Spring is officially here! Daylight Saving has begun. It’s time to spend more time in nature. We don’t need science to tell us that it’s good for our personal well-being. We can all appreciate the feel of warm sunshine or a gentle breeze. We know the delightful freshness of spring showers. We feel it in our bodies and in our souls. But sometimes we don’t make the time to just go out of doors. We go from house to car to office to car to school to car to house. And all this time, we are wearing shoes, stepping on pavement…disconnected from the healing powers of our Mother Earth. William Bryant Logan, in his book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth says, “We spend our lives hurrying away from the real, as though it were deadly to us. “It must be up there somewhere on the horizon,” we think. And all the time it is in the soil, right beneath our feet.”
Research tells us that time spent in nature brings many benefits. Not only can it ease depression, but it can also create a more positive body image. In the journal Body Image, a research team led by psychologist Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge describes five studies that demonstrate this. Swami states, “There are several reasons why exposure to nature could be having this effect. It might be that it distances people, physically and mentally, from appearance-focused situations that are one of the causes of negative body image.” Additionally, when we spend time in nature, we allow ourselves to contemplate our surroundings with quiet thoughtfulness. We go within. When we go within, we foster self-compassion and self-love.
Even those who viewed images of the natural world were significantly more satisfied with their body at the end of the experiment than they were when it started. This positive shift in attitude did not occur among those who looked at urban environments and cityscapes. Additional studies examined the effect of actually spending time in nature by asking participants to take a walk. Half strolled through a natural environment. The others took a walk in the city. Afterwards, those who spent time in nature were more accepting of their body and physical appearance. In contrast, the city walkers had a drop in their level of body appreciation.
The healing benefits of nature is not news. There was research done in a Pennsylvania hospital in the 1970s where patients who had gall-bladder surgery were studied. One group had rooms with a view of trees and another had rooms looking out at a building. The trees helped the patients to recover more quickly. So far, no device has been developed by medical technology that can help people recover from surgical abdominal incisions simply by looking at it!
I encourage you to celebrate this time of year…a time of re-birth and renewal. It’s time to plant seeds; to sing a love song to Mother Nature and to your physical body. May Sarton reminds us, “Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”
Nature can remind us of the insignificance of our problems and teach us that no bird ever thought her voice wasn’t good enough to sing; no bear ever thought she was too fat; no cheetah ever thought he wasn’t fast enough to hunt. Nature can remind us of limitless abundance. It can also remind us that everything is temporary. Seasons change. Time passes. There is birth, death and re-birth. And each one of us is connected to it all. Happy Spring!