Posted on 07/25/2015 10:17:01 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
A walk in the park may soothe the mind and, in the process, change the workings of our brains in ways that improve our mental health, according to an interesting new study of the physical effects on the brain of visiting nature.
Most of us today live in cities and spend far less time outside in green, natural spaces than people did several generations ago.
City dwellers also have a higher risk for anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses than people living outside urban centers, studies show.
These developments seem to be linked to some extent, according to a growing body of research. Various studies have found that urban dwellers with little access to green spaces have a higher incidence of psychological problems than people living near parks and that city dwellers who visit natural environments have lower levels of stress hormones immediately afterward than people who have not recently been outside.
But just how a visit to a park or other green space might alter mood has been unclear. Does experiencing nature actually change our brains in some way that affects our emotional health?
(Excerpt) Read more at well.blogs.nytimes.com ...
It’s the depressed level of Carbon Dioxide.
How ‘bout cycling?
I try to cycle at least twice a week down a trail in my area.
For me for later...
I would play volleyball to get rid of stress....or walk and count to ten over and over to clear my head....or say the rosary to get over a hump.
W all different...but we likely all seek the same things for our mind.
Very meditative.
Looks like the root causes of Liberalism have been unearthed - too much city dwelling.
It’s enjoyable.
[[How Walking in Nature Changes the Brain]]
How walking I nature means contracting hunta virus, lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever, west nile virus, bird flu, swine flu, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, malaria, dengue fever, chagas disease, ebola, cholera, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis , Borrelia miyamotoi, Colorado tick fever, Ehrlichiosis, Heartland virus, Powassan disease, Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis, STARI (Southern tick-associated rash illness), Tickborne relapsing fever (TBRF), Tularemia, 364D rickettsiosis etc etc etc
Enjoy your ‘calming walk’ in the woods
There does seem to be something wrong with the brains of many big city dwellers.
Here in Washington state there are many conservatives in the more rural areas but the state ends up being socialist because of the big city dwellers massive voting population.
Hey, you libs at the NYT, you batsh*t crazy loons would have to stroll around Alaska in perpetuity before your doctor could cut your meds back by even one pill a month.
So, what now? Will the Slimes backtrack their support for Agenda 21?
“City dwellers also have a higher risk for anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses than people living outside urban centers, studies show.”
Are we sure it’s not just because they’re packed in like rats in cages, voting themselves kibble via the Democrats? ;)
So Thoreau was right, and he didn’t need a (probably) taxpayer funded study to come to his conclusions.
oh, and I forgot to add rabies- running into a mad foaming at the mouth fox, raccoon, or whatever- yup- the woods are so relaxing- We should be paid combat pay to take a walk I n the woods
City dwellers also have a higher risk for anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses than people living outside urban centers, studies show.
...
They also have a tendency to vote for Democrats, liberals, big government, gay marriage, Obamacare, and write for the NYTimes.
I have noticed, that for those living ‘in a city’, any time spent in ‘nature’, ‘the woods’, ‘the wild’, heightens not their appreciation of what nature is, but their own paranoia about what nature MIGHT be putting before them, in their sojourn.
Quiet space, for folks raised in a city, sets them on guard, because there are NOT familiar sounds that would trigger heightened wary senses, as they have become accustomed to hearing.
The ‘DON’T TOUCH THAT!’ screams from their senses, due to no knowledge of what is safe to touch and what is toxic.
When pondering this sort of discussion, I interject the story of when i was a boy, and my family lived on an airbase that edged to a national forest.
‘In the fall months, my dad would toss out on the back lawn pieces of old bread in the afternoon, and sit and watch until dusk. here comes out of the edge of the forest, an albino skunk, slowly moving from one piece of bread to the next. My father would not move, the skunk watching, but still moving and eating. One evening, the skunk was a pool cue’s length from him, sitting as near to how a squirrel sits and eats, looking at my dad now and then. Dad sat there. Slowly the skunk turned, waddled off a little, looked back at Dad, and went back in the forest. Never saw the skunk again, for aall the next two years till we moved away.’
Now, just how freaked out would someone raised in the city be, if they had a similar experience? How many cans of tomato juice would they have to buy, I imagine??
You left out Erhlichia. (Another lovely tick-borne disease that nearly killed my beloved lab.
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