Home to Us All: how connecting with nature helps us care for ourselves and the Earth (2024)

FAQs

Home to Us All: how connecting with nature helps us care for ourselves and the Earth? ›

Spending time in nature is good for us—for our children's development, our overall health and well being, the vitality of our communities, and for economic sectors. When people experience and connect with nature they are also more likely to act in ways that benefit the Earth.

Research shows that people who are more connected with nature are usually happier in life and more likely to report feeling their lives are worthwhile. Nature can generate many positive emotions, such as calmness, joy, and creativity and can facilitate concentration.

Connecting with nature: Feeling awestruck

Taking in the beauty around us with our physical senses can be a powerful act of finding emotional balance. Various studies suggest a beneficial impact of nature on our physical, mental and emotional health by calming the nervous system.

Our forests, rivers, oceans and soils provide us with the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we irrigate our crops with. We also rely on them for numerous other goods and services we depend on for our health, happiness and prosperity. These natural assets are often called the world's 'natural capital'.

Nature-supported social connections

Nature also provides opportunities for meaningful connections with others. Group hikes, nature retreats, or community gardening projects are just a few examples of how natural spaces can bring people together.

Many of us instinctively know that being in nature is good for us, and research backs this up, showing that people who are more 'connected' with nature often report greater life satisfaction; lower levels of stress, anxiety and depression; and greater levels of emotional and mental wellbeing.

Spending time in nature is good for us—for our children's development, our overall health and well being, the vitality of our communities, and for economic sectors. When people experience and connect with nature they are also more likely to act in ways that benefit the Earth.

Nature Connects Us approaches our unique experience to national forests and grasslands by exploring a sense of place. It is meant to ask questions that help us consider and refine where our individual sense of place might be. We all share an interdependence to the land, to the resources, and to each other.

Spending time in nature has been found to help with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. For example, research into ecotherapy (a type of formal treatment which involves doing activities outside in nature) has shown it can help with mild to moderate depression.

How does nature heal you? ›

Being in nature can help reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, enhance immune system function and boost self-esteem and mood.

Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones.

It gives us clean air, water, food, materials and space for recreation. Spending time in nature is good for our mental health. And if we do not take care of the planet, its climate and ecosystems, we undermine how our societies function, worsen our lives and, perhaps most directly, harm our own well-being.

Interaction with nature can increase self-esteem and mood [32,38,62], reduce anger [63], and improve general psychological well-being with positive effects on emotions and behavior [13,64].

Wilson's “biophilia” theory suggests that there are evolutionary reasons people seek out nature experiences. We may have preferences to be in beautiful, natural spaces because they are resource-rich environments—ones that provide optimal food, shelter, and comfort.

It's well known that connecting with nature is positive for your mental and physical health. Those who regularly spend time in natural environments tend to have lower stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. They are also more likely to be happy.

Nature gifts many benefits to humans. From the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat, nature enhances our wellbeing and freely provides the essentials for our survival.