The Nature Fix BOOK REVIEW
Review by Jim Schmid S
poiler alert: journalist Florence Williams dis- tills what she learned from years of studying
nature/brain research into her ultrasimple coda: “Go out- side, often, sometimes in wild places. Bring friends or not. Breathe.”
with this coda we join Outside con- tributing editor Williams as she sets out to uncover the science the brain. After Williams and her family moved from Colorado to Washington, DC she started to question why she was feeling down. Being a journalist she set out on a journey to not only learn but to heal.
In this conversational and per- sonal account, Williams travels widely to track down our deep connection to the natural land- scape.
Among the many places her
research took her was to cypress forests in Korea and Japan to
spend time with rangers who conduct forest healing pro- grams, to Scotland to learn of their outdoor approach to car- ing for the mentally ill, and to Idaho to join a group of Iraqi many of these adventures she volunteered to be the research- er’s guinea pig, including wearing a portable EEG unit in the woods to track changes in her brain waves. thinking of Romantics and philosophers over the centuries, and of nature writers like John Muir who in 1867 set out into subsisting between human beings and Nature.” More recent- ly we have the examples of biologist E.O. Wilson’s 1984 con- cept of biophilia (a bond between humans and nature), and Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods (2008) and The Nature Principle (2011). Building on these past exhortations to get out in nature Williams delves into the neuroscience of “why” Williams found that current neuroscience studies are giv- ing us the tools to test how things like the smell of trees,
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quiet green space, and urban vs. Studies show that as little as 15 minutes in the woods reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hor- mone. Increase nature exposure to 45 minutes, and most people experience improvements in cog- nitive performance.
The next big jump is what
The idea that it takes two days in the wilderness to wash away whatever veneer of civilization you brought with you and a new reality begins on that third day. Wanting to learn more
Williams to the University of Utah where she spent time with cognitive neuroscientist David Strayer. In 2012 Strayer published a study conducted with his col- leagues Paul and Ruth Ann Atchley from the University of Kansas to try and understand what was going on inside the brain during outdoor trips. They administered tests to
28 backpackers before and after going on Outward Bound trips. Immediately after a trip, the par-
ticipants performed 47 percent better in a word-test game that measures creative thinking and insight problem-solving. Stayer believes the frontal cortex (our taskmaster) of the backpacker’s brains got a much-needed break during the trips. When the attention network is freed up, other parts of the brain appear to take over, like those associated with sen- sory perception, empathy, and productive day-dreaming. Williams joined Strayer and a group of his students on a trip in the Utah backcounty where she wore a portable EEG unit to track changes in her brain waves. She experienced the chart to prove it.
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative
By Florence Williams
Published 2017 280 pages Hardcover - $26.95
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