Attention Restoration Process

While reading different essays addressing the topic of nature, I came to the conclusion that they all shared the idea that being outside can make an impact in everyone no matter if you believe you only belong in a city or forest because it can bring you serenity and show you all the amazing things you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. In Wendell Berry’s essay “An Entrance to the Woods,” he states that people can use the quiet of the woods to forget all their problems. Berry wrote “One is that, though I am here in body, my mind and my nerves too are not yet altogether here. We seem to grant to our high-speed roads and our airlines the rather thoughtless assumption that people can change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported.” Nature has a way to transport ones mind and spirit elsewhere while the body is left behind on earth as we travel deep into thought. Adding on to that idea, the essay “A City Person Encountering Nature” by Maxine Hong Kingston the author explains that nature is a giver of peace and patience with its slow cycles that may frustrate people, but help keep a sane mind. Society is fast paced, making everyone feel that they need to keep the same pace in order to get things done, but we don't realize that although our bodies are moving and pushing, our minds are exhausted and cannot keep up with the fast pace. Kingston wrote “Preferring the city myself, I can better discern natural phenomena when books point them out; I also need to verify

Nature in its tranquility provides a calming sensation away from the buzzing city life. The ability

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

When individuals visit these natural settings, not only do they improve their health by engaging in physical activity, they also may be revitalizing their mental and spiritual health. Many people that visit parks and recreational areas do so because they offer a feeling of peace, comfort, and solidarity that they may not be able to find when recreating in an urban setting. Because mental and spiritual health is just as vital to someone’s well being as physical health, access to places as halcyon as national parks should be a right to anyone who desires

Feelings of security, happiness, are invoked when I think of nature. Nature is kind, healing, and relaxing. John Muir captured the essence of these characteristics while conveying these exact thoughts. Furthermore, Muir expresses the freedom mountaineers have while climbing as they are cradled in the quiet peace of nature. Muir believes that anyone can regain their sense of freedom and find inner peace by being out in nature and exploring it. In fact, Muir indirectly suggests that if the world kept in touch with the wild places around them, it would resolve many issues and stressors that plague humanity today. If people, myself included, spent more time outside and in nature, it would leave them and myself feeling refreshed, relaxed, and

When we get a chance to go outside and look around us, often we can see a world of nature that is more interesting and spontaneous then we would think. We live today in a world that is filled with technology, screens, and filled with hustle. Sometimes we humans get so caught up in the jumble of our everyday lives and busy schedules that we forget to take a second and stop. When we slow down and look up from our phones every once and awhile we may just be amazed. Whether it be a beautiful sunset of scenic mountain, sometimes it's good to stop and look at nature. All places that we go and the animals that we see can leave us with a smile and a question in our heads. We are left wondering, “Why am I always looking at mey phone, when I could be

According to Reynolds, “a growing body of research shows that people who spend time outside in sunny, green and natural spaces tend to be happier and healthier than those who don’t” (1). People who are happier have better mental health than those who are not as happy. While some people might generally have a happier disposition, the fact that nature can improve one’s happiness implies a better mental health status. Changes in mental health can occur very quickly as short term exposure to nature is significant in producing adjustments. According to Reynolds, “short durations of viewing green pictures may help people to recover from stress” (2). It is healthy to have a little bit of stress as it increases motivation, but an excessive amount can lead to depression and anxiety. As Reynolds mentions, viewing green pictures may help people recover from stress which indicates how they will likely experience better mental health since feelings of anxiety or depression will be decreased. Haile notes how she noticed a significant drop in anxiety after her forest bathing experience which is evidence attesting to the healing properties of

Childhood was drastically changed decade to decade; the change of outdoor play from tree houses and walking by the swamp to kids sitting inside on electronics. The author discusses the mental and physical effect of “nature deficit disorder” with children’s lack of outdoor time, which is not a medical term by any means, but Louv supports the theory. In the past few decades we have changed through three frontiers extremely fast: utilitarian to romantic and now an intellectualized view on nature. Louv briefly talks about a “forth frontier,” where he does seem very optimistic view of the future in children’s intimacy with nature. The connection with nature across all of America has weakened with time but there are many benefits of this connection.

I choose an exercise from the workbook that I will focus on my discussion. I choose the Gentle Falling Snow as my visualization activity. As I read this exercise, I start to imagine that I am on the exact location and time. I am sitting on a couch observing the falling snow outside the cabin. This type of scenery awakes my visualization and mental imagery. The view of snow peacefully falling during relaxation gives me a feeling of relief from all the stress I have been experiencing for the past few days. For me, the snow falling symbolizes peacefulness and calmness. Also, the cabin symbolizes that I need to find a place that can give me relaxation during times of stress and I am convinced that nature is the best stress reliever. Nature gives us a positive energy that is effective in decreasing our stress level.

As a student in the class, Sustainability and Public Health, I have learned to appreciate the benefits nature has to offer and that everything must be in balance in order to maintain a sustainable society. In order to connect with and experience nature on a different level our class did a walking mediation around the bio pond. I have always believed from the time of birth, almost immediately you become aware of the necessary connection with the outside world by exploring all parts of your new surroundings. However, as years passed I began to feel this connection weaken and it wasn’t until after the walking meditation when I realized how much nature has a positive impact on my overall well-being.

In the past few decades, there has been a dramatic change in the relationship between people and the outdoors. Due to a number of factors, such as, increasing urbanization and loss of access to natural areas; parental fears of strangers, traffic, and even nature itself; competition from other activities such as homework, TV, time on the computer, or playing video games; people are spending an increasing amount of time indoors. Yet there is a growing amount of evidence demonstrating a variety of positive mental, social, and physical health benefits associated with increased exposure to the natural world. From a psychological perspective, there are clear developmental, cognitive, and therapeutic benefits when children and adults experience more nature in their day-to-day lives.

2. Chief Purpose: To encourage researchers, psychologists, and therapist to utilize information within the article to promote involvement with nature upon the human population. To help the human race to develop an eco-friendly environment.

My first key learning moment was the concept of nature as a healing tool. Specifically, nature therapy which can be described as “nature experiences—especially green places—” (Louv, 2008, p. 100). Although a simple idea, it impacted me because I initially felt guilty as I read the book and realized how much I take nature for granted. Yes, nature is present in my daily life however, I was unaware of how significant nature’s role is to my overall well-being. According to Louv (2008), some benefits of nature therapy are “stress reduction” (p. 50), improved “self-esteem, leadership, academics, personality, and interpersonal relations” (p. 229), “increased self-confidence, optimism, independence, and autonomy” (p. 230), and “feel[ing] less anxious, angry, and depressed” (p. 49). If nature can be used as a healing tool, why is it that we continue to abuse and exploit the environment? A suggestion that may be helpful to my practice is, “social workers as community development workers can mobilise people around initiatives that do not destroy the environment nor produce ill health among people” (Dominelli, 2011, p. 6). This corresponds to my developing professional work because as a practitioner, I can work with children and youth programs in the community to maximize their well-being by confronting social structures and demand for funding or access to nature based initiatives. For instance, Louv (2008) reports nature therapy is often viewed as an alternative treatment (p. 50) but

In our stressed life’s, finding time to relax can be hard sometimes because of our routinely responsibilities. But lucky for us, we can use our imagination and take at least a few minutes to imagine the perfect place where we wish we were. Finding rich full happiness in our life’s is the major key to live a full life. Getting lost in nature is a way to disconnect ourselves from reality and at the same time to find joy. In each one of us there is a free spirit that still has not being set free. A free spirit is meant to enjoy nature and all of its beautiful gifts. As you get lost with nature you find yourself and your deepest thoughts. We fill ourselves with peaceful thoughts as we are grateful of the little things that can be enjoyed, like nature. Sometimes getting a little lost never hurt anybody, instead we discover where we were meant to be. So, are you willing to get a little

Scientists believe that a pleasant environment can relieve mental stress. However, there is a poor understanding of how the environment affects human health, due to lack of conclusive study in this field. The relationship between people and their environment is known as topophilia. Ogunseitan pinpoints the main characteristics of restorative landscapes in a representative population, according to the four categories connected to topophilia: synesthetic tendency (the combination of sensory stimuli and memory of a place), environmental familiarity, cognitive challenge, and ecodiversity. In Ogunseitan’s study, he assessed stressed humans using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) quality of life survey (WHOQOL-Bref). Quality of life (QOL) can be defined as someone’s satisfaction of their life, factoring in their culture, values, standards, goals, and expectations. This 26-question WHOQOL-Bref survey shows reliability across the four domains of health: physical health, psychological well-being, social relationships, and environmental support. In his study, Ogunseitan hypothesized that those with a high QOL have a higher probability paying attention to their environment, and that the preference for ecodiversity corresponds to high QOL. Ogunseitan used WHOQOL-Bref surveys that asked people about their preference for flowers, water bodies, etc. The results highlight specific characteristics of environments and landscapes that have a higher probability of increasing QOL and