Your Brain on Nature | Healthy Aging Series: S10 E19
I hate the State Fair!
It’s hot. I hate the rides. Rommie, my wife, loves the quilts. OK, I enjoy the photography. But overall, I hate going to the State Fair. I don’t think I even took my boys when they were young. I don’t remember them even asking to go.
I don’t know, it’s just not my thing. I love the food, but none of it is good for you. Elephant ears, really? When I think about the Fair, I think of concrete, big air-conditioned exhibit halls, and then there are the hordes of people.
OK, so you love the State Fair. To each, their own.
What I do love is what I’m doing right now. It’s Sunday, September 8 at 6:17 PM. I’m sitting by a campfire in the Daniel Forest National Forest, 3 miles from the Rough Trail parking area. Just me. This is the first night of the two-nighter. The Gorge is dead (nobody is here), but it’s Sunday and I’m sure it was rocking on Friday and Saturday. I have some service on my phone, so I’m not completely unplugged from people or social media. But still, I love it. I go to the same primitive site not far from the suspension walk-bridge over the Red River. It’s remote. No people. Quiet. Actually, if I stop and listen, I hear like lots and lots of flies or bees swarming in my campsite. The sun is setting soon. I’m in a small valley, so it gets dark earlier here. And then I hear a Flicker. Loudmouth. You can’t completely escape the sounds of civilization. I hear occasional truck traffic on Tunnel Ridge Road, and then there’s the ubiquitous air traffic.
Time seems to slow down out here, out in nature.
I have four or five books in my library, that I’ve read over the past couple years, about being in the forest.
Forest therapy. Forest Bathing. A book about getting children into the woods.
I have one on Kindle that I finally got to. “Your Brain on Nature.” by, Eva Selhub and Alan Logan, both medical doctors. I want to share the two main points in this book about your brain:
First, all the screen time, all the concrete, all the crowdedness, all the problems you face and solve, and all of civilization, take their toll on you and your brain.
Stop and think about this for a second. Think about all of the things in our modern civilization and the toll that those things take on your psyche. All of the good stuff and all the bad stuff. They wear on us.
I didn’t walk away from reading this book thinking that modern culture and modern society is bad. They just take a toll on us.
Second, the answer to all these problems, all of the stressors, all the concrete, and all of the traffic, is nature.
Nature changes us. “Deny nature,” they write, “and we humans risk denying a vital part of our heritage.” Remember we are nature.
“Your Brain on Nature,” is full of references from studies that support these claims. I’m not going to wade through all of these studies. I encourage you to read their book.
I don’t think it takes a genius or a PhD in psychology to realize that living in this modern world negatively affects our mood, our thoughts, and our spirits, and by extension, our brain.
I have asserted throughout the course of my life that, our body and our mind are so closely connected that they catch each other‘s diseases. Think about the effects of driving through traffic. In the same way, commuting through the highways and byways of life affects our neurotransmitters.
I believe that being in a stressful setting for a lengthy period of time can create imbalances in neurotransmitters and can lead to clinical anxiety and depression. That’s your brain on technology, concrete, and modern stressors.
“Your Brain on Nature” promotes the restorative effective nature. What do they mean by nature? Pretty much everything that comes from the natural world.
Plants, which would include trees and even house plants.
Nature includes animals, which, of course are our pets. I spent a good portion of my adolescent years birding. There’s no question that it had a restorative effect during my life.
Waterways, which include lakes and streams and rainstorms are part of nature.
Places like parks which include deserts, mountains, and beaches.
Nature also includes all the sounds and smells and textures that come with those places. Here is the advice from “Your Brain on Nature.”
Spend as much time outside as you can, away from the hustle and bustle of daily living in a busy modern world. Being in nature will restore you. Being in nature, surrounding yourself with nature, bathing in nature, and immersing yourself in nature will restore you and heal your brain.
The writers went so far as to say that nature can even ameliorate, which is just a fancy word for improve, some ADHD symptoms, especially with children.
Read the book.
The section of the book that I was particularly drawn to was about Green Exercise, exercising outdoors. Makes sense to me. If exercise is good for you and your brain, and if the forests and nature are good for you and your brain, then how much better if you do them together! I have a weight room in my basement with cardio equipment that I rarely use, because I do all of my cardio outside!!! Unless it’s too hot, too cold, too wet, or too much snow.
My favorite Green Exercise is hiking. Question: How do you get started with hiking?
I’ll share some strategies that I wrote in a previous blog for Hiking 101. Here they are:
- Find a park that has trails and maps of those trails. Louisville has lots and lots of parks with trails and maps as well. I hike in the Jefferson Memorial Forest and in the Parklands. Maps are available online or at the visitor center at the Jefferson Memorial Forest. Trail maps for Parklands are typically at the kiosks at the entrances of the park. There is the Bernheim Forest, KY and Hoosier National Forest in Indiana. There’s the Daniel Boone National Forest and the Red River Gorge in the eastern part of the state of Kentucky. I just Googled places to hike in Kentucky and there are many, many hits. There is no excuse not to hike in Kentucky.
2. Start easy and progress to harder trails. That means starting with short trails and trails with less elevation. Trails are usually, but not always, posted as easy, moderate, or difficult. I would suggest flat or no elevation trails that are 2 miles or less for your first hike. Move at a 30 minute per mile pace. You should finish in one hour.
3. Buy some gear.
You’ll need a day pack and some water bottles.
Shoes and socks. I always wear smart wool or acrylic socks, and I buy most of my shoes from Quest for the Outdoors. Don’t buy the most expensive shoes but don’t buy the cheapest shoes.
Take with you in your daypack:
Ziploc baggies in case it rains
Take an umbrella in case it rains
You’ll need insect repellents, mostly for chiggers that you’ll need to put on your ankles
You need a map.
You’ll need clothing that is determined by the time of year. I buy most of all my clothing at Walmart, Target, and, at Meijer’s. It’s cheaper and good quality wicking material.
I use a smart watch to track my hikes. I use a Fitbit because its app works better for me.
I take a headlamp, especially if I’m going to be hiking in the evenings.
Take some snacks, which typically consist of energy bars.
4. There are lots of hiking groups for hiking and a variety of experience within those groups, so you won’t feel uncomfortable or intimidated. I did a Google search of “hiking groups near me” and found nine groups with links to each group.
5. Get out and enjoy the trails. Hike for your mental and physical health. Some of my most relaxing and creative times have been on the trails. Learn to love the hills. If you hike in Kentucky or Southern Indiana, you will encounter hills. They are your friends. Hills are the HITT experience in the woods.
You can imagine that I would be attracted to Green Exercise. I do it all the time.
My advice is to get outside this week. If you have mobility issues, sit in the sun.
My wife and I decided to eat breakfast on our deck one morning this past week and we watched the sun come up.
Nature.
I did a three day backpacking trip in the red river Gorge
Nature.
I took a 45 minute walk in Broad Run Park
Nature.
I loved on Hansel, our beautiful kitty.
Nature.
I listened to David Mead’s album, “Arboretum.”
That’s nature too.
Get away from the hustle and bustle
Let nature heal you.
