Our world sometimes feels like it’s spinning out of control. Yet when we spend time in nature, it offers peace and tranquility, if not outright joy. For a long time, doctors and scientists thought the health benefits we derive from exposure to the natural world were just figments of our imagination. But people who feel a personal connection to nature understand intimately what ecologists have shown in their research: Places do possess a restorative power. Nature fails us comparatively infrequently and, when it does, typically has some not-bad second-order effect.
The first time I remember really connecting with the outdoors was during a job that had stressed me to the max. A friend had suggested we find relief, in the form of the age-old remedy of hiking the Appalachian Trail. The moment we found ourselves in the woodsy, serene Calvert Cliffs State Park, everything just clicked. To this day, nature still makes the good parts of my brain feel like they’re firing on all cylinders. Those two times under the big green outdoor umbrella have shaped me in a long-lasting way.
Ecotherapy, sometimes referred to as nature therapy, assumes that human beings have an innate connection to the rest of the natural world. When that connection is fostered and deepened, it can have profound effects on a person’s mental and physical health. This is something many cultures have understood for a very long time. In recent years, mental health professionals have started to recognize the potential of natural spaces to help patients recover.
The most vivid encounter I had with the natural world occurred during a “forest bathing” session. I can still remember following a hiking guide and listening as he explained how all our senses could act as vehicles helping us tune back into an environmental awareness seeping directly down into our bodies and minds. As my sense of touch, smell, and even taste started to prickle and return to a more natural, intuitively heightened state, all my “civilized” stress seemed to dissolve.