MINISERIES - ‘Tis the Season to Be Jolly... In Nature!
Following a first article on the links between mindfulness and consumption, Ramya Rao shares her second article from her miniseries on Mindfulness and Sustainability. This time, she looks at the importance of spending time in nature.
We are one with nature
Nixiwaka Yawanawa, a resident of the Amazon Forest, expressed his views in a Ted Talk, on climate change and our connectedness to nature. He believes that the cause of climate change is rooted in our lack of love and understanding for one another and nature. He talks about the concept of money, expressing that although it has proven to be useful for humans to operate in the modern world, it has wreaked havoc – fostering greed and materialistic outlooks on life. “We have learned to want more and more with no end in sight”, he says. Science continues to show that human actions are indeed threatening life on Earth. Indigenous peoples hold strong earth-centric values and are an important example that our ‘connectedness to nature’ is key to protecting it.
Today, urban spaces continue to grow and as of 2020, 56% of the global population lives in cities. It is thus becoming increasingly hard to take a step back from the fast-paced world and reconnect with nature. However, spending time in and connecting to nature has remarkable benefits for both us and the planet. A recent study in 2019 found that spending a minimum of two hours per week in nature (such as parks, woodlands, beaches) was associated with good health and well-being. More specifically, it has been associated with lower probabilities of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and mental distress, in adults. Exposure to environmental greenness also improved pregnancy outcomes (e.g., birth weight, life expectancy). And in primary school children, surrounding greenness, particularly greenness at school, resulted in improved cognitive development.
In addition, research has highlighted that “The more individuals visited nature for recreation and the more they appreciated the natural world, the more pro-environmental behaviours they reported”. Connectedness to nature is defined as a self-perceived relationship between the self and the natural environment. And it seems that spending time in nature enhances our connectedness to nature which then influences our pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours.
The value of our connectedness to nature has been on the radar of scientific research for decades. At the same time, mindfulness practices have shown that this connectedness benefits both us and the planet – this is detailed in our previous article on Mindfulness and Sustainability. Extending on this, research shows that when mindfulness is practised in nature, or what is scientifically termed ‘nature-based mindfulness’, our connectedness to nature acts as a mediator in encouraging pro-environmental behaviours. Mindfulness and exposure to nature therefore collectively predict pro-environmental behaviours better than either one alone.
How does the combined activity of mindfulness meditation and exposure to nature allow us to be more pro-environmental while greatly benefiting our overall well-being?
Attention as a psychological mechanism is thought to serve as a common factor underlying both mindfulness and exposure to nature. According to the Attention Restorative Theory (ART), when we spend time in nature, we are often distanced from the stress of our everyday lives, and our attention to the present moment is restored, even if temporarily. Mindfulness meditations also guide us towards directing our attention to the present moment, to our existing thoughts, or simply to the knowledge that there is awareness.
Thus, science suggests that mindfulness enhances our connectedness to nature by better directing our attention and concentration to the present moment thereby elevating the whole experience. Subsequently, mindfulness regulates behaviours that are then specific to those experiences i.e., encouraging more pro-environmental behaviours such as reducing waste, buying less plastic packaged products, recycling, etc.
Wi-Fi: Nature, Password: Reconnect
Most of us imagine an element or two of nature when we think of words like ‘holiday’ or ‘vacation’. Nature has become an escape and we often look at it in isolation from the rest of our everyday lives. However, nature is not separate from us – what impacts nature, impacts us too. For instance, human actions have resulted in various environmental issues such as climate change. Science tells us that these issues could pose a threat to public health and increase the risk of several natural catastrophes in the coming years. And so, it is simply not logical for us to leave the planet unattended.
As we start to regain access to the outside world, it is important for us to reconnect with nature, and consequently with ourselves. And so, as the year comes to an end, let’s take a moment to reflect on our values and goals, our place on the planet, and what it means to co-exist with all living beings while respecting the space we inhabit.
We can start by taking a step towards places that are more natural, greener, wilder – and mindfully experience them for all that they are. In doing so, we would be enhancing our own well-being and that of the world!
In the words of the journalist and writer Florence Williams, “Everyone needs access to clean, quiet and safe natural refuges in a city. Short exposures to nature can make us less aggressive, more creative, more civic-minded, and healthier overall. For warding off depression, let's go with the Finnish recommendation of five hours a month in nature, minimum. But as the poets, neuroscientists, and river runners have shown us, we also at times need longer, deeper immersions into wild spaces to recover from severe distress, to imagine our futures, and to be our best-civilized selves.”
Mindfulness, Happiness and Consuming Less, by Ramya Rao: https://behaven.substack.com/p/mindfulness-happiness-and-consuming
Planetary Boundaries: Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1259855
Associations Between Pro-Environmental Behaviour and Neighbourhood Nature, Nature Visit Frequency and Nature Appreciation: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey in England: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019313492?via%3Dihub
Green Spaces and Cognitive Development in Primary Schoolchildren: https://www.pnas.org/content/112/26/7937.short
Greenness, Civil Environment, and Pregnancy Outcomes: Perspectives with a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-020-00649-z
Time Spent in Nature Is Associated with Increased Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behavior: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8305895/
How Has the World's Urban Population Changed from 1950 to Today? https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/global-continent-urban-population-urbanisation-percent/
Spending At Least 120 minutes a Week in Nature is Associated with Good Health and Wellbeing: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44097-3#Sec7
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Nature-Based Mindfulness: Effects of Moving Mindfulness Training into an Outdoor Natural Setting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747393/
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams: http://www.florencewilliams.com/the-nature-fix