We spend most of our time indoors and online, but the recent studies suggest that the technology we live with today is designed to constantly pull for our attention. Many of the scientists believe that our brains were not made for this kind of information bombardment, which lead to mental fatigue, overwhelm, and burnout, requiring “attention restoration” to get back to a normal, healthy state. Whereas; nature restores our attention and make us happier.
Nature Restores Our Attention and Decreases Our Stress:
Scientists have found an overwhelming evidence that the time in nature has a profound impact on our brains and behavior. Nature restores our attention capacity, and helps in reducing our anxiety, brooding, and stress, and increase our creativity, and our ability to connect with other people. It helps our brains and bodies to stay healthy, it keep us feel more grounded and peaceful. We are physically and mentally more healthy when we are interacting with nature through hiking, or any other physical activity, or natural spaces and scenes soothes us and relieves stress.
Spending Time in Nature Restores Our Attention and Makes Us More Creative:
Whether we crave a breath of fresh air or a walk through the wilderness, nature gives us the energy to do more, work better and get more accomplished. There is nothing quite like the lure of nature when we are stuck inside struggling to get through our day. It helps us with recharging directed-attention needed when developing ideas. Nature restores our attention, and particularly plays a role in the preparation and incubation phases of the creative process.
Nature Open Us to Creativity:
Strayer is one of the researchers, who believe that being in nature restores depleted attention circuits, and help us be more open to creativity and problem-solving. “If you’ve been using your brain to multitask—as most of us do most of the day—and then you set that aside and go on a walk, without all of the gadgets, you’ve let the prefrontal cortex recover,” says Strayer. “And that’s when we see these bursts in creativity, problem-solving, and feelings of well-being.”
Green Spaces Reduces Rumination and Enhances Mood:
Various studies provide evidence that nature restores our attention and makes us happier. The results obtained from participants, who were tested though walk in either a natural setting or an urban setting had their brains scanned before and after their walks and were surveyed on self-reported rumination levels or other psychological markers. In almos all these studies it was found that those who walked in nature experienced less anxiety, decreased rumination (focused attention on negative aspects of oneself), and more positive emotions, in comparison to the urban walkers.
They further shown increased activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain whose deactivation is affiliated with depression and anxiety—a finding that suggests nature may have important impacts on mood.
Bratman, of Stanford University, also believes that the results like these need to reach city planners and others whose policies impact our natural spaces. “Ecosystem services are being incorporated into decision making at all levels of public policy, land use planning, and urban design, and it’s very important to be sure to incorporate empirical findings from psychology into these decisions,” Nature relieves attention fatigue and increases creativity.
Beyond Mood: Forest Walks Demonstrate Physiological Benefits of Nature
But there’s something more about being in nature restores our attention, which may augment those impacts. That is a recent experiment conducted in Japan, where the participants were assigned to walk either in a forest or in an urban center with equal length and difficulty while having their heart rate variability, heart rate, and blood pressure measured. The results showed that those who walked in forests had significantly lower heart rates and higher heart rate variability, indicating more relaxation and less stress, and reported better moods and less anxiety.
Besides Nature Restores Our Attention, it helps Us tap into Our subconscious:
Subconscious is a part of our brain that processes information without our awareness, storing memories and new skills. When we try to come up with an idea or solve a problem, trying too hard can actually get in the way. Overwhelming our conscious mind with competing thoughts and ideas can cause a busy environment for creative juices to flow. That’s where time offline in nature comes into focus and concentrate on a task. Studies suggest that our brain is exposed to more oxygen and higher levels of dopamine in nature, it’s far better at focusing on ideas.
Nature Restores Our Attention and Boosts Our Brain Power:
Nature restores our attention and improve the way our brain functions. It helps our mind focus, boosts our energy levels, and reduces activity in our brain’s part that causes stress and anxiety. According to a study, the people who spent a day in a natural environment had greater focus, concentration, and mental energy than those who spent time in an urban setting. Other studies reveal that when people spend time looking at natural landscapes, their brains experience less activity in the area linked to stress and anxiety.
Nature is an Endless Source of inspiration and Improves Our Mental Wellbeing:
Nature is always rich in creative inspiration. The natural world is always there to take away active thoughts, and give your brain space to think, a term called ‘soft-fascination’. Time in nature restores our attention and give us space to think freely and creatively. It has an unparalleled ability to replenish your energy levels. Nature reduces our stress and gives our mood a much-needed boost. One research has found that spending time outside decreases cortisol levels (a hormone related to stress) by 24%, which stave off depression and make us feel much happier overall.
Nature Helps Us Switch off:
Our ability to think creatively is dependent on our ability to switch off and find calm, and it is nature restores our attention and do just that. When we are in a natural setting, our senses are heightened. We notice more things around us, and unhelpful thoughts racing through our head are put to the back of our mind. In his book ‘Catching the Big Fish’, director David Lynch states that: “If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure.”
Final Thought:
Now that you have come to know about the ways nature restores your attention and nurture creativity, it is time to get out and try it yourself. You needn’t to be an artist or a writer to benefit by tapping into your creative side. It can help you find solutions to your everyday problems, feel more relaxed and happy, and improve your mental health.
