Klaudia Mitura: Hello, happiness seekers. My name is Klaudia, and you are listening to the Happiness Challenge. In the previous episode, we had the story of finding comfort and strength in nature from Ben Goldsmith, the author of 'God is an Octopus: Loss, love, and a calling to nature'. And now it's time for me to put his advice into action.
On the basis of our conversation this month, I'm going to explore different ways to engage with nature. But first of all, in this short episode, I'm going to summarize key scientific findings, why nature is so important to our happiness.
You will know it from the experience what science confirms.
Nature makes us happy. Researcher George McCarran created a project called Mappiness, which tries to capture places and activities that makes us happy. And Mappiness uses an app that a few times a day asks you how happy you are, where are you, and what are you doing. And analysing this recorded data from over 20, 000 people in the UK led researchers to make a clear conclusion.
People consistently report higher levels of happiness when we are outdoors, in the green natural environment. Places like sea, coasts, mountains, woodlands, parks, gardens, boost our happiness. And this may not sound surprising at all, so perhaps the most intriguing question that we could ask is why does nature have such a positive impact on our wellbeing?
There are three overlapping reasons to consider when thinking about nature and its impact on our happiness. First of all, biophilia. That is our innate connection with nature introduced by biologist Edward Wilson, biophilia refers to hypothesis that due to biological evolutions, we humans are instinctively linked with nature and all living organisms around us.
And when we engage with nature, we are simply returning home. We are simply returning to familiar environment so that our brain and body relaxes. For example, in Japan, forest bathing means being in a green environment and engaging in all senses. And it is based on this idea that our senses evolved in natural environments.
And so our body and brain relax in green spaces because our senses are simply designed to comprehend and perceive nature. And whilst participants of forest bathing enjoying the sensory experience of forest, scientists have captured data such as their heart rates, blood pressure, the level of stress hormones in the blood, and all of those indicators of stress decrease, suggesting a much more relaxed, calm state when we are surrounded by greenery.
And it has been even discovered that production of our immune system cells increases when we are in forest, which is just remarkable. There is also some very early work by Professor Richard Taylor about fractals. So a fractal is a pattern that repeats on a progressively fine scale to produce an object that is quite complex.
So think about pinecones, seashells, peacock feathers, and what Professor Richard Taylor has managed to demonstrate is that when we are looking at the fractal patterns that has a positive effect on our neurophysiology by inducing quite wakeful, relaxed state.
So as you can see, some really fascinating impact of nature on our body and mind that helps us to feel relaxed and calm.
The second aspect. Why nature actually boosts our happiness is that we are much more active in nature. So being outdoors encourages us to undertake physical activity from hiking to running. When we are outdoors, we are more likely to move, and that movement causes our body to produce a range of feel-good chemicals that result in that higher level of happiness.
And being in nature also encourages us to socialize with others. Think about all those walks with your partner. Think about the family picnic. Think about playing sports outdoors with your friends and connections, socializing with others is very important aspect of our happiness. The importance of green spaces and socializing has been also confirmed by researchers. There is one study that concluded that proximity to trees and green spaces can decrease the crime rate. I mean, why? Like, how? And it's very interesting that it's not that the trees itself and urban garden makes us less violent, but rather is the fact that greenery offers spaces for people to socialize and communities to come together, which in turn decreases that aggression levels between people and so reducing the crime rate in places which have more access to greenery area.
And the final reason why nature impacts our happiness is that green environments are free of certain stressors such as noise pollutions, giving our body that health sensory break.
So in urban settings, in cities, we are surrendered by very intensive stimuli that are quite quick, like flashing neon, quite dramatic, like sudden noises, stimuli that require direct attention from us, like, oh my goodness, you know, trying not to be hit by a car. And of course, you know, by settings, we can also experience all those fabulous stimuli like music, art and culture.
But overall, their intensity over period of time can cause lots of mental fatigue. And nature offers us that attention break. As the stimuli and the sensory experiences we have in nature are still fascinating, but they are based on quite predictive patterns. So they are grabbing our attention modestly.
And actually studies on attention restoration theory shows that the mental fatigue Can be significantly improved if we are looking at nature and that in itself leads to being more creative and focused after having a break in nature.
So here we are three very important aspects of how nature impacts our happiness.
But if you are guilty of not spending enough time outdoors in nature, don't worry. There are different ways that you can bring nature into your life. And this is exactly what I'm going to explore this month. I'm going to explore as many different ways of engaging with nature as possible. So I'm going to explore going into a wild, getting involved with nature restoration, utilizing domestic nature, and also turning to nature via technology.
So hope you will join me on this happiness challenge. Remember to keep in touch and join the happiness challenge newsletter on LinkedIn. I hope to see you at the end of the month for you to hear what I have learned. And in the meantime, as always, I dare you to be happy. Bye.
