Nature is Healthy for us

Exposure to nature, even images or video, may engage the default mode networks of the brain, which research has found is important for peak psychosocial health.

Research reveals that environments can increase or reduce our stress, which in turn impacts our bodies.

What you are seeing, hearing, experiencing at any moment is changing not only your mood, but how your nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are working.

The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause you to feel anxious, sad, or helpless. This, in turn, elevates your blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension and suppresses your immune system. A pleasing environment reverses that.

The default mode network is a set of brain areas active during restful introspection and connected to the efficient performance of tasks requiring frontal lobe function.

On a hike or during exposure to natural stimuli that produce soft-fascination, the mind may enter a state of introspection and wandering which engages the default mode.

Brain benefits of nature exposure include decrease in stress, increase in short-term memory, restoration of mental energy, increase cognition and creativity.