This article did a great job of pointing out the benefits they found associated with the natural experience. Before reading this article, I knew nature has a lot of physical health benefits. However, I did not know the mental benefits it can have as well. Personally, nature was my reprieve to relax myself from the stresses in my life. Whether it was a walk in the park or sitting by a pier, something about nature always calmed me down. I am very glad to know that this occurs to everyone on some scale, and not just me. The series of experiments they did to prove the benedictions nature has in very insightful.
Not only do they make it important to have nature, but it makes us wonder how our increasing urbanization can bring a lot of negativity without us realizing.
This article says that the nature experience showed a greater decrease in anxiety, rumination, and negative affect. I didn’t know what rumination was so I looked it up. Rumination is the amount of times you recall your negative thoughts and experiences. That means nature even reduces our bad thoughts. This is incredible because this kind of research can show the reasons (at least some of them) as to why people in cities have higher stress levels, stress related health problems, depression, self-esteem issues, and much more. More importantly, it can lead to using nature to help improve these things. These are things that may make a difference even though we won’t recognize it at first. Living in the city for so many years has taken a toll on the people around me who get to experience both urban and rural living, and this study begins to understand why that may be.
This research can lead to an increase in the incorporation of nature in schools and campuses (even workplaces). This can lead the way to new study techniques and urban designs that can produce the most productive and conducive outcomes for students and adults alike. I really liked reading this article because it adds to the reasons why we should push for nature to coincide with urban environments (rather than urban areas replacing natural ones).
