Watch sky, trees and feel better
HEAR BIRDSONG, LISTEN TO THE SEA WHISPER AND FEEL THE GRASS UNDER YOUR FEET TO BOOST YOUR STATE OF MIND, URGES A STUDY
Nature boosts mental health, and you don’t have to leave the city to reap benefits |
Good news, urbanites! New research suggests that you don’t have to leave the city to reap some of the benefits of being in nature.
Simply listening to the chirping of birds, glimpsing the sky and even noticing a city tree can boost your mental well-being, according to a report published in the journal Bioscience.
To come to this conclusion, the researchers used data collected by a smartphone app they created called Urban Mind. The app is free to download and available for both the iPhone and Android platforms.
Seven times a day for seven days, self-selected volunteers answered questions such as, “Are you indoors or outdoors?” “Can you see trees?” “Can you see the sky? ““Can you hear birds singing?” “Can you see or hear water?” and “Do you feel in contact with nature?”
At the same time, they were asked to log their overall emotional well-being.
Before using the app, volunteers were asked to submit basic demographic information including age, gender, education and occupation.
For this study, which was part of a pilot programme, the researchers relied primarily on 3,013 assessments from 108 participants.
The authors found that people were more likely to report higher states of well-being when they were outdoors, seeing trees, hearing birds singing, seeing the sky, and feeling in contact with nature.
The research team included scientists from King’s College London as well as landscape architects and an art foundation.
Still, the work represents the first time that a study has looked at how including natural features within a built environment can affect mental well-being, the authors wrote. Work like this could help city planners better understand what natural features have the greatest effects on the well-being of city dwellers, they said.
Currently, more than half the world’s population lives in urban areas, and previous studies have shown that people who live in cities are at a higher risk for mental health issues, the authors said.
According to the Urban Mind website, the research team is planning to launch a more ambitious, worldwide study this year.
Currently, more than half the world’s population lives in urban areas, and previous studies have shown that people who live in cities are at a higher risk of mental health issues.