This paper elaborates on the beneficial impacts of nature exposure for Amazon employees; results suggest stress reduction benefits

It’s important to reflect on the myriad of benefits that nature exposure can provide for our physical, mental, and emotional well-being — especially as employees throughout the US and across industries continue to report elevated levels of work stress.

Researchers from the University of Washington published a new experimental, 2-study report in the December issue of Urban Forestry & Urban Greening on the beneficial effects that day-to-day nature exposure can have on workers in their everyday lives.

This article from MIT Sloan explains why when business leaders form a stronger bond with the natural world, it can benefit their organizations, the environment, and themselves. The business community is doubling down on its commitment to protect the natural environment. Over a fifth of the world’s 2,000 largest companies have now committed to net-zero targets. Some have even gone a step further: Bayer, Gucci, Nestlé, and Starbucks, among others, recently committed to becoming “nature positive.”

How long does it take to get a dose of nature high enough to make people say they feel healthy and have a strong sense of well-being?

Exactly 120 minutes.

In a study of 20,000 people, a team led by Mathew White of the European Center for Environment & Human Health at the University of Exeter found that people who spent two hours a week in green areas were significantly more likely to report good health and mental health wellbeing than those who do not.

World Economic Forum: It’s time to rethink our place in the world. We must move from egocentric to ecocentric leadership to safeguard our planet.

Egocentric leadership is at the root of our environmental crisis and we must change the way we understand and relate to the natural world. To do so will involve cultivating an ecocentric - not egocentric - mindset.

Our planet is in trouble. Even after mobilizing billions of dollars to mitigate and respond to the damaging effects of climate change, we may only be addressing the symptoms of a much deeper-rooted issue

Get inspired here why the worlds leadership must move from the modern and well-established notion that leaders should focus on self-related development to eco-centric development.

This article refers to a new study that found that a nature-based work intervention reduced workers’ stress levels and improved their cognitive performance. The study recently published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health found that a nature-based work intervention reduced workers’ stress and improved their cognitive performance.

Research has also shown that nature experiences improve depression and anxiety.

Spending time in nature, watching a sunset, staring at the ocean or mountains, sitting in a park or even just spending a few minutes staring out the window, allows us to rest, reflect and recover ourselves.

In this article Kaplan & Kaplan describe their classic theory Attention Restoration Theory (ART), which explains that exposure to nature is not only pleasant, but can also help us improve our focus and ability to concentrate.

This article explain why the brain's "Imagination Network" is absolutely crucial for creativity and how nature positively stimulates the network. "Imagination Network" is what enables us to imagine other perspectives and scenarios, imagine the future, remember the past, understand ourselves and others and create meaning based on our experiences.

This study shows that a one-hour walk in nature reduces stress-related brain activity. After a 60-minute walk in nature, activity in brain regions involved in stress processing decreases.

This is the finding of a recent study by the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, published in Molecular Psychiatry

This article refers to over 100 studies that have shown that being in nature—or even watching it in videos—benefits our brains, bodies, feelings, thought processes, and social interactions.

Research suggest spending time in the natural environment (even urban environments) seems to promote subjective connection to nature as well as positive emotions. Increased regular contact with nature thus has the potential to promote human wellbeing.

We spend more and more time indoors and online - up 80 % of our time! But recent research suggests that nature can help our brains and bodies to stay healthy. Nature can even help you become more kind and generous!

This research paper examines the association of visits to the natural environment, connectedness to nature, physical activity, and the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in individuals aged 18 years or older.

This article looks at the link between nature connectedness and human well-being has been made in a couple of systematic reviews, most recently in our paper, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Now we have a meta-analysis showing the link between nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs).

This article looks at how does human connection with nature influence our health and wellbeing? In what ways does an individual’s psychological relationship to their environment shape their conservation attitudes and behaviours? A 2023 systematic review published in Biological Conservation seeks to answer these questions.

Companies seeking breakthrough products tend to ignore the greatest invention machine in the universe: life’s more than three-billion-year history of evolution by natural selection. This article gives you 14 specific examples of great innovations inspired by nature.

Studies have shown that exposure to nature can improve cognitive function, including creativity. One study found that people who took a four-day backpacking trip in nature had a 50% increase in their performance on a creativity test. Another study found that simply looking at a picture of nature for 40 seconds was enough to improve cognitive function and focus.

Several studies have found that spending time in nature is a great way to get your creative thoughts flowing. In fact, here are five documented ways in which researchers have found that spending time in nature will help inspire creativity.

This article investigates the ability of natural environments to enhance creativity. Seventeen qualitative interviews were performed with Danish creative professionals of different age, sex and profession about their creativity, their relation to nature as well as their experience of nature's ability to stimulate their creativity. Findings from this study show that nature does indeed have the capacity to enhance creativity. This study explains how nature has the ability to evoke the creative way of thinking by making us more curious, able to get new ideas as well as flexible in our way of thinking.

Science shows time spent exposed to green space can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stress, high blood pressure and even premature death.

But it’s not only your physical health that will benefit from you being in nature. There are plenty of mental and psychological perks on offer, too: ‘Time spent outside connects us back into the natural world, providing benefits for both physical and mental wellbeing,’ says Dr Rebecca Robinson, Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine. Intrigued?

This article examines why you shouldn’t be surprised at your next wellness exam if your physician jots down on their Rx pad, “get outside in nature.” Yes, your doctor may advise you to take large doses of the highly-accessible (not to mention budget-friendly) medicine also known as the great outdoors. The holistic remedy of prescribing nature for health has become a growing trend around the globe.

Physicians in various countries have been handing out “green prescriptions” in place of pharmaceutical meds as a way of treating chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, lung disease and anxiety, according to the World Economic Forum, an international non-profit committed to improving the state of the world.

Numerous studies have revealed the positive effects that nature and the surrounding environment can have on mental and physical well-being. And now, new research published on August 5 from the University of Tokyo suggests the benefits of spending time in nature extend much further than previously believed.

This article draws upon research from UNSW Sydney assessing international evidence for nature prescriptions and their ability to improve health. They analysed 28 studies that tested nature prescriptions in real-world patients. This research was led by Professor Xiaoqi Feng from UNSW Medicine & Health and Professor Thomas Astell-Burt from the University of Wollongong, who are the Co-Directors of the Population Wellbeing and Environment Research Lab (PowerLab).

A recent study has shown that repeated exposure to natural environments has a positive effect on amygdala activity. People in frequent contact with nature present less activity in their amygdala during stressful situations.

This article examines why gentle woodland sounds such as birdsong and the breeze rustling leaves in the trees are more relaxing than meditation recordings, a new study claims.

Researchers exposed participants to three soundtracks – a woodland, a woman guiding a meditation session and deep silence.

A recent UC Berkeley and BBC Earth study found that watching nature videos makes individuals happier.

The study showed that watching nature clips increased positive feelings, such as awe, contentedness and curiosity, and doing so decreased negative feelings, such as tiredness and anger. Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, collaborated with BBC Earth to conduct the study, stating that his love of nature inspired him to carry out the research.

This article reviews how luminaries like Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, and Albert Einstein have written eloquently about the benefits of taking in the natural world. Frederick Law Olmsted, the 19th century architect of many great American parks, captured the experience well:

Nature employs the mind without fatigue and yet enlivens it. Tranquilizes it and enlivens it. And thus, through the influences of the mind over body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system.

A fundamental premise of nature and ecotherapy is that the wellbeing of humans is intimately bound to the wellbeing of the planet and that nurturing our relationship with nature is key for maintaining our mental wellbeing.

In this article, we’ll explore the hills and valleys of ecotherapy to discover what it is and how it works in practice, and provide a selection of courses and training options in nature therapy to consider.

Studies have shown that exercising outdoors can improve your mood and self-esteem, living near urban green spaces is associated with better mental health and spending time in forests positively stimulates the immune system.

So how can you reap the benefits of nature therapy when you live in a concrete jungle? Shift your thinking: It’s not about planning an epic trip to the world’s most beautiful natural settings—it’s just about getting outside, wherever you are.

This article touches upon what the natural world and its processes has to teach us about the flexibility, creativity, and resilience that’s already within us, just waiting to unfurl.

This article talks about how Solitude and Silence in Nature can build Self Awareness and Resilience. We can have an approach-avoidance attitude to solitude in nature – being alone in silence away from other people. It can at first generate fear and tap into all our negative associations with “being alone”. Solitude is different to loneliness because it involves choice – choosing to be by ourselves or to make the most of being “forced” to be alone. It involves developing a positive perspective on being alone – seeing it as an opportunity for increased self-awareness and empowerment rather than a deprivation of company.

(Long read) This research paper examines the mounting evidence demonstrating that nature exposure can have affective benefits. These include behavioral and psychophysiological responses consistent with (a) decreases in stress and negative affect; and (b) increases in subjective well-being and positive affect. What is less clear, however, is what mechanisms are responsible for these effects. In this article, we examine the evidence for affective impacts of nature exposure, consider underlying mechanisms (with a focus on affect regulation), and discuss what might moderate these effects at the individual and population level.

This article talks about how just a walk in the woods or a stroll by the beach on a sunny morning can awaken the innermost feelings of happiness and peace, and Environmental Psychology has gone a long way proving this fact (Bell, Greene, Fisher, & Baum, 1996).

Our affinity toward nature is genetic and deep-rooted in evolution. For example, have you ever wondered why most people prefer to book accommodations that have a great view from the balcony or the terrace? Why patients who get a natural view from their hospital bed recover sooner than others? Or why does it happen that when stress takes a toll on our mind, we crave for time to figure out things amidst nature?

This article examines the effect of nature exposure of emotional regulation. Since living in cities is associated with an increased risk for mental disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression, and schizophrenia, it is essential to understand how exposure to urban and natural environments affects mental health and the brain. It has been shown that the amygdala is more activated during a stress task in urban compared to rural dwellers. However, no study so far has examined the causal effects of natural and urban environments on stress-related brain mechanisms.

A Stanford-led study finds quantifiable evidence that walking in nature could lead to a lower risk of depression

Feeling down? Take a hike.

A new study finds quantifiable evidence that walking in nature could lead to a lower risk of depression.

Specifically, the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, found that people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural area, as opposed to participants who walked in a high-traffic urban setting, showed decreased activity in a region of the brain associated with a key factor in depression.