For 2021, I decided to take on a year of health project rather than making New Years resolutions. While I have the best of intentions at the start of every year, my resolutions never seem to last for long.
The idea behind this experiment is to explore a new health topic for each month of the year. These topics could include anything from nutrition to stress management to exercise to social connections.
Each month I choose a nonfiction book to read in the first half. Then I try to implement what I’ve learned in the second half of the month.
So far this year I’ve learned about cutting out sugar, relationships, nutrition, sleep, and life design as a multipotentialite.
June Topic: How Nature Affects Health
We live very rural so nature is all around us all of the time. Lately we’ve even joked that it would be a lot easier and quieter to camp on our own property then take a trip somewhere.
Time in nature has always had a strong pull on me. I grew up camping at lakes and spending afternoons at local waterways. As kids my brother and I were always riding bikes or heading to the pond for a swim. We spent a lot of summer nights sleeping out in lounges on the deck.
Whether we were naturally inclined to be outside or our parents kicked us out of the house in desperation for some peace, the end result was great. Even when I preferred quiet solo activities, I would gather my books, climb a tree, and tie blankets into a sling so I could lay up there and read all afternoon.
As a young adult hiking became my favorite form of exercise after spending summers working in Denali, Glacier, and Acadia National Parks. One of the happiest times of my life was when I spent months camping out of a car traveling around New Zealand and taking on several multi day backpacking trips into the woods and mountains.
Any spirituality I experience usually comes from being in nature. Whether it’s observing wildlife or just feeling the warmth of sun or listening to bird songs that’s how I feel most connected to a higher power. Maybe it’s triggered by the awe of an endless view or the comfort of natural patterns or a connection to a primal part of the brain.
Having experienced these moments myself, I’ve always been curious about the benefits of nature for our health and well being.
Review: The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
For June, I chose to read The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams. In this book Williams, a journalist and nature lover, moves from Boulder, Colorado to Washington D.C. The difficult transition sends her digging into the link between good health and nature.
Throughout the book, she shares scientific findings into the positive effects nature has on our brains. She travels all over the world learning and translating the most current studies. From forest bathing in Japan to backpacking retreats in Moab to Finland where nature is still ingrained in the culture, Williams explores the power that nature has to improve health, promote creativity, and boost relationships.
The Nature Fix is split into five parts. The first section dives into different theories about how and why aspects of nature affect the neurons in our brains. Part two discusses the effects of a short time in nature, what is happening to our bodies and senses in the first five minutes of exposure.
From there the book gets into studies and findings about longer periods in nature. Part three covers how five hours a month in nature benefits health. The fourth part, Backcountry Brain, shares insights about longer trips into nature as well as what researchers have learned through wilderness treatment centers and nature schooling. Part five follows a trip to Singapore, the Garden City, and touches on incorporating nature into modern cities.
The Most Interesting Takeaways:
- People don’t experience nature often enough to even realize how restored it can make them feel. In one study students consistently underestimated how good they would feel outside. Time in nature is a victim of forecasting errors or bad predictions
- Studies illustrating how nature can make people healthier, happier, and more socially engaged aren’t well known.
- Virtual reality is not a replacement for nature. It’s unable to trick our senses but there are people trying to improve it.
- Dirt has the ability to heal. Williams shares two separate studies where mice who were exposed to a common soil bacterium showed less anxiety, produced more serotonin (a neurotransmitter linked with happiness), and performed better.
- Time spent in nature gives the thinking part of our brains a chance to recover and restore.
- Geosmin is a compound found in soil organisms that causes the refreshing earthy scent after it rains. Studies have found these organisms are the key to many antibiotics and are useful against cancer.
- Coniferous essential oils can fight atopic skin diseases, ease symptoms of asthma and lower cortisol levels thereby lowering stress.
- Wind, water, and birds are the three types of nature sounds are particularly soothing to most people.
- “Time in nature… appears to have a dose curve. Five minutes is good; a thirty-minute stroll is better. When you combine exercise and nature, the effects get bigger.”
- People are affected differently by doses of nature. People who live in the city will be calmed by a lot less nature exposure than those who live in the country.
- All children learn through exploration. Modern life and schooling gives them less ability to learn that way as medication rates rise, kids are over scheduled with activities, classroom size are larger, and cuts are made to recess.
Quotes from The Nature Fix:
Final Verdict:
As I mentioned in my June Quick Lit, this book didn’t grab my attention as quickly as I hoped. The first sections of the book are very dense with long paragraphs citing various studies, theories, and facts. While I enjoy knowing the science behind these findings, it made for some very dry reading in the beginning.
It took awhile for me to really get into this book. It was probably around the halfway point. Part two, covering 5 minutes in nature, had some interesting insights into how our senses take in different aspects of nature and benefit from them. That wasn’t the information I was hoping to get from this book though with my lifestyle.
The last half of The Nature Fix made it a worthwhile read for me. As it got into the health benefits for people who spend a lot more than 5 minutes at a time in nature, it became much easier to pick up the book. I was fascinated by the ways different cultures incorporate nature, particularly Finland.
I also found the insights into how nature affects children depending on their time outside, their freedom to explore, and the type of early schooling they receive to be amazing. The favored modern education model and the rates of medication being prescribed to children was honestly a bit terrifying but I feel it’s incredibly important to be aware of as a soon-to-be parent.
Third Quarter of 2021 Reading List
- Beyond Labels: A Doctor and a Farmer Conquer Food Confusion One Bite at a Time by Joel Salatin and Dr. Sina McCullough
- The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage by Kelly McGonigal
- Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
Book Pick for July
My book pick for July will focus on the vast area of diet and nutrition again by learning more about food labels and seeing past them. I was listening to a podcast interview with Joel Salatin and discovered his new book, Beyond Labels: A Doctor and a Farmer Conquer Food Confusion One Bite at a Time, co written with Dr. Sina McCullough.
In our home, we’ve long been inspired by Joel Salatin’s lectures and books covering regenerative farm practices. He considers himself to be a grass farmer first as he raises pastured livestock. Salatin has operated the very successful Polyface Farm in Virginia for decades with his family.
In Beyond Labels, Salatin and Dr. McCullough use discussion and humor to overcome conflicting diet information and share practical easy tips for how to eat healthy. They cover what to eat and how to find it. They share how to prepare it while saving money and time in the kitchen. The co-authors believe good food is the first step on the journey to health, happiness, and freedom.
Have you read The Nature Fix? How do you incorporate nature into your modern life?
