Did you happen to catch this piece in today’s New York Times Well Section: How Nature Changes the Brain.
It turns out there may be a scientific reason I keep having epiphanies on our nature walks.
Researchers at Stanford University just published a study of 38 city dwellers, who were divided into two groups and asked to take a 90 minute walk through a leafy part of Stanford’s campus or next to a multi-lane highway in Palo Alto. The researchers scanned their brains, specifically the subgenual prefrontal cortex responsible for brooding, before and after the walk.
(I’m not sure the control group should have been made to walk along a multi-lane highway, as you’d think it’d be pretty anxiety inducing. But, their brains showed no difference before or after, so maybe that was fine?)
The group that walked through nature, though, did show that the brooding part of their brain had quieted.
It is nice when science confirms what we already knew. Next time you’re feeling utterly stressed out and overwhelmed…head to your nearest park. Yes, even if you have a napping toddler.
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Want to read more about nature as sedative? Here you go:
