Nature - The best healer
Answers
Answer:
21-Mar-2018
International Day of Forests is on 21 March and this year’s theme is Forests and Sustainable Cities. The day #internationaldayofforests is a great opportunity for us to look at nature as a healer, and how it can help, heal and protect us.
Nature as a healer.
We instinctively know that spending time in nature is great for both the body and mind, but now a growing body of research suggests that it can benefit our mental health.
According to researchers, a lack of exposure to natural surroundings may be one of the causes behind many modern ills; including depressive symptoms and anxiety attacks.
One study from The University of Exeter Medical School in England looked at the mental health data of 10,000 city dwellers and used mapping to track where the subjects had lived over the past 18 years. The findings suggested that people living near urban green space reported less mental distress. A second study from 2009, found a lower incidence of 15 diseases, including depression, anxiety, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and migraines in people who lived within a half mile of green space.
Another study compared a 50-minute walk in a city environment to a nature walk. A nature walk decreased the activity in an area of the brain linked to the risk of mental illness. Nature walks have also been found to reduce rumination – the negative thoughts that people return to over and over, which will be familiar to anyone suffering from anxiety.
With this knowledge, doctors are increasingly prescribing trips to the park for a range of conditions, including anxiety, depression and stress. In some countries, “exposure to nature” is a core component of therapy and it’s even spawning new fields like ecopsychology.
Answer:
Answer:
21-Mar-2018
International Day of Forests is on 21 March and this year’s theme is Forests and Sustainable Cities. The day #internationaldayofforests is a great opportunity for us to look at nature as a healer, and how it can help, heal and protect us.
Nature as a healer.
We instinctively know that spending time in nature is great for both the body and mind, but now a growing body of research suggests that it can benefit our mental health.
According to researchers, a lack of exposure to natural surroundings may be one of the causes behind many modern ills; including depressive symptoms and anxiety attacks.
One study from The University of Exeter Medical School in England looked at the mental health data of 10,000 city dwellers and used mapping to track where the subjects had lived over the past 18 years. The findings suggested that people living near urban green space reported less mental distress. A second study from 2009, found a lower incidence of 15 diseases, including depression, anxiety, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and migraines in people who lived within a half mile of green space.
Another study compared a 50-minute walk in a city environment to a nature walk. A nature walk decreased the activity in an area of the brain linked to the risk of mental illness. Nature walks have also been found to reduce rumination – the negative thoughts that people return to over and over, which will be familiar to anyone suffering from anxiety.
With this knowledge, doctors are increasingly prescribing trips to the park for a range of conditions, including anxiety, depression and stress. In some countries, “exposure to nature” is a core component of therapy and it’s even spawning new fields like ecopsychology.