How Nature Heals Us
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What are the psychological benefits of spending time in nature?
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No promo code is needed after November 5th. I hope to see you there. And here's today's show. This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedant. When we are facing struggles with our thoughts or our emotions, many of us turn first to medication or therapy as solutions. The share of American adults reporting they took prescription drugs for mental health conditions stood at 19% in 2022. That's according to an analysis of government data by the Kaiser Family Foundation. That's millions of people taking drugs for anxiety, for depression, for attention deficit disorder. Millions more are in therapy, working through their challenges with a counselor. For many people, such measures are enormously helpful, even essential.
At the same time, it may be the case that we are overlooking a potential source of relief that is literally right outside our door. This remedy costs nothing, has no known side effects, and is often delightfully pleasant. We are talking about spending time in nature. The capacity of the natural world to soothe and refresh our sensibilities has been known for centuries. But it's only recently that scientists have begun to identify exactly what it is about the outdoors that has such a powerful effect on our moods and our minds.
Nature is filled with curved edges. And one thing that we found in our research is that people really like images that have more curved edges, even built images. So images of architectural scenes that don't have any nature in them. If the architecture has more curved edges, people tend to like that architecture more.
If you struggle with the ability to think clearly, to focus your attention, to control maladaptive behaviors, this episode and a companion story on Hidden Brain Plus are definitely for you. Why nature is good medicine, this week on Hidden Brain.
Many of us enjoy an occasional stroll in the park or a hike in the woods. It feels good to see beautiful trees, to hear birds sing, and to breathe fresh air. But might nature offer more than a fleeting respite from our time-pressured, harried lives? At the University of Chicago, psychologist Mark Berman studies how spending time in nature can help our minds. Mark Berman, welcome to Hidden Brain. Thank you for having me on the show. I want to start with a few examples of the phenomenon you've been studying, Mark. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the artist Jackson Pollock was living and working in New York City. What was his state of mind, especially after his father died in 1933?
Well, it wasn't good. Jackson Pollock moved from California to New York to be with his brothers. When his father died, he had extreme depression. and alcoholism and, you know, he was taking sculpting classes, but he was just not very happy, very mentally disturbed, having a lot of problems with depression and alcoholism.
I understand that Jackson Pollock's volatility, combined with this heavy drinking, led to some very public and private meltdowns?
Yes. At an art gallery, he yelled that he was a much better artist than anyone that had their art being displayed in the art gallery. And subsequently, he lost the ability to be in that art gallery. He got into an argument one time and was so angry that he turned over a whole table that had all of the food on the table and like 12 roast beef dinners were just flying all over the place.
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