Dr. Tara Swart Bieber

You can't do neuroplasticity if you're in stress.

Once you think you've got that to a decent level, then there are the beautiful and ethereal things that we can do that we can learn from our ancestors are not luxuries.

They're absolutely crucial to our survival.

Things like spending time in nature, immersing yourself in the arts and culture.

noticing beauty and appreciating it, that's gratitude to the next level.

I mean, we're in Miami and it's Art Basel, so I'm just going to give you a few statistics about

the importance of these things.

So when you spend time in nature, trees actually release chemicals called phytoncides that trigger the release of natural killer cells in your immune system, boosting your immunity, not just against colds and flus, but also against potentially heart attacks and cancers, because there are tumor cells circulating in our blood all the time, and they help to...

kill them off.

And then if you indulge in the arts and culture every two months, so that's going to a free gallery or a sculpture park or the ballet or the theatre, then you have a 31% lower chance of dying compared to someone that doesn't.

If you only go every two months, you have a 14% lower chance of dying than someone that doesn't indulge in the arts and culture.

So to me, these are no-brainers.

They're free.

They're freely available.

It's just about prioritizing and making the time.

And we don't do that because we tend to think they might be frivolous and not essential, and it's more important to go for a run, or it's more important to take your supplements.

But actually, our ancestors in Paleolithic times had no spare resources for doing anything other than survival.

They didn't give up resources for thriving, it was only for surviving.

So why did they dance and drum and chant and hum and make cave paintings?

We think cave paintings are the first evidence of humans making art.