The nature of your mind

Our minds were made by nature — and are continually improved by it.

Harvard Medical School

scientists find spending time in nature lowers cortisol, the stress-exacerbating hormone. The

USDA

finds green spaces help cognitive development in children — and childhood access to nature strengthens cognitive health in people aged 70 years and more.



Daily nature access can yield a 17% lower risk of behavioural problems while scientists researching the Japanese practice of ‘Shinrin-yoku’ or ‘forest bathing’, walking through woods, looking, touching and smelling leaves, bark and flowers, find this bestows 12.4% lower cortisol and a 5.8% lower heart rate. The World Economic Forum reports spending just two hours a week in nature can significantly improve a human’s sense of well-being — apart from lowering cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood pressure and obesity.



The opposite is also true — being deprived of nature damages our minds. The USDA estimates individuals with just ten percent green space near their home face a 25% greater risk of depression and a 30% higher chance of anxiety disorders. The science is intricate — the reason is simple. Like all species on

Earth

, human beings are also the children of nature. Our brains have been honed over millennia learning from nature — climbing trees, foraging
for food, preserving water, building shelters. As nature taught us, we grew.



Today, as our bond with nature weakens, so do our minds. And, as nature falls ill, so do we, with 23% losses of life linked to air and water pollution.

UNEP

finds exposure to pollutants causes developmental delays and lower IQs in children, exacerbating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases in older people. For those who think popping pills is the answer, 70% of recent new drugs in the US came from nature. And as humans rampage across Earth’s ecosystems, 15,000 medicinal plants already face extinction.

However, there are sustainable solutions. As Times Evoke’s global experts emphasise, humans can — and must — rebuild their bond with nature. The years of nature separation have been marked by intensifying conflicts, pettiness and rage. Join Times Evoke in discovering how embracing the natural world can inspire the better nature of our own minds.

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