Happiness and the healing power of Nature

Emily’s recent post – celebrating the importance of the natural world to children’s development – was set in the Botanic Gardens in San Diego, USA, where she and her husband and son are currently resident. Here in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, Emily and I are both great fans of  our local Botanic Gardens, as is her young son Lauchie.

We are now past the autumnal equinox, and Spring seems a long way away as we begin the slow descent into colder days and darker nights. So my post this week, especially for those readers who do not like winter, anticipates the Spring……

“I  have a ritual which I’ve repeated for a long time now. From late February each year, I go into the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow  via the Kirklee gate entrance, stroll up the path, and have a close look at the earth border to the left. Green shoots are just appearing.

I check them every week, as the stems grow taller and sturdier, and the buds fatter. There is a magic moment  in mid to late March when, at last, I see the first daffodil of Spring. Quite often, I punch the air and go “Yes!!” That moment provides a rush of pleasure which remains with me the whole day.  I call my ritual The Daffodil Run. You think I’m daft? I know it’s an important part of  what keeps me sane.

There are very few clear evening skies in Glasgow. If you’re rushing up Byres Road on the way home on one of those rare nights, especially when you cross the Queen Margaret Drive bridge, look out for a small woman standing still, gazing at the sky. That’ll be me, admiring the wonderful, fragile beauty of a new crescent  moon. Even in the city, in the increasingly hurried pattern of 21st century life, it is possible to maintain a connection to the cycles of the seasons and the rhythms of nature.

It’s increasingly recognised that regular contact of this kind is an important component in establishing and maintaining the kind of inner balance and peace that promotes happiness.

One of the many advantages of living in a small country like Scotland is that access to the great outdoors is not difficult – half an hour out of Glasgow, for example, it is possible to disappear into lovely countryside and forget the existence of the city very quickly. Try it !

It doesn’t matter how stressed you are, how much angst you are carrying. A couple of hours of  tramping across the hills, often in rain and wind, focusing on nothing more complex than  where you put every footstep in order to avoid disappearing up to your waist in a bog, is guaranteed to purge out at least some of it.

Over many years of  walking, I have offered the hills both my joys and my sorrows, and  have found validation for the former and solace for the latter. In homeopathic medicine, broadly speaking, you treat an ailment with a very dilute form of the toxin which caused it. I have found the homeopathic principle works very well with bleakness of the soul or spirit. That condition can be effectively treated by choosing weather and landscape to match your mood, and immersing yourself in it for a few hours. Meeting bleakness with bleakness has a powerfully cleansing effect.

Complementary to this is the powerfully life-affirming effect that natural beauty can have.

Kylesku, North West Scotland

Photo: Anne Whitaker

Standing on top of a favourite hill on a sunlit day, looking at stunning panoramic views, listening to the joyous song of a skylark, feeling at one with the wind and the landscape, has on numerous occasions made me feel so glad to be alive that I have wept for joy.

These experiences may fade in the face of the rigours of an average life. But if you repeat them often enough, you develop a sense of being part of the great round of nature, where joy and sorrow, youth, maturity, decline, death and rebirth all have their part. You also learn, slowly, the importance to being a happy person of being able to “grasp the joy as it flies”, celebrate the moment, “seize the day.”

**************

(First published in “Self & Society”(The Journal of Humanistic Psychology) (UK)Vol 27 No 5, November 1999, then www.innerself.com : Innerself Magazine (USA), and most recently – March 09 -  in ‘ The Drumlin’, the Newsletter of Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Also published on “Writing from the Twelfth House”– April 2009)

700 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

Nourishing young bodies and souls through nature: Emily speaks out!

In the park the other day were a couple of puddles left over from some rain (this is unusual for Southern California). Instantly my son gravitated to the pools of watery mud –- despite the shiny play park right beside him.  He paddled with his bare feet and experimented with the mud – completely engrossed.

Other kids came over and attempted to join in.  However, this was thwarted when parents, from all angles, whipped away their children before they could make contact with germs or get mud on their nice clean clothes.  This interchange sharpened my growing concern; there is an increasing disconnect in our society between children and nature.

Throughout all of history, and pre history, children have been either playing or working on the land.  Our ancestors, the hunter gatherers, spent almost all of their existence in nature; they lived, breathed and learned through the natural environment. The natural world has played a fundamental role in the way humans developed over time. For example, the natural elements would have determined what people built, what food they ate and even how their language and thought developed.

If you look at the English language this connection can be traced. ‘M’ for example, has its roots in water; when you think about it, M looks very much like a wave or ripple. ‘ W’ stems from the wooden bow (and arrow). Turn W on its side and it looks like a bow. This connection to the natural world is evident in primitive tribes across the world. An obvious example is how many words they assign individual plants and animals: the Nuba tribes in Africa have forty names for locusts (biologists only recognise ten).

We in the Western World, on the other hand, are moving further away from nature. For example, we have built very safe play parks with astroturf and bouncy material on the ground. We have many indoor play gyms, music classes, swimming classes, and a multitude of other indoor activities for our children (television and the computer are just two examples). On top of this, particularly here in the US, we have an infrastructure which demands more concrete and more roads.  This worries me. Moving to a safer, indoor and non natural environment is damaging our children.

Richard Louv, one of the most influential writers on this topic, believes that over the last few decades we have seen a new and drastic change in society, in relation to children’s behaviour.  “We are seeing the virtual disappearance of children playing outside in nature” . Louv has spent many years researching this idea and outlines his thinking in his influential book “The Last Child in the Wood” (1).

 

Lauchie gets down and dirty!

(photo: Emily Cutts)

He argues that there are drastic consequences for the mind, body and spirit of children when nature is not a part of their life.  Louv has coined the phrase ‘nature deficit disorder’ to explain the consequences of depriving a child of his or her natural instinct to be nourished by nature.

Why has this shift occured? The obvious explanation is a technological one with the advances and changes in lifestyle like cars, televisions and so on.  But the main reason is  – fear.   It doesn’t feel safe to let your child go out and play in the wild – what if they get abducted, attacked or break a leg or catch a bug? We increasingly believe that our children are in danger from themselves and others. This leads us to be constantly wrapping our kids up in cotton wool in case they break like a piece of fragile china.(2) It also leads to suspicion of others – the stranger danger campaign has escalated in recent years.(3)

Yet, evidence suggests that children are not in any more danger of strangers than before. If anything, rates are decreasing (4) and mud and dirt is good for them; it helps build up physical resilience (5). The super safe play parks on which we spend millions  save maybe one or two lives per year (we’d be better spending the money on car danger – a more serious problem for children) (6)

Facing the challenges associated with the natural environment builds a stronger and more resilient child.  Sheltering children from bad experiences, and the germs that they might experience in nature, is far more dangerous for them than letting them experience and experiment in the natural environment.

This is because there are a multitude of benefits of being in nature.  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is now one of the most common childhood disorders yet being in nature reduces the symptoms of ADHD. When children play in nature they do so in different and creative ways, (compared to when they are in man-made environments). Being in contact with nature has the physiological effect of reducing stress in young people.

Furthermore, contact with nature helps children focus when they lose concentration, reducing aggression and influencing disorders like asthma and short sightedness.  Even just 5 minutes in the natural environment has been shown to increase self-esteem and enhance mood. (There are many more beneficial effects of nature which influence the development of a child.)(7)

Nature is good for adults too. (Anne will be writing about this in the next post on MoreBits) For example, natural scenes have a restorative power – patients with a view of greenery recovered quicker from surgery than those viewing a brick wall. Nature positively influences aggression, violence (reducing both), cognitive abilities, attention and memory, well-being as well as reducing depression (7)

Aside from all the physical and mental benefits of being in a green environment, nature nourishes our spiritual development.  One of the most important teachings of nature is that it provides a sense of wonder.  Richard Louv gives a beautiful imaginary example, in this video clip(8): it depicts a child picking up a stone, finding something living under it – and the child’s amazed realisation that they are not alone in the world. The sense of wonder, appreciation and gratitude that nature provides is invaluable.

Considering the enormous benefits of nature on the developing child, we need to think creatively of ways for our children to be out in nature, and for longer periods (and when they are a bit older, alone). Going to a swing park isn’t enough.

Keeping our children indoors for long periods is much more dangerous than letting them play outdoors.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon a gem here in San Diego at the Botanical Gardens, where they have developed two areas for children (which arose as a result of Louv’s book)(9).  The Seeds of Wonder garden for young children does what it says – it stimulates wonder.

 

Wonder happening here!

(photo: Emily Cutts)

The garden has been carefully thought through: they have created paths in and out of the trees for children to explore; they have a water trough for experimentation with water; children can pot plants (my son potted a succulent today); there are hidey holes through which to watch the world (… like butterflies, plants, other children and even a model railway steaming its way around a track); trees to climb on, and so much more.

You might think that it is easy to do this because of the good weather, but these things don’t depend on optimal weather – they can be fun in the rain too if one has the right gear.  My son could spend hours here, getting wet and muddy.  I can’t think of a better example of a public space which allows such an interactive connection with nature.

There is hope though for all of us! In the park with the puddles my son’s antics in the mud soon catalysed enough excitement in the local kids for them to slip the restraints of their over-bearing parents and begin stomping about, digging and splashing in the muddy water hole.  One girl, who initially looked on with disgust ended up head to toe in mud, and much happier for it.

Overprotective parents = 0 Common sense = 1

I left the Botanic Gardens feeling happier too. You can take the child out of nature – but take nature out of the child? I think not!

***************

Links

1 http://richardlouv.com/
2 http://www.rethinkingchildhood.com/
3 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8399749.stm
4 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8399749.stm
5 http://articles.cnn.com/2006-04-05/health/cohen.allergies_1_fewer-allergies-germs-sick-kids?_s=PM:HEALTH
6 http://www.rethinkingchildhood.com/no_fear.html
7 http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/flourishing-lives.php?pid=168
8 http://richardlouv.com/last-child-video
9 http://www.sdbgarden.org/AV-video-2.htm

***************

1400 words copyright Emily Cutts/Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page