The Natural Stress Reducer

Exposure to nature can reduce stress levels, improve physical symptoms of anxiety and reduce activity in areas of the areas of the brain linked to a risk of mental illness.

What’s more, stress reduction and mindfulness activities in nature may be more beneficial than these same activities performed inside buildings without a view or in other urban environments. For example, a 2010 experiment published in the Journal of Health Psychology found that the stress-relieving effects of gardening outperform the stress-relieving effects of other recreational activities such as reading.

“Stress-relieving effects of gardening were hypothesized and tested in a field experiment. Thirty allotment gardeners performed a stressful Stroop task and were then randomly assigned to 30 minutes of outdoor gardening or indoor reading on their own allotment plot. Salivary cortisol levels and self-reported mood were repeatedly measured. Gardening and reading each led to decreases in cortisol during the recovery period, but decreases were significantly stronger in the gardening group. Positive mood was fully restored after gardening, but further deteriorated during reading.” — Berg and colleagues, Gardening Promotes Neuroendocrine and Affective Restoration from Stress

One explanation for the benefits of spending time in nature on our health is the stress reduction theory. According to this theory, “exposure to environments with water, vegetation, expansive views, and other elements that contributed to the survival of our ancestors produces an unconscious autonomic response characterized by decreased physiological arousal, decreased negative affect, and increased positive affect. In other words, people are less stressed, physiologically and psychologically, when observing or present in […] natural environments,” accordign to McMahan & Estes, 2015.

In keeping with the stress reduction theory, nature contact following an acutely stressful event (an exam, a big deadline at work, etc.) can blunt associated negative thoughts and physiological responses. For example, our bodies respond to acute stress by raising blood pressure, stress hormone levels such as cortisol, heart rate, muscle tension and inflammation. Contact with nature can help mitigate these physiological stress responses and help us more quickly return to a “normal” state. For example, exposure to green spaces has resulted in improved regulation and cycling of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol has important functions in our body, but if it remains elevated for long periods of time, it can cause damaging levels of inflammation in the body and negatively impact the function of our immune system.

Don Brown on the Sat phone in the woods! Ok, we might have made time for an important business call or two… What can we say, it’s hard to get away. Photo by Paige Jarreau.

Another explanation for the restorative effect of spending time natural environments is the attention restoration theory. According to this theory, urban living and its associated noise (think of your computer and smartphone constantly pinging you) taxes your attention and leads to cognitive fatigue. This make sense when we consider research findings that time spent in nature helps improve working memory and mood. As restorative environment researcher Terry Hartig explains in a podcast summary of a recent Annual Review of Public Health article on Nature and Health, the natural environment provides fewer stressful exposures — less noise, less crowding, no deadlines, fewer bells and alarms — than people typically confront in their normal, smartphone-filled, urban lives.

A multitude of studies have revealed that nature experiences can reduce feelings of anger, fatigue, anxiety and sadness. But exposure to nature appears to do more than alleviate everyday life stressors and cognitive overload. The physical and mental health benefits of nature experiences are also linked to positive feelings, increased energy and emotional restoration.

“[A]ttention restoration theory proposes that the natural world is cognitively restorative and both facilitates recovery from mental fatigue and offers opportunities for reflection.” — Dallimer and colleagues, Biodiversity and the Feel-Good Factor

“When a person can engage with the natural environment, for example when they find it beautiful and interesting, when they can explore and take an interest in what birds and other animals are doing, when they can become fascinated by some plant or water moving in a stream — that may reinforce a psychological distance from stressful demands […] and promote restoration,” Dr. Terry Hartig explains in an Annual Review of Public Health podcast summary of Nature and Health.