Cut Stress by Watching Animals
If you can’t get out into the natural world, let it come to you.
to avoid urban settings, Dr. Sturm says. Both groups were asked to take a few selfies during their walks to document locales, but otherwise to avoid using their phones.
The walkers in both groups uploaded their selfies to a lab website and also completed a daily online assessment of their current mood and, if they had walked that day, how they had felt during their strolls.
After eight weeks, the scientists compared the groups’ responses and photos.
Not surprisingly, they found that the awe walkers seemed to have become adept at discovering and amplifying awe. One volunteer reported focusing now on “the beautiful fall colors and the absence of them among the evergreen forest.” A control walker, in contrast, said she spent much of a recent walk fretting about an upcoming vacation and “all the things I had to do before we leave.”
The researchers also found small but significant differences in the groups’ sense of well-being. Over all, the awe walkers felt happier, less upset and more socially connected than the men and women in the control group. The volunteers in the control group reported some improvements in mood, but their gains were slighter.
More startling, the researchers noted a variance in the groups’ selfies. Over the course of the eight weeks, the size of awe walkers’ countenances shrank in relation to the scenery around them. Their faces grew smaller, the world larger. Nothing similar occurred in the photos from the control group.
“We had not expected that,” Dr. Sturm says.
A few caveats here. The findings are subjective since awe, like other emotions, is difficult to quantify. The study participants also uniformly were older people in good health. It is not clear whether young people or those with illnesses likewise would benefit.
But Dr. Sturm thinks the possibility is enticing, especially now, when pandemic concerns are rampant. “It is such a simple thing” to look around for small wonders while you exercise, she says, “and there’s no downside.”
IF YOU SPEND hours scrolling through cat videos online, there’s a scientific explanation for why that’s a hard habit to kick: A new study has found that watching footage of cute animals can reduce your anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate.
The study, led by the University of Leeds in Britain, Singapore Airlines and Western Australia’s tourism agency, featured videos of a quokka — a cuddly-looking wallaby native to Australia that the internet called “the happiest animal on earth.” But footage of other creatures can also elicit positive emotions like adoration, awe and love, said Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “We are a visual species,” he said. “We derive a lot of health and happiness from our relationship to the natural world.”
If you can’t get out into the natural world, let it come to you. The internet has dozens of smile-inducing animal feeds from around the world.
WARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION
At this nonprofit organization in Maryland, veterans train service dogs that will later be paired with other veterans. Watch the heroes-to-be lounge around the organization’s puppy playroom or nursery. warriorcanineconnection.org
KITTEN RESCUE
Not a dog person? Kitten Rescue, a nonprofit in Los Angeles, has live feeds in its nursery and a private room where kittens and cats wait to be adopted. kittenrescue.org
SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL ZOO & CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE
Check out one of the museum’s six live feeds to see black-footed ferrets, cheetah cubs, naked mole-rats, lions or elephants. Volunteers aren’t currently operating the cameras, so the animals may not always be visible. And while naked mole-rats don’t top the cute animals list, it’s still a treat watching them nibble on vegetables. nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams
GRACE
Whether a gorilla is cute really depends on your point of view, but the footage from the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center, a sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, might win you over. The rescued primates are usually napping or grazing on vegetation. explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife
MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM
Fans of nature documentaries like the BBC’s “Blue Planet” series will want to tune into this California aquarium’s underwater feeds. Watch jellyfish delicately swim in and out of the frame, or enjoy the aquarium’s largest exhibition, an awe-inspiring, one million-gallon tank that houses an array of sea creatures, including stingrays, sharks and turtles. Each camera operates on a different schedule. montereybayaquarium.org/animals /live-cams
SAN DIEGO ZOO
The San Diego Zoo runs live cameras from 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Eastern and rebroadcasts the day’s stream at night. There’s something here for everyone: Hippos, baboons, rhinos, tigers, giraffes and more. zoo.sandiegozoo.org/live-cams
WOLONG GIANT PANDA RESERVE
This breeding center at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China has live feeds of pandas in 11 different yards. Toggle between the feeds to see the gentle giants playing together, lounging on logs or chowing down on bamboo. explore.org/livecams/panda-bears
KATMAI NATIONAL PARK
If you prefer admiring animals in their native habitats, this national park in Alaska is home to roughly 2,000 brown bears, and its cameras capture them from multiple angles and locations. See them fish for salmon or swim in a river against the backdrop of breathtaking mountains. explore.org/livecams/brown-bears