The first thing that stuck out to me about this experiment was that rather than having two different types of areas (urban and green area) this experiment explored three: an urban environment, a park, and a woodland. Using two different green areas is a good way to differentiate which green areas are more effective in providing restorative benefits, and whether this difference is significant enough for people to take it into account when looking for places to unwind. From what I understand, the forest area did provide more benefits but not to an extreme amount. This results of this experiment obviously weren’t shocking because we’ve mentioned in class all the health benefits that nature provides us with and all the negative health effects that pollution gives us. I don’t think the issue is that we’re not aware enough of the benefits of the outdoors, it’s just that we don’t care enough to engage with the outdoor world for the sake of our stress levels and mental wellbeing. Being stressed in New York means nothing- we’re all stressed. In fact, if you’re not stressed, you’re probably doing something wrong.
In the big picture, people are all aware of the things they’re doing to their bodies that’s causing them harm, and they all know what to do if they want it to stop. No smoker thinks that putting a cigarette to their lips is a great idea for their future, however, it’s what they want to do at the moment, so they do it. Constant levels of stress are deleterious for not only your mental wellbeing, but can also have a serious impact on your organ functions as well- primarily your heart. Another reason we choose not to go outside to deal with our stress is because there’s so many other alternatives that are more easily and quickly attainable. For instance, if your stress or anxiety is keeping you up, you can go to your local pharmacy and easily pick up some melatonin supplements. These supplements are by no means a long-term fix, whereas regularly getting some fresh air would probably be. I feel that our solutions to our stress related problems are all “bandaid” fixes, and being outdoors is a solution that would probably be the best longterm.
