Spending time in nature has beneficial effects
Ihave spent time in Auckland in the last couple of weeks and am soon to head to the United States for business. When I travel, I always imagine myself living in the location I visit and then I come home with great relief. Most of the world’s population lives in urban settings and to get anywhere rural, or semirural, it’s at least a 30minute drive or train trip. Years ago, when Dunedin branded itself a 10minute city — you can get anywhere in 10 minutes — I thought it was a fantastic line and one I still use to describe the ease of living here.
In the history of human civilisation, cities are a radical new kind of habitat. Much of human history reflects our ancestors living on sprawling savannas or within forested valleys. These habitats are immensely different from habitats of builtup urban living and recent research has linked urban environments with increased risks for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems.
Research has also shown that a solution to the urban malaise is time spent in nature — even if that time is only brief. Have you heard of ‘‘forest bathing?’’ Sounds like some whacky New Age thing, but it does have science behind it.
Forest bathing originated in Japan and it’s known as shinrinyoku. Shinrin in Japanese means ‘‘forest’’, and yoku means ‘‘bath’’. So shinrinyoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere or taking in the forest through our senses. Forest bathing has beneficial effects on human health via the showering of forest aerosols which you breathe in.
The forest aerosols are made up with plant secondary metabolites, some of which are called terpenes. Terpenes consist of multiple isoprene units and are the largest class of organic compounds produced by forest plants. Some of the terpenes include alphapinene, betapinene, camphor, camphene, sabinene, limonene, menthol, cymene, and myrcene. Interestingly, myrcene is the terpene in cannabis which contributes to the relaxation effect.
It may be the terpenes, or it may just be slowing down and reducing stimulation, but after a forest walk, our amygdala, the part of the brain wired to initiate the fightflight response, has reduced activity. Research (published in Nature this month) shows that participants who took a onehour forest walk reported more attention restoration and enjoyment than those who went on an urban walk.
My most regular walking haunt in Dunedin is Ross Creek — pretty much a 10minute drive from anywhere in the city and a place where I spent hours as a child catching lobsters before racing home to make it in time for dinner — sometimes I really had to sprint, Mum could be quite scary.
I haven’t seen equivalent health data on time spent breathing in ocean air, but I suspect there are parallels — if you could bottle and sell the feeling of breathing in ocean spray, you would make some serious coin. Blackhead, Brighton, St Clair and my new favourite, the amazing low tide walk from Doctors Point to Osborne and Purakaunui — all on our doorstep. We are more than lucky, it’s time to stop moaning about oneway streets and George St upgrades, it really is.
When I travel, I’ll imagine myself living the techdream in a parallel life in San Francisco, inspired by the innovators and the innovations. My mind will race, I’ll have ideas coming out of my ears — I will be able to live off the stimulation for months to come — but my amygdala will suffer.
Memories of cliffs and sea air, native birds and forest bathing will get me through the time spent in international airports and Ross Creek will be on my agenda within hours of my return. Dunedin, the 10minute city with effortless access to nature — it’s hard to beat.