get outdoors & hug a tree, you will feel better
Recent research has emerged that connecting with nature significantly improves our mental well-being and health. There is some very compelling evidence as to why this is true, but I would like to start by sharing a personal narrative of how I intuitively was confronted with this realization.
While residing in an urban neighborhood outside of Boston, MA, I was walking along the street and noticed the compartmentalization humanity has constructed. We live in little box houses, go to work in little box cars, sit in our little box cubicles, stare at our little box phones and computers, and die in our little box coffins. I realized even in that moment walking outdoors, I was still disconnected and separated from it all because even the earth beneath me was covered in concrete. I think if we are truly living a wholehearted life full of happiness, we feel eternally connected. Depression is a sense of feeling disconnection, and this institutionalized compartmentalization has made us deeply disconnected from the essence of being alive.
If we are to look at every other species on the planet, they roam freely without technology and interface with nature in every moment. They don’t produce waste like humans. They trust their instincts and are embedded in a very natural ecosystem, experiencing the most natural sense of the condition of being alive.
So, we need to reconnect with our roots to renew our essence of life. By reconnecting with nature, we not only feel more alive and happier, but we can learn so much from the other forms of consciousness and intelligence around us on how to flourish. From reading the book, The Hidden Life of Trees, I learned that trees have an astonishing amount of intelligence to share. Forests exist like armies because trees have intuitively grown together to gain strength in numbers from the wind. Trees will grow their roots deep and intertwined to keep each other alive underground even when they may have died above, and they have their own form of communication. I see bio-mimicry in people to collectively bring out their best potential much like trees in forests. This is coming about in the latest trends in organizational psychology where we are now discovering our performance is heightened working in collaboration not competition and working together in groups to bring about higher potential than working separately.
We have all heard the concept to talk to houseplants nicely and they will flourish. MIT has done studies on communication with house plants and what helps them grow versus what makes them wither up and die. Talking kindly by saying positive things to plants does help them flourish, while neglect and talking negatively to plants causes them to die. In addition, houseplants make us happier. They eliminate harmful toxins from the air and studies have proven that houseplants improve concentration and productivity by 15% while also reducing stress levels and boosting our mood. Maybe it’s because we’re more connected with nature than we think?
Moreover, nature has become the doctor’s orders for mental and physical health. A study is being led in the Bay Area where patients are prescribed to get outdoors as part of their preventative health. This is a free and affordable way for many patients to reduce stress and makes a key component of mental health accessible to all when there is so much inequity in access to care. Research has backed this effort by proving time in nature greatly benefits our health and well-being by reducing stress and improving mood.
In Japan a common practice is forest bathing, to be outdoors in the presence of trees. According to Japanese studies, by simply relaxing, meditating, walking, and observing nature without distractions, we can re-energize ourselves from fatigue from the clean air and oxygen. The trees also release phytoncides, which help us boost anti-cancer proteins, decrease anxiety and anger, and improve sleep.
So, remember to go for a walk today without distractions and if you see a tree, give it hug.
