By John Salak –
Messing with Mother Nature has never been a good idea. But hanging out together, even for as little as 10 minutes, can do a person’s mind a world of good.
Connecting to nature, of course, has never seemed like a bad thing. Recent studies and reports have underscored the benefits, which include reducing stress, improving thinking and boosting moods. North Carolina State University, for example, recently reported that bird watching is a great way to chill out for people under stress, according to a report in WellWell. In fact, it is particularly beneficial for university students.
Another increasingly popular ecotherapy, forest bathing, is taking hold in Britain as an alternative or at least a stopgap measure to traditional mental health treatments. The Brits have embraced these woodsy encounters in the face of an overburdened public health system that is particularly backlogged in treating patients facing extreme stress and anxiety.
However, the latest to note the benefits of nature is the University of Utah College of Social Work, which conducted a meta-analysis that examined 30 years of published research on the social, mental and physical health effects of exposure to nature, including urban nature. This study found that even just 10 minutes of regular exposure can have short-term mental health benefits.
“We know nature plays an important role in human health, but behavioral health and health care providers often neglect to think about it as an intervention,” said Joanna Bettmann, the study’s lead author. “We set out to distill some evidence-based guidance for those providers.”
The Utah team did this by first looking at more than 14,000 studies on nature’s impact and then narrowing down its focus to 45 studies, which included a total of 1,492 adult participants with a diagnosed mental illness. Some of the examined experiences included structured therapeutic interventions, while some involved nature experiences alone.
The amount of time study participants spent in nature varied from study to study. Some participants spent as little as 10 minutes in a city park, while others spent multiple days in immersive wilderness experiences. Various studies also utilized interval exposure to nature, shorter time periods, several times a week or a month. Others used longer periods of continuous, immersive nature exposure. Yet, different durations and patterns of nature exposure all produced positive results.
“Ten minutes in urban nature is far less intimidating, expensive and time-consuming for people who do not have the time, resources, interest, community support or equipment to venture into the wilderness for days or weeks,” the study’s authors reported.
“The relationship between nature and mental health is all over the place. The interventions vary from study to study, and the outcomes, therefore, are also all over the place,” noted co-author Dorothy Schmalz, a University of Utah professor. She went on to add that Bettmann’s efforts to “really figuring out what the overall message seems to be is an incredibly valuable contribution to understanding what this connection is.”
The team added that Utah is the ideal location to determine how the natural environment affects human health and well-being.
“Here we are surrounded by all these extraordinary natural resources and having this kind of knowledge to work nature into behavioral and mental health can help make Utah a place that is known for taking advantage of the outdoors to be healthy mentally, physically and emotionally,” Schmaltz explained.
The analysis specifically revealed that water-based outdoor spaces—rivers, lakes, oceans—and camping, farming and gardening activities had the greatest positive effect. Urban nature, mountains and forests also offered significant effects.
“All of these different types of outdoor spaces delivered positive results, which underscores the importance of preserving green spaces in our natural and built environments,” Bettmann said.
Significantly, nature exposure showed statistically important short-term improvements in a variety of mental health symptoms. The positive effects of nature appeared even greater for those participants diagnosed with mood disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder.
Yet for all its benefits, ecotherapy or nature exposure is not a cure-all. “Going for a short walk or taking a camping trip should not necessarily be thought of as a replacement for other therapeutic or clinical interventions,” Bettmann cautioned. “Rather, we should consider time in nature as an inexpensive, widely-available resource to support adults’ mental health and overall well-being.”
