Getting high (legally) in the forest

 Whenever I tell people about my research with veterans who find that they feel better when they interact with nature, whether it’s farming, gardening, hiking, canoeing or just sitting by the river, the common reply is: “Of course they do!”

                                                               

As my family doctor told me, “We could all do with getting outside more often.”

This common sense view is located deep in history. Ancient Greek healing places and temples were located on hilltops in the countryside with views of the ocean. Around the same time, Taoists in China were building greenhouses and cultivating gardens as part of their approach for maintaining health and wellbeing. During the Victorian era, gardens were often found in hospitals. These are but a few examples of how healing has been tied to nature throughout history.

What is it that makes us feel so good?

Medicinal properties in plants and trees    

One of my son's favorite play spaces - a small grove of pine trees

To me, some of the most interesting research is about the biochemical properties of plants and trees being done by Canadian botanist and medical and agricultural research Diana Beresford-Kroeger. 

In addition to the soothing sounds of the wind blowing through tree boughs, she notes that taking a walk in a mature pine forest is known to:

• “exert a stimulant effect on breathing”
• have “mild anaesthetic properties”
• possibly produce a “mild narcotic function”

Despite this research, however, there is relatively little attention in the wider research on human-nature connections to the medicinal properties released by plants and trees (more to come about this other research in future blog posts).

My recommendation

Take a walk in a pine forest today, and you might just find yourself feeling a little bit higher on life. And it’s completely legal!

References

Beresford-Kroeger, Diana. (2003). Arboretum America: A philosophy of the forest. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Why isn’t every schoolyard “green”?

Think of the school yard nearest where you live. There’s probably a barren grass field with a soccer nets at either end, and a baseball diamond in one corner. Perhaps there’s a playground. And maybe a large concrete area with a basketball net.

This describes nearly all the schools I can think of, including the one down the street from my house. It’s the norm. But why?

There’s a growing trend across the country to “green” some school yards. And with good reason. While it’s good for children to be outside (see my previous post), the barren, institution-like grounds of traditional school yards are not the best play setting. Green school yards, by contrast, incorporate diverse aspects, ranging from food and wildflower gardens to ponds and treed spaces.

And recent studies reveal that these types of natural spaces are much better for the children who play there compared with more conventional school grounds.

In green school yards, children tend to:

• be more physically active
• think more creatively
• understand where their food comes from
• play more cooperatively, collaboratively and respectfully
• overlook habitual divisions such as gender, socio-economic status, physical ability and ethnicity

Disabled children are more likely to be included in play in green spaces. Children from poor, middle class and wealthy backgrounds are more likely to play together. Boys and girls are more likely to play together. And kids from various ethnic backgrounds also play together.

In my mind, these are the types of behaviours that make us most human - creative thinking, cooperating, collaborating, and respecting others - and based on this research, it seems that interacting with one another in nature creates the opportunities to be at our best as a human beings.

Accordingly, in this time when we are wondering how to curb bullying in schools, might greening school yards provide one possibility? Not only to green play settings lead to positive relationships between children, they also provide an alternative to the technologies currently used in bullying. Just a thought.


Studies cited:

Bell, Anne C. and Dyment, Janet E. (2006). Grounds for action: Promoting physical activity through school ground greening in Canada. http://www.evergreen.ca/docs/res/Grounds-For-Action.pdf 

Dyment, Janet E. (2005). Gaining ground: The power and potential of school ground greening in the Toronto District School Board. http://www.evergreen.ca/docs/res/Gaining-Ground.pdf

The ADHD and Nature Connection

Academic studies are suggesting that experiences in the outdoors are crucial for a child’s cognitive, social, and psychological development. In my opinion, some of the most compelling work is that being done with children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, more commonly known by its abbreviation ‘ADHD’.

Specifically, researchers Andrea Faber Taylor, Frances Kuo, and William Sullivan found that urban environments and modern technologies often aggravate a child’s ADHD symptoms. Further, the ADHD symptoms of children who spend a lot of time playing in indoor settings such as basements with few or no windows (I would think that many elementary school classrooms and gymnasiums would also fall into this category) were much more severe than the symptoms of children who played outside.

This leads to the most important finding of this research: that natural settings often alleviate (and never worsen) a child’s ADHD symptoms. In the researchers’ focus groups with parents, one parent shared that a Disneyland trip was too stimulating for her child, but a camping trip to a state park resulted in a vacation the whole family enjoyed because her child was relaxed, happy, and calm. Another described how his son’s struggles with ADHD were minimal when he was engaged in outdoor activities such as hitting golf balls or fishing. 

Other studies with similar findings: 

Author Richard Louv, in Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, is essentially making the same case. At one point in the book, he describes his conversation with James Sallis, the program director for the Active Living Research Program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who tells him that children with indoor, inactive upbringings are more likely to experience struggles with mental health and wellbeing. In fact, Louv argues that although the ADHD child is labelled as having the disorder, it is actually society that is disordered because it has created the structures in which many children are no longer connecting with nature in any significant way.

Meanwhile, a small study by Ke-Tsung Han showed that plants were important to students’ behaviour and wellbeing in a junior-high classroom in Taiwan. His experiment involved classrooms with plants and classrooms without plants. Students in the classroom with plants tended to rate themselves both as more comfortable in the classroom and as feeling more friendly towards others than those students in a classroom without plants. 

I personally find this interesting, and it is connected to findings of research on Green School Yards. Check back soon to learn more about that research!

REFERENCES:

Han, Ke-Tsung. (2009). Influence of limitedly visible leafy indoor plants on the psychology, behavior, and health of students at a junior high school in Taiwan. Environment and Behavior, 41(5), 658-692.

Louv, Richard. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder (updated and expanded). Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Taylor, Andrea Faber, Kuo, Frances E., and Sullivan, William C. (2001). Coping with ADD: The surprising connection to green play settings. Environment and Behavior, 33(1), 54-77.

Welcome

Have you ever noticed that a walk in the woods can make all your cares and worries fall away? That your grandmother is at her best when she digs in the garden?

Maybe you've noticed that your ADHD child seems just fine when he’s playing outside. Or your kid would rather play with sticks and pinecones than that cool plastic toy.

Or maybe your baby sleeps better at night when she’s been outside during the day.

Want to know why? Then this blog is for you.

Why this blog?

For the past few years, I’ve been researching interactions between humans and nature. And the best kind of academic research, I think, is the kind that changes your life. This research has done just that.

It’s changed the way I parent, and the way I am in the world. It’s changed my priorities. Most importantly, it’s changed me.

But aside from the occasional mention in the newspaper, most of this research hasn’t filtered down to the general public. And that’s where this blog comes in. 

What will I write about?

I’ll bring your attention to recent academic studies and the ways that they might affect your life. For example, there has been a lot of research into the ways that ADHD in children is connected to their play spaces. And my own research at the moment involves understanding how soldiers and veterans are turning to nature—from gardening and farming to canoeing and hiking in the mountains—to recover from stress and traumatic military experiences.

There’s also research about the ways that the biochemical properties in plants and trees may soothe people suffering from illness. And studies with Alzheimer’s patients are now showing that when patients have access to gardens, they have lower levels of anxiety and better moods. 

For thousands of years, spending time in nature has been considered to be good for a person’s health, but in recent years, with our busy lives, modern technologies and medicines, this connection is often forgotten. 

Share your thoughts and experiences

Come back for information and musings about all these areas and more. And I’d love to hear from you, too! Please write to share your experiences and interactions with nature. Or if there are any particular areas or studies you'd like me to explore, let me know that, too.