Week 11 - Independent Research -- nature and happiness

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_nature_makes_you_kinder_happier_more_creative

• being in nature has a profound impact on our brains and our behavior, helping us to reduce anxiety, brooding, and stress, and increase our attention capacity, creativity, and our ability to connect with other people
• being in nature decreases stress 
• experiment in Japan - ppl walking indoors and outside and the ppl outside were much less stressed
• experiment in finland - ppl who strolled in forest vs city center were less stressed and overall in better health
• texas a&m : ppl were shown a stress inducing clip and then shown nature scenes compared to color scenes and the nature ones relaxed them more
• nature makes one happier and less brooding
• gregory bratman, stanford uni: participants who went on a nature walk showed less amounts of rumination and more activity in subgenual prefrontal cortex (better moods)
• nature relieves attention fatigue and increases creativity
• being in nature restores depleted attention circuits
• 2012, strayer, backpackers who hiked for 4 days were much more creative then people who did not complete the trip
• peter aspinall, heriot-watt uni, ppl had their brains monitored continuously using mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) while they walked through an urban green space had brain EEG readings indicating lower frustration, engagement, and arousal, and higher meditation levels while in the green area, and higher engagement levels when moving out of the green area
• nature helps you be kind and generous
• Juyoung Lee, GGSC director Dacher Keltner, and other researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, studied the potential impact of nature on the willingness to be generous, trusting, and helpful toward others, while considering what factors might influence that relationship
• nature makes one "feel more alive"
• ppl should take a 3 day trip yearly to find themselves once again

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_happens_when_we_reconnect_with_nature

•  E. O. Wilson’s “biophilia” theory suggests that there are evolutionary reasons people seek out nature experiences. We may have preferences to be in beautiful, natural spaces because they are resource-rich environments—ones that provide optimal food, shelter, and comfort
• brief nature videos are a powerful way to feel awe, wonder, gratitude, and reverence
• Frances Kuo and her colleagues finds that in poorer neighborhoods of Chicago people who live near green spaces—lawns, parks, trees—show reductions in ADHD symptoms and greater calm, as well as a stronger sense of connection to neighbors, more civility, and less violence in their neighborhoods
• viewing nature in images or videos leads to greater “prosocial” tendencies—generosity, cooperation, and kindness
• people who simply viewed 10 slides of really beautiful nature (as opposed to less beautiful nature) gave more money to a stranger in an economic game widely used to measure trust
• improves health
• participants who viewed a one-minute video of awesome nature rather than a video that made them feel happy reported feeling as though they had enough time “to get things done” and did not feel that “their lives were slipping away.
• people who report feeling a good deal of awe and wonder and an awareness of the natural beauty around them actually show lower levels of a biomarker(IL-6) that could lead to a decreased likelihood of cardiovascular disease, depression, and autoimmune disease
• nature experiences led to reduced stress, easier recovery from illness, better physical well-being in elderly people, and behavioral changes that improve mood and general well-being

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/being_around_nature_helps_you_love_your_body

• psychologist Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, ppl who viewed pictures of nature instead of urban scenes reported more satisfaction with their body following the viewing then the urban scene ppl did
• 2nd part --nature walk: Those who took the nature walk scored significantly higher on the second test, indicating a higher degree of acceptance of their bodies. In contrast, scores actually dropped for those who took the walk in the city
•