systemic racism in the United States, and to regularly host opportunities for people to increase their awareness of and exposure to different communities, people of different backgrounds than their own, and to have dialogue about biases and racism–even though it can get uncomfortable. I believe this will help create a more welcoming and nurturing outdoors experience for everyone, and open up access to nature’s stress-lowering effects within communities that would benefit greatly from those health impacts.”

Elysse has become an avid hiker in recent years after discovering the joy of working out outdoors and spending more time in nature.

“I have tons of siblings, and I was the youngest growing up, so if I was not with my mom going to church several times a week, I’d be inside the house where my mom felt it was ‘safe,’” she says. “Culturally, women and girls have historically done more in the house while boys were outside playing, so I just never cared to be outdoors because that’s just not the childhood that I had. When some of my friends introduced me to hiking and outdoor fitness classes during the height of the pandemic, I found it really therapeutic.”

Hiking, in particular, has been an especially positive addition to her self-care routine, Elysse says. “When I’m able to go hiking, I can unplug,” she says. “I’m paying attention to my surroundings, I’m not on my phone, and I can hear noises and look around to see wildlife that I probably never would have gotten to see while in the city.”

Elysse didn’t always see herself as a nature lover, but she does have some suggestions for making the transition to spending more time outdoors for people interested in nature’s benefits.

“One of the best ways to start making a connection with nature is to start doing the things we already enjoy outdoors,” Elysse says. Although she gravitated towards hiking because of her fitness interests, she suggests other people might prefer painting, reading, or doing other activities they enjoy outdoors. “By doing something you enjoy, it can help you naturally feel comfortable outdoors, even if you haven’t spent much time outside before.”

I asked her to share her thoughts on whether or not she feels employers should encourage their staff to spend more time outdoors for overall mental health and wellbeing.

“I think people who do fieldwork are very lucky to do what they love while being outside,” she says. “For people who are behind the desk and answering emails all day, in administrative, executive support, communications, and other similar roles, you’re literally behind the computer probably 85 to 90 percent of your day, typically sitting inside. So you have to force yourself to take a break.”

“Mental health is important and it is important for employers to ensure that staff are taking necessary breaks throughout the day to do something for themselves,” she continues. “If that involves taking a 15-minute walk, or creating the opportunity to have lunch outdoors, whatever it is–encouraging and reminding folks that it’s healthy to get some fresh air, I think that’s really important for organizations to foster those rituals.”

Having heard from Goggin and Elysse about the mental health benefits they gain from connecting with nature, I reflected a bit on how everyone might nurture their own relationship with nature in any way they wish. While nature is often seen as existing only in the outdoors, I’d like to propose that nature can also be found in the soothing sounds of running water, or birds chirping outside a window, or having some blooming flowers in a vase. We can each find our peace and healing in any form we like, and as we spend time thinking about ourselves and our own relationships with the natural world, let’s also think about what types of connections to nature can better inspire us to give back to Mother Nature’s roots, and nurture and conserve our living planet like it can do for us.

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13 Essays About Nature: Use These For Your Next Assignment

Essays about nature can look at the impact of human behavior on the environment, or on the impact of nature on human beings. Check out these suggestions.

Nature is one of humanity’s greatest gifts. It provides food, shelter, and even medication to help us live healthier, happier lives. It also inspires artists, poets, writers, and photographers because of its beauty.

Essays about nature can take many different paths. Descriptive essays about the beauty of nature can inspire readers. They give the writer the chance to explore some creativity in their essay writing. You can also write a persuasive essay arguing about an environmental topic and how humans harm the natural environment. You can also write an informative essay to discuss a particular impact or aspect of the natural world and how it impacts the human beings who live within it.

If you need to write a nature essay, read on to discover 13 topics that can work well. For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers .

1. How Happiness Is Related to Nature Connectedness

2. why protecting nature is everyone’s responsibility, 3. how technological advancements can help the environment, 4. why global warming is a danger for future generations, 5. how deforestation impacts the beauty of nature, 6. the relationship between plants and human beings, 7. the health benefits of spending time in nature, 8. what are the gifts of nature, 9. the importance of nature to sustain human life, 10. the beauty of non-living things in nature, 11. does eco-tourism help or hurt the natural world, 12. how sustainability benefits the natural environment, 13. does agriculture hurt or help nature.

Exposure to nature has a significant positive impact on mood and overall mental health. In other words, happiness and nature connectedness have a close link. Your nature essay can explore the research behind this and then build on that research to show why nature conservation is so important.

This essay on nature is important because it shows why people need the natural environment. Nature provides more than just the natural resources we need for life. Spending time in the fresh air and sunshine actually makes us happier, so behaviors that harm nature harm your potential happiness.

Planet earth is a precious gift that is often damaged by the selfish activities of human beings. All human beings have the potential to hurt the natural environment and the living creatures in that environment, and thus protecting nature is everyone’s responsibility. You can build this into an essay and explore what that responsibility may look like to different groups.

For the child, for example, protecting nature may be as simple as picking up trash in the park, but for the CEO of a manufacturing company, it may look like eco-friendly company policies. For an adult, it may look like shopping for a car with lower emissions. Take a look at the different ways people can protect nature and why it is essential.

Technology is often viewed as the enemy of nature, but you can find technological advancements helping rather than harming nature. For example, light bulbs that use less energy or residential solar panel development have reduced the average home’s amount of energy. Your essay could explore some inventions that have helped nature.

After looking at these technologies, dive into the idea that technology, when used well, has a significant positive impact on the environment, rather than a negative one. The key is developing technology that works with conservation efforts, rather than against them.

Global warming is a hot topic in today’s society, but the term gets used so often, that many people have tuned it out. You can explore the dangers of global warming and how it potentially impacts future generations. You can also touch on whether or not this problem has been over-blown in education and media.

This essay should be full of facts and data to back up your opinions. It could also touch on initiatives that could reduce the risks of global warming to make the future brighter for the next generation.

Much has been written about the dangers of deforestation on the overall ecosystem, but what about its effect on nature’s beauty? This essay topic adds an additional reason why countries should fight deforestation to protect green spaces and the beauty of nature.

In your essay, strike a balance between limiting deforestation and the need to harvest trees as natural resources. Look at ways companies can use these natural resources without destroying entire forests and ecosystems. You might also be interested in these essays about nature .

People need plants, and this need can give you your essay topic. Plants provide food for people and for animals that people also eat. Many pharmaceutical products come from plants originally, meaning they are vital to the medical field as well.

Plants also contribute to the fresh air that people breathe. They filter the air, removing toxins and purifying the air to make it cleaner. They also add beauty to nature with their foliage and flowers. These facts make plants a vital part of nature, and you can delve into that connection in your nature essay.

Spending time in nature not only improves your mental health, but it also improves your physical health . When people spend time in nature, they have lower blood pressure and heart rates. They also produce fewer damaging stress hormones and reduced muscle tension. Shockingly, spending time in nature may actually reduce mortality rates.

Take some time to research these health benefits, and then weave them into your essay. By showing the health benefits of nature exposure, you can build an appreciation for nature in your audience. You may inspire people to do more to protect the natural environment.

Nature has given people many gifts. Our food all comes from nature in its most basic form, from fruits and vegetables to milk and meats. It provides the foundation for many medicines and remedies. These gifts alone make it worth protecting.

Yet nature does much more. It also gives the gift of better mental health. It can inspire feelings of wonder in people of all ages. Finally, it provides beauty and tranquility that you cannot reproduce anywhere else. This essay is more descriptive and reflective than factual, but it can be an exciting topic to explore.

Can humans live without nature? Based on the topics already discussed, the answer is no. You can use this fact to create an essay that connects nature to the sustenance of human life. Without nature, we cannot survive.

One way to look at this importance is to consider the honey bee . The honey bee seems like a simple part of the natural world, yet it is one of the most essential. Without bees, fruits and vegetables will not get pollinated as easily, if at all. If bees disappear, the entire food system will struggle. Thus, bees, and many other parts of nature, are vital to human life.

Have you ever felt fully inspired by a glorious sunset or sunrise? Have you spent time gazing at a mountain peak or the ocean water crashing on the shoreline and found your soul refreshed? Write about one of these experiences in your essay.

Use descriptive words to show how the non-living parts of nature are beautiful, just like the living creatures and plants that are part of nature. Draw from personal experiences of things you have seen in nature to make this essay rich and engaging. If you love nature, you might also be interested in these essays about camping .

Ecotourism is tourism designed to expose people to nature. Nature tours, safaris, and even jungle or rainforest experiences are all examples of ecotourism. It seems like ecotourism would help the environment by making people more aware, but does it really?

For your essay, research if ecotourism helps or hurts the environment. If you find it does both, consider arguing which is more impactful, the positive side or the negative side. On the positive side, ecotourism emphasizes sustainability in travel and highlights the plight of endangered species, leading to initiatives that protect local ecosystems. On the negative side, ecotourism can hurt the ecosystems at the same time by bringing humans into the environment, which automatically changes it. Weigh these pros and cons to see which side you fall on.

For more help with this topic, read our guide explaining what is persuasive writing ?

Sustainability is the practice of taking care of human needs and economic needs while also protecting the natural environment for future generations. But do sustainable practices work? This essay topic lets you look at popular eco-friendly practices and determine if they are helpful to the environment, or not.

Sustainability is a hot topic, but unfortunately, some practices labeled as sustainable , aren’t helpful to the environment. For example, many people think they are doing something good when tossing a plastic bottle in the recycling bin, but most recycling centers simply throw away the bottle if that little plastic ring is present, so your effort is wasted. A better practice is using a reusable water bottle. Consider different examples like this to show how sustainability can help the environment, but only when done well.

Agriculture is one way that humans interact with and change the natural environment. Planting crops or raising non-native animals impacts the nature around the farm. Does this impact hurt or help the local natural ecosystem?

Explore this topic in your essay. Consider the impact of things like irrigation, fertilization, pesticides, and the introduction of non-native plants and animals to the local environment. Consider ways that agriculture can benefit the environment and come to a conclusion in your essay about the overall impact.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Nicole Harms has been writing professionally since 2006. She specializes in education content and real estate writing but enjoys a wide gamut of topics. Her goal is to connect with the reader in an engaging, but informative way. Her work has been featured on USA Today, and she ghostwrites for many high-profile companies. As a former teacher, she is passionate about both research and grammar, giving her clients the quality they demand in today's online marketing world.

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Why Kids Should Nature Journal at All Grade Levels

A 2023 review makes a strong case that hands-on observation of natural phenomena has both academic and psychological benefits.

In 1831, a young Charles Darwin embarked on a five-year voyage aboard the HMS Beagle , tracking along the coast of South America and making stops at the Cape Verde Islands, the rainforests of Salvador de Bahia, and the Galápagos Islands. Armed with his notebook and pencil, Darwin—having just earned a bachelor’s degree studying botany at Cambridge—was eager to begin documenting the exotic wildlife of the land.

“Most people pay little attention to what’s going on around them, and do not seek to see further ahead,” writes University of Oporto biologist João Paulo Cabral . “Darwin’s curiosity, on the other hand, had no limits.”

What started as a convenient method for recording his observations—his field notes and sketches span over 300 specimens in 15 notebooks—soon became the catalyst for charting the minutiae of species diversity, as Darwin meticulously unearthed patterns that wouldn’t be obvious to the casual observer. The unique beak adaptations of the Galápagos finches, for example, paved the way for a famously era-defining breakthrough.

Today’s scientists-in-training, by contrast, “mostly learn about photosynthesis by rote” and rarely touch actual flowers in the process, according to a 2017 study . Studying the shape and function of a stamen, petal, or pistil introduces young students to textbook concepts of living systems, taxonomies, and classifications, but removed from nature, kids experience an approach to scientific learning that may curtail a sense of wonder and curiosity.

Encouraging students to wander with notebooks and pencils, paying attention to “the tiniest flowers in the grass and other bits of nature that usually go overlooked,” on the other hand, can slow them down, calm their nerves, and engage them in rigorous, purposeful academic work. “Nature journaling is an effective way for life science teachers to get adolescents outside and incorporate nature studies into their lessons,” explains high school biology and environmental science teacher Jennifer Bollich in a 2023 review , noting that it connects them to “the native plants and animals that share their spaces” and has “positive educational, environmental, and psychological effects on adolescents,” including a reduction in stress and anxiety.

Building Scientific and Cognitive Skills

Nature journaling—sketching and annotating observations about natural phenomena—also builds crucial cognitive and processing skills like close observation, technical illustration, attention to detail, critical thinking, and the ability to organize and categorize information. “These connections reach across the disciplines to make learning more cohesive and increase overall brain development to improve learning in multiple areas of the curriculum,” explains Bollich.

When sketching and annotating in a journal, students process information in multiple ways, leading to deeper comprehension and more durable memories. 

In a 2018 study , for example, researchers concluded that drawing is “an effective and reliable encoding strategy, far superior to writing”—largely because it forces students to actively process information across several modalities: semantic, kinesthetic, and visual. Ask a student to write down the parts of a flower—petal, pistil, and stem, for example—and the information will be quickly forgotten. Drawing a flower you’ve found and labeling parts and asking questions, however, encodes the material more deeply, resulting in richer, longer-lasting memories. In the study, the researchers found that students who visually represented science concepts like isotope and spore were nearly twice as likely to recall the information than students who simply wrote down the definitions.

To get students moving from the general to the more specific, high school English teacher Tanner Jones asks students to jot down 20 adjectives or phrases to describe the natural object they’re focused on. “At first, many offer broad observations like ‘The leaf is yellow,’” Tanner explains. “But as they spend more time and run out of obvious things to say, the observations become more nuanced and even beautiful: ‘The leaf is a heart with veins receding in size from the central stem.’” With time, students sharpen their observation and analytical skills, opening the door to complex inquiries such as, “Why do leaves turn yellow in the autumn?” and “What happens to this leaf after it snows?”

Connecting to Nature and Natural Rhythms

“Despite evidence for the benefits of the outdoors, the amount of time children are spending outdoors is in rapid decline,” researchers observe in a 2022 study , noting that children today spend less than half as much time outdoors as their parents did. Teenagers now spend an average of eight and a half hours each day watching television, playing video games, and using social media—activities that take a toll on their mental and emotional well-being, according to a Yale study published last year.

Schools, meanwhile, are slowly cutting off outdoor learning opportunities, as “insurance restrictions and the reduction of recess lengths coalesce to keep kids indoors,” Bollich writes.

The upshot is that students are disconnected from nature and often feel apathetic about their local ecosystems. Nature journaling can be an effective antidote, helping young people “become familiar with the plants and animals that live near them, with the potential to increase their curiosity about these species,” suggests Bollich.

For elementary school teacher Sarah Keel, nature journals connect her students to the natural world. “The use of nature journals can be empowering for students as it helps increase their awareness of nature, gives them a sense of their place in their world, and encourages future conservation behaviors,” she writes . During a journaling activity, Keel asks students to find an outdoor “sit spot”—in a school garden, playground, home backyard, city park—and spend 20 to 30 minutes making observations. Prompts such as “What do you see, hear, or smell?” and “Did you observe any plant and animal interactions?” can help students get started.

A Breath of Fresh Air

“Students who learn outdoors perform better on standardized tests, are more engaged and motivated to learn, and are more focused on their work even when back indoors,” writes James Fester, a former social studies teacher and current teacher trainer. “Exposure to the natural world is associated with lower levels of stress, lower anxiety, and better overall social and emotional health.” 

Researchers have long observed that learning in natural settings lends itself to a form of creative, student-directed play that is often absent in classrooms. A 2020 meta-analysis concluded that “nature play had positive impacts on developmental outcomes for children, particularly in the cognitive domains of imagination, creativity, and dramatic play.” Studying a neatly rendered diagram of a tree or bird in a textbook tends to produce a detached appreciation that’s at odds with how Darwin approached scientific inquiry. Not only are students more likely to be “smiling and laughing” in natural spaces, but they’re also more imaginative and more willing to collaborate with their peers, the researchers found.

How can you get started? Your first foray into nature journaling doesn’t have to be a major expedition, and you don’t have to be a wildlife expert to lead a successful trip, says fifth-grade science teacher Pete Barnes.

Nearby trees, rocks, and bushes are teeming with life, and kids will be quick to notice. “Students marvel at the smallest of natural encounters—spotting a frog, running alongside a butterfly, or discovering a beetle beneath a log,” Barnes writes . Give them a chance, and they’ll take to it quickly, at virtually all grade levels.

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• 25 April 2024
• Correction 25 April 2024

‘Shut up and calculate’: how Einstein lost the battle to explain quantum reality

• Jim Baggott 0

Jim Baggott is a science writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is co-author with John Heilbron of Quantum Drama .

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

For entangled particles, a change in one instantly affects the other, no matter how far apart they are. Credit: Volker Steger/SPL

You have full access to this article via your institution.

Quantum mechanics is an extraordinarily successful scientific theory, on which much of our technology-obsessed lifestyles depend. It is also bewildering. Although the theory works, it leaves physicists chasing probabilities instead of certainties and breaks the link between cause and effect. It gives us particles that are waves and waves that are particles , cats that seem to be both alive and dead, and lots of spooky quantum weirdness around hard-to-explain phenomena, such as quantum entanglement.

Myths are also rife. For instance, in the early twentieth century, when the theory’s founders were arguing among themselves about what it all meant, the views of Danish physicist Niels Bohr came to dominate. Albert Einstein famously disagreed with him and, in the 1920s and 1930s, the two locked horns in debate . A persistent myth was created that suggests Bohr won the argument by browbeating the stubborn and increasingly isolated Einstein into submission. Acting like some fanatical priesthood, physicists of Bohr’s ‘church’ sought to shut down further debate. They established the ‘Copenhagen interpretation’, named after the location of Bohr’s institute, as a dogmatic orthodoxy.

My latest book Quantum Drama , co-written with science historian John Heilbron, explores the origins of this myth and its role in motivating the singular personalities that would go on to challenge it. Their persistence in the face of widespread indifference paid off, because they helped to lay the foundations for a quantum-computing industry expected to be worth tens of billions by 2040.

John died on 5 November 2023 , so sadly did not see his last work through to publication. This essay is dedicated to his memory.

Foundational myth

A scientific myth is not produced by accident or error. It requires effort. “To qualify as a myth, a false claim should be persistent and widespread,” Heilbron said in a 2014 conference talk. “It should have a plausible and assignable reason for its endurance, and immediate cultural relevance,” he noted. “Although erroneous or fabulous, such myths are not entirely wrong, and their exaggerations bring out aspects of a situation, relationship or project that might otherwise be ignored.”

Does quantum theory imply the entire Universe is preordained?

To see how these observations apply to the historical development of quantum mechanics, let’s look more closely at the Bohr–Einstein debate. The only way to make sense of the theory, Bohr argued in 1927, was to accept his principle of complementarity. Physicists have no choice but to describe quantum experiments and their results using wholly incompatible, yet complementary, concepts borrowed from classical physics.

In one kind of experiment, an electron, for example, behaves like a classical wave. In another, it behaves like a classical particle. Physicists can observe only one type of behaviour at a time, because there is no experiment that can be devised that could show both behaviours at once.

Bohr insisted that there is no contradiction in complementarity, because the use of these classical concepts is purely symbolic. This was not about whether electrons are really waves or particles. It was about accepting that physicists can never know what an electron really is and that they must reach for symbolic descriptions of waves and particles as appropriate. With these restrictions, Bohr regarded the theory to be complete — no further elaboration was necessary.

Such a pronouncement prompts an important question. What is the purpose of physics? Is its main goal to gain ever-more-detailed descriptions and control of phenomena, regardless of whether physicists can understand these descriptions? Or, rather, is it a continuing search for deeper and deeper insights into the nature of physical reality?

Einstein preferred the second answer, and refused to accept that complementarity could be the last word on the subject. In his debate with Bohr, he devised a series of elaborate thought experiments, in which he sought to demonstrate the theory’s inconsistencies and ambiguities, and its incompleteness. These were intended to highlight matters of principle; they were not meant to be taken literally.

Entangled probabilities

In 1935, Einstein’s criticisms found their focus in a paper 1 published with his colleagues Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. In their thought experiment (known as EPR, the authors’ initials), a pair of particles (A and B) interact and move apart. Suppose each particle can possess, with equal probability, one of two quantum properties, which for simplicity I will call ‘up’ and ‘down’, measured in relation to some instrument setting. Assuming their properties are correlated by a physical law, if A is measured to be ‘up’, B must be ‘down’, and vice versa. The Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger invented the term entangled to describe this kind of situation.

How Einstein built on the past to make his breakthroughs

If the entangled particles are allowed to move so far apart that they can no longer affect one another, physicists might say that they are no longer in ‘causal contact’. Quantum mechanics predicts that scientists should still be able to measure A and thereby — with certainty — infer the correlated property of B.

But the theory gives us only probabilities. We have no way of knowing in advance what result we will get for A. If A is found to be ‘down’, how does the distant, causally disconnected B ‘know’ how to correlate with its entangled partner and give the result ‘up’? The particles cannot break the correlation, because this would break the physical law that created it.

Physicists could simply assume that, when far enough apart, the particles are separate and distinct, or ‘locally real’, each possessing properties that were fixed at the moment of their interaction. Suppose A sets off towards a measuring instrument carrying the property ‘up’. A devious experimenter is perfectly at liberty to change the instrument setting so that when A arrives, it is now measured to be ‘down’. How, then, is the correlation established? Do the particles somehow remain in contact, sending messages to each other or exerting influences on each other over vast distances at speeds faster than light, in conflict with Einstein’s special theory of relativity?

The alternative possibility, equally discomforting to contemplate, is that the entangled particles do not actually exist independently of each other. They are ‘non-local’, implying that their properties are not fixed until a measurement is made on one of them.

Both these alternatives were unacceptable to Einstein, leading him to conclude that quantum mechanics cannot be complete.

Niels Bohr (left) and Albert Einstein. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty

The EPR thought experiment delivered a shock to Bohr’s camp, but it was quickly (if unconvincingly) rebuffed by Bohr. Einstein’s challenge was not enough; he was content to criticize the theory but there was no consensus on an alternative to Bohr’s complementarity. Bohr was judged by the wider scientific community to have won the debate and, by the early 1950s, Einstein’s star was waning.

Unlike Bohr, Einstein had established no school of his own. He had rather retreated into his own mind, in vain pursuit of a theory that would unify electromagnetism and gravity, and so eliminate the need for quantum mechanics altogether. He referred to himself as a “lone traveler”. In 1948, US theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer remarked to a reporter at Time magazine that the older Einstein had become “a landmark, but not a beacon”.

Prevailing view

Subsequent readings of this period in quantum history promoted a persistent and widespread suggestion that the Copenhagen interpretation had been established as the orthodox view. I offer two anecdotes as illustration. When learning quantum mechanics as a graduate student at Harvard University in the 1950s, US physicist N. David Mermin recalled vivid memories of the responses that his conceptual enquiries elicited from his professors, whom he viewed as ‘agents of Copenhagen’. “You’ll never get a PhD if you allow yourself to be distracted by such frivolities,” they advised him, “so get back to serious business and produce some results. Shut up, in other words, and calculate.”

The spy who flunked it: Kurt Gödel’s forgotten part in the atom-bomb story

It seemed that dissidents faced serious repercussions. When US physicist John Clauser — a pioneer of experimental tests of quantum mechanics in the early 1970s — struggled to find an academic position, he was clear in his own mind about the reasons. He thought he had fallen foul of the ‘religion’ fostered by Bohr and the Copenhagen church: “Any physicist who openly criticized or even seriously questioned these foundations ... was immediately branded as a ‘quack’. Quacks naturally found it difficult to find decent jobs within the profession.”

But pulling on the historical threads suggests a different explanation for both Mermin’s and Clauser’s struggles. Because there was no viable alternative to complementarity, those writing the first post-war student textbooks on quantum mechanics in the late 1940s had little choice but to present (often garbled) versions of Bohr’s theory. Bohr was notoriously vague and more than occasionally incomprehensible. Awkward questions about the theory’s foundations were typically given short shrift. It was more important for students to learn how to apply the theory than to fret about what it meant.

One important exception is US physicist David Bohm’s 1951 book Quantum Theory , which contains an extensive discussion of the theory’s interpretation, including EPR’s challenge. But, at the time, Bohm stuck to Bohr’s mantra.

The Americanization of post-war physics meant that no value was placed on ‘philosophical’ debates that did not yield practical results. The task of ‘getting to the numbers’ meant that there was no time or inclination for the kind of pointless discussion in which Bohr and Einstein had indulged. Pragmatism prevailed. Physicists encouraged their students to choose research topics that were likely to provide them with a suitable grounding for an academic career, or ones that appealed to prospective employers. These did not include research on quantum foundations.

These developments conspired to produce a subtly different kind of orthodoxy. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), US philosopher Thomas Kuhn describes ‘normal’ science as the everyday puzzle-solving activities of scientists in the context of a prevailing ‘paradigm’. This can be interpreted as the foundational framework on which scientific understanding is based. Kuhn argued that researchers pursuing normal science tend to accept foundational theories without question and seek to solve problems within the bounds of these concepts. Only when intractable problems accumulate and the situation becomes intolerable might the paradigm ‘shift’, in a process that Kuhn likened to a political revolution.

Do black holes explode? The 50-year-old puzzle that challenges quantum physics

The prevailing view also defines what kinds of problem the community will accept as scientific and which problems researchers are encouraged (and funded) to investigate. As Kuhn acknowledged in his book: “Other problems, including many that had previously been standard, are rejected as metaphysical, as the concern of another discipline, or sometimes as just too problematic to be worth the time.”

What Kuhn says about normal science can be applied to ‘mainstream’ physics. By the 1950s, the physics community had become broadly indifferent to foundational questions that lay outside the mainstream. Such questions were judged to belong in a philosophy class, and there was no place for philosophy in physics. Mermin’s professors were not, as he had first thought, ‘agents of Copenhagen’. As he later told me, his professors “had no interest in understanding Bohr, and thought that Einstein’s distaste for [quantum mechanics] was just silly”. Instead, they were “just indifferent to philosophy. Full stop. Quantum mechanics worked. Why worry about what it meant?”

It is more likely that Clauser fell foul of the orthodoxy of mainstream physics. His experimental tests of quantum mechanics 2 in 1972 were met with indifference or, more actively, dismissal as junk or fringe science. After all, as expected, quantum mechanics passed Clauser’s tests and arguably nothing new was discovered. Clauser failed to get an academic position not because he had had the audacity to challenge the Copenhagen interpretation; his audacity was in challenging the mainstream. As a colleague told Clauser later, physics faculty members at one university to which he had applied “thought that the whole field was controversial”.

Aspect, Clauser and Zeilinger won the 2022 physics Nobel for work on entangled photons. Credit: Claudio Bresciani/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty

However, it’s important to acknowledge that the enduring myth of the Copenhagen interpretation contains grains of truth, too. Bohr had a strong and domineering personality. He wanted to be associated with quantum theory in much the same way that Einstein is associated with theories of relativity. Complementarity was accepted as the last word on the subject by the physicists of Bohr’s school. Most vociferous were Bohr’s ‘bulldog’ Léon Rosenfeld, Wolfgang Pauli and Werner Heisenberg, although all came to hold distinct views about what the interpretation actually meant.

They did seek to shut down rivals. French physicist Louis de Broglie’s ‘pilot wave’ interpretation, which restores causality and determinism in a theory in which real particles are guided by a real wave, was shot down by Pauli in 1927. Some 30 years later, US physicist Hugh Everett’s relative state or many-worlds interpretation was dismissed, as Rosenfeld later described, as “hopelessly wrong ideas”. Rosenfeld added that Everett “was undescribably stupid and could not understand the simplest things in quantum mechanics”.

Unorthodox interpretations

But the myth of the Copenhagen interpretation served an important purpose. It motivated a project that might otherwise have been ignored. Einstein liked Bohm’s Quantum Theory and asked to see him in Princeton in the spring of 1951. Their discussion prompted Bohm to abandon Bohr’s views, and he went on to reinvent de Broglie’s pilot wave theory. He also developed an alternative to the EPR challenge that held the promise of translation into a real experiment.

Befuddled by Bohrian vagueness, finding no solace in student textbooks and inspired by Bohm, Irish physicist John Bell pushed back against the Copenhagen interpretation and, in 1964, built on Bohm’s version of EPR to develop a now-famous theorem 3 . The assumption that the entangled particles A and B are locally real leads to predictions that are incompatible with those of quantum mechanics. This was no longer a matter for philosophers alone: this was about real physics.

It took Clauser three attempts to pass his graduate course on advanced quantum mechanics at Columbia University because his brain “kind of refused to do it”. He blamed Bohr and Copenhagen, found Bohm and Bell, and in 1972 became the first to perform experimental tests of Bell’s theorem with entangled photons 2 .

How to introduce quantum computers without slowing economic growth

French physicist Alain Aspect similarly struggled to discern a “physical world behind the mathematics”, was perplexed by complementarity (“Bohr is impossible to understand”) and found Bell. In 1982, he performed what would become an iconic test of Bell’s theorem 4 , changing the settings of the instruments used to measure the properties of pairs of entangled photons while the particles were mid-flight. This prevented the photons from somehow conspiring to correlate themselves through messages or influences passed between them, because the nature of the measurements to be made on them was not set until they were already too far apart. All these tests settled in favour of quantum mechanics and non-locality.

Although the wider physics community still considered testing quantum mechanics to be a fringe science and mostly a waste of time, exposing a hitherto unsuspected phenomenon — quantum entanglement and non-locality — was not. Aspect’s cause was aided by US physicist Richard Feynman, who in 1981 had published his own version of Bell’s theorem 5 and had speculated on the possibility of building a quantum computer. In 1984, Charles Bennett at IBM and Giles Brassard at the University of Montreal in Canada proposed entanglement as the basis for an innovative system of quantum cryptography 6 .

It is tempting to think that these developments finally helped to bring work on quantum foundations into mainstream physics, making it respectable. Not so. According to Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger, who has helped to found the science of quantum information and its promise of a quantum technology, even those working in quantum information consider foundations to be “not the right thing”. “We don’t understand the reason why. Must be psychological reasons, something like that, something very deep,” Zeilinger says. The lack of any kind of physical mechanism to explain how entanglement works does not prevent the pragmatic physicist from getting to the numbers.

Similarly, by awarding the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics to Clauser, Aspect and Zeilinger , the Nobels as an institution have not necessarily become friendly to foundational research. Commenting on the award, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, Anders Irbäck, said: “It has become increasingly clear that a new kind of quantum technology is emerging. We can see that the laureates’ work with entangled states is of great importance, even beyond the fundamental questions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics.” Or, rather, their work is of great importance because of the efforts of those few dissidents, such as Bohm and Bell, who were prepared to resist the orthodoxy of mainstream physics, which they interpreted as the enduring myth of the Copenhagen interpretation.

The lesson from Bohr–Einstein and the riddle of entanglement is this. Even if we are prepared to acknowledge the myth, we still need to exercise care. Heilbron warned against wanton slaying: “The myth you slay today may contain a truth you need tomorrow.”

Nature 629 , 29-32 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01216-z

Updates & Corrections

Correction 25 April 2024 : An earlier version of this Essay misnamed the Institute for Advanced Study.

Einstein, A., Podolsky, B. & Rosen, N. Phys. Rev. 47 , 777–780 (1935).

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Feynman, R. P. Int . J. Theor. Phys. 21 , 467–488 (1982).

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Why Are Friends With Benefits on the Rise?

Are romantic relationships the optimal combination of friendship and sex.

Updated May 3, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

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• Friends with benefits (FWB) involves both companionship and sexuality, while enjoying personal independence.
• Participants in FWB are sexually involved, but don't consider their relationship to be romantic.
• FWB does not endure for long, but in various personal circumstances can be an optimal relationship.

“ In my thirty years of sexual experience, I’ve had one one-night stand, four f*ck-buddies, and no friends-with-benefits. Have I missed something good? ” —A woman

Just like romantic love, friends with benefits (FWB) involves friendship and sexual attraction . So why it is criticized as mere cheap casual sex?

The Nature of Friends With Benefits

"There is in FWB a great friendship, and the other benefits are the cherry on the top. My FWB is a true friend, and we communicate on a soul level. No jealousy issues!" —A man

“ I get lots of offers for FWB , I’ve been tempted, but it's just not my cup of tea. I enjoy sex, I just think that intimacy makes it better. Plus, I love morning sex .” —A woman

In FWB, partners are first of all friends, and then they add the bonus of the sexual benefit. The time between the meetings is not fixed, and the length of the relationship in its present form is not determined. In FWB, friends are sexually involved but do not consider their relationship to be romantic. The parties in FWB enter it with the understanding that their relationship will not endure for the long term. FWB depends on avoidance of turning it into another less problematic relationship, such as merely friendship, casual sex, or romance. Accordingly, people in FWB tend to have a less romanticized view of love, while believing that sex can occur independently of love. Like being in love, FWB involves significant caring but lacks a profound, enduring commitment to each other and most types of sharing.

Laura Machia and colleagues found that about one-third of participants in their study reported that their relationship did not survive its first year and the majority of those whose relationship endured beyond that later turned into a regular friendship, while the majority of those who wanted to transition into a romantic relationship did not do so. They argue that FWB is characterized by high levels of uncertainty, coupled with discrepant ideals. Thus, women are more likely than men to hope that the relationship either becomes romantic or reverts to friendship without sex, whereas men are more likely to hope that the relationship remains the same. FWB requires partners to fully discuss the rules of their relationship, but this is rarely done, thereby damaging the quality of the relationship (Machia et al., 2020).

Intimate closeness is required in FWB, but the profound intimate bond associated with romantic relationships is absent. If FWB results in a profound intimate bond, it may begin to feel incomplete, whereupon the wish to complete it arises. But such completion can shatter the relationship. Similarly, many exciting online romantic relationships are ruined the moment the two people upgrade it into an offline romantic relationship. In both cases, the satisfaction and enjoyment stem from the difference between these relationships and common committed romantic relationships. Upgrading FWB means giving up its advantages, and, as Oscar Wilde said, kills the thing we love. Consequently, FWB is often desirable in theory but fails in practice.

FWB and Romantic Relationships

“ We’re not dating. We’re just friends who han g out, have fun, cuddle, kiss, and have s e x. Yet, he still sends me a ‘good morning , Beautiful ’ , text every morning .” —A woman

“ FWB is fun, and fine for a while, but less fulfilling than a relationship .” —A man

Romantic relationships involve two basic aspects: attractiveness , which is expressed in the wish to be continuously together, often in a sexual way, and genuine mutual caring , which is often expressed in friendship. Attractiveness in romantic relationships is not limited to sexual encounters but involves the wish to be together as much as possible, both inside and outside the bedroom. In flourishing romantic relationships, both aspects are profound ( Ben-Ze’ev, 2019 ). These two aspects are present in FWB, but FWB is still not regarded as a romantic relationship. Why is it so?

FWB is a compromise in which one gives up romantic profundity and manages with being second best. This compromise can be valuable and enjoyable. In economic terms, FWB cuts the costs and reduces the revenue. It cuts an emotional cost, since there is a minimal price to pay and the relationship is relatively risk-free, unless it ruins the friendship itself. The revenue is reduced because enduring profound romantic love is excluded.

FWB blurs the boundaries between casual sex and romantic relationships, thereby generating various normative difficulties. Enduring romantic relationships should consider practical factors when living together. Loving someone is not always sufficient for deciding to live together; indeed, some people leave the one they love ( here ). Love and life sometimes clash and love often loses. In the (affectionate) words of Dolly Parton , "If I should stay, I would only be in your way, So I’ll go, but I will always love you.” In less extreme cases, a couple may choose the option of Living Apart Together (LAT), a different relationship that is similar to FWB in not living under the same roof, but enjoying, as Vicki Larson writes, the best of both worlds: companionship as well as independence. However, unlike FWB, LAT involves the wish to maintain the companionship of romantic relationship, and hence the independence is limited to aspects of forms of living and does not include sexuality ( Larson, 2024 ; and here ).

The temporal aspects of a long duration and continuity are central in discerning FWB from romantic relationships and LAT. Duration (the length of the relationship) and continuity (the amount of awake time that couples actually spend together) are by far smaller in FWB than in romantic relationships and LAT, but much greater than in casual sex. Similarly, there is a a tension between the ideal of freedom, often expressed in casual sex, and the ideal of commitment that is essential to enduring romantic relationships. FWB stands in between romantic relationships and casual sex: it has lesser commitment and greater freedom than a romantic relationship, and greater commitment and lesser freedom than in casual sex ( Ben-Ze’ev, 2023 ). The commitment in LAT is similar to traditional romantic relationships, but the personal freedom is greater.

Sugaring is somewhat similar to FWB in including both friendships and sexual benefits; however, sugaring involves also monetary benefits. A “sugar baby” is someone who receives “gifts” (including cash) in exchange for friendly company, which typically includes sex. A “sugar daddy,” a person who gives such “gifts,” is typically wealthier and older than the sugar baby. The moral complexity of sugaring is much greater than that of FWB; unlike FWB, in sugaring the two partners are of different status, and the benefits are of a different type (see here ).

Concluding Remarks

" I've experienced FWB and found it quite enjoyable... and I WAS looking for sex more than friendship. Eventually, I found that the ‘benefits’ were much more enjoyable when there was friendship involved, due to a higher level of trust ." —A woman

“ FWB works best if it’s someone with whom you share mutual physical attraction and strong sexual chemistry, but do not feel you are compatible with in terms of having or building a romantic relationship .” —A woman

Given the restless nature of our world, the duration of FWB is also of value. Unlike marriage , FWB does not prevent its participants from looking around and finding another more fulfilling relationship. FWB is not suitable for all people or for all periods of our lives. It is particularly difficult when the friends are married and have young children. The optimal circumstances for FWB may be those of single young people and older people who have grown children. Anyway, in a successful FWB, sex is the icing on the tasty, often nutritional, cake of friendship.

Ben-Ze’ev, A. (2019). The arc of love . How our romantic lives change over time . University of Chicago Press.

Ben-Ze’ev, A. (2023). Is casual sex good for you ? Casualness, seriousness and wellbeing in intimate relationships. Philosophies , 8 .

Larson, V. (2024). LATitude : How to make a live apart together relationship work . Cleis Press.

Machia, L. V., Proulx, M. L., Ioerger, M., & Lehmiller, J. J. (2020). A longitudinal study of friends with benefits relationships. Personal Relationships , 27 , 47-60.‏

Aaron Ben-Zeév, Ph.D., former President of the University of Haifa, is a professor of philosophy. His books include The Arc of Love: How Our Romantic Lives Change Over Time.

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Pros and Cons of Social Media: Social Networking

This essay about the pros and cons of social media explores both the benefits and drawbacks of social networking. It discusses how social media facilitates global connectivity, supports professional opportunities, and serves as a platform for activism and information sharing, highlighting its role in democratizing information. Conversely, the essay addresses the negative impacts on mental health, such as anxiety and depression, concerns over privacy and data security, and the spread of misinformation. It emphasizes the need for digital literacy education and stronger regulatory measures to mitigate these issues. The essay advocates for a balanced approach to managing the challenges while leveraging the benefits of social media platforms.

How it works

In the contemporary landscape, social media is a double-edged sword that offers significant benefits while posing substantial challenges. This essay examines the multifaceted impact of social networking sites, providing a nuanced analysis of their advantages and disadvantages.

One of the most profound benefits of social media is its ability to connect people. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow users from all corners of the globe to stay connected with friends and family. They also provide opportunities for networking and professional growth, connecting individuals with potential employers, colleagues, and business partners.

Furthermore, social media platforms can serve as invaluable tools for learning and information exchange, offering instant access to news, scholarly articles, and a variety of opinions and experiences from around the world.

Social media also plays a crucial role in the democratization of information. It empowers users to share their voice on a global stage and has become a pivotal space for social activism. Movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter have gained international attention and support largely through social media campaigns, illustrating its power as a platform for social change.

Despite these benefits, social media is not without its drawbacks. One significant issue is the impact on mental health. Studies have shown that excessive use of social media can lead to increased feelings of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. The pressure to maintain a certain online image and the constant comparison to others can lead to decreased self-esteem and a distorted self-image.

Privacy concerns are another critical disadvantage of social media. Users often share a wealth of personal information online, sometimes without adequate understanding of how this information can be used by third parties. Data breaches and the misuse of personal information have raised significant ethical concerns, highlighting the need for stricter regulations and more robust privacy protections on these platforms.

Additionally, social media can be a breeding ground for misinformation and “fake news,” complicating users’ ability to discern truth from falsehood. The rapid spread of unverified information can have real-world consequences, influencing public opinion and even affecting election outcomes. This dissemination of false information poses a serious challenge to societal well-being and informed citizenship.

Addressing the challenges posed by social media while harnessing its benefits requires a balanced approach. Educating users about the importance of digital literacy is crucial. This includes training in critical thinking skills related to media consumption, understanding privacy settings, and recognizing the signs of digital addiction.

Moreover, platform developers and policymakers need to work together to create safer, more ethical social media environments. This could involve implementing more stringent data protection measures, developing algorithms to detect and reduce the spread of misinformation, and creating spaces that promote positive interactions and mental health.

In conclusion, while social media continues to revolutionize the way we communicate and interact, it also presents significant challenges that cannot be ignored. By understanding and addressing these issues, society can better manage the influence of social networking sites and ensure that they contribute positively to modern life.

Remember, this essay is a starting point for inspiration and further research. For more personalized assistance and to ensure your essay meets all academic standards, consider reaching out to professionals at [EduBirdie](https://edubirdie.com/?utm_source=chatgpt&utm_medium=answer&utm_campaign=essayhelper).

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Spring, fertility and an awakening with Spain’s Las Mayas – a photo essay

Since 2014 Spanish photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza has been portraying the girl participants in a spring festival held in Colmenar Viejo outside Madrid. His portraits bear witness to his fascination with the enduring nature of Spain’s rituals

W ith obscure origins in pagan customs and dating back to medieval times, the festivities of La Maya offers a strange and colourful spectacle celebrating the arrival of spring. Every year on 2 May the families of girls aged between seven and 11 gather to decide which of them will be chosen to be that year’s “Mayas”.

Lucia Corrales Alfonso

Rich in symbolism, the tradition speaks of fertility and prosperity, and serves as a blessing for the agricultural season. In preparation for the event the families of the girls build intricate and elaborate altars decorated with flowers and herbs, gathered in the surrounding countryside, and weave a wreath that the girl will wear like a crown.

A carpet of freshly picked plants is laid out in front of the altar and cut flowers are placed in vases either side of the “throne”. There are no written rules when it comes to the decorations and styling. Everything has been passed down orally for generations.

Clockwise from top left: Jimena del Valle Lopez; Maria Moreno Guapo; Andrea Ramos Diaz; Eva Maria Olalla Alvarez

On the day of the festival the girls are dressed in petticoats, white shirts and manila shawls tied at the back and take their places on the altars where they are required to sit, perfectly still and silent, while people file past and admire the splendour of their displays.

Paula Gomez Criado

Each Maya has a number of attendants who approach passersby, offering to brush their clothes in exchange for a small donation for the family of the Maya to cover their outgoings for the altar. After about two hours of sitting perfectly still the Mayas walk to the church with their families and other celebrants where a service is held. For some time, churches were cautious about welcoming the Mayas after the ritual as the festival clearly predates Christianity in the Iberian peninsula but nowadays the processions are welcomed and accommodated.

Clockwise from top left: Lucia Espinosa Murillo; Natalia Ciriza Berrocal; Patricia Fernandez Garcia; Natalia Ciriza Berrocal

The festival’s name is thought to originate in Greco-Roman myth. In Greek mythology Maia was one of the Pleiades, the companions of Artemis, the goddess of the fields. The Greek phenomenon became conflated with the Roman goddess Maia Majesta, symbolising fertility and spring which ultimately gave the month of May its name as it marks the height of spring.

A Maya girl sits on an altar on the streets of Colmenar Viejo

Ochoa de Olza has photographed this magical event in the village of Colmenar Viejo, 21 miles (35km) from Madrid, for the past 10 years. Born in Pamplona and having studied in Barcelona, he felt like an outsider when he moved to Madrid, which made him curious about the regional traditions that make up Spain’s rich cultural heritage. Having photographed bullfighting over many years as well, he was fascinated by the huge range of rituals – from the cruel and gory to the gentle and tender – that can be found around the country.

Class of 2023. Clockwise from top left: Lucia Martinez Fermosell; Lucia Lopez Matellano; Berta Leon Turegano; Julia Fernandez Aragon

Speaking about his work on the Mayas, Ochoa de Olza notes that he is more interested in pictures that ask questions than pictures that give answers. This beguiling set of portraits leaves many questions unanswered, working its visual magic around the universal themes of fertility, spring and reawakening.

“I find it interesting that in the 21st century we are still doing these festivals – it is a way to see where we are going and where we have come from – looking back to look forward,” Ochoa de Olza notes.

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