“Find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing” – William Shakespeare.
Prepare yourselves to learn a new word, reader: today’s topic is biophilia. That’s right, our instinctive love for nature, or the “innate affiliation of human beings living together with other organisms”, as American biologist Edward Wilson put it. Wilson, a leader of the mission to reconnect people with nature, believed that biophilia has important biological and social implications for humans, because, “life around us exceeds in complexity and beauty anything else humanity is ever likely to encounter”. If this is true, it proves that we, the nature-loving teen community, are neither mad nor geeky; we are actually a huge step ahead in terms of physical and mental health. Let’s take a look at how it works…
We’ll start by looking out of the window. Nature is made up of repetitive geometric patterns, called fractal patterns. The most ancient and important structures in the world – cathedrals, temples, mosques – are built on the fractal patterns of nature. According to psychologist Caroline Hagerhall, people are more “wakefully relaxed” in an environment of natural fractal patterns; she showed this using EEG results, comparing them to results of people exposed to a cityscape. Scientists have shown that it’s easier to make friends, solve problems and overcome mental illness in nature; check out asla.org (American Society of Landscape Artists) for studies about young people and nature.
Your body, too, benefits from being outdoors. Kaplan and Kaplan found that nature can improve your health, stress management and resistance to illness. Spending time in nature has been found to reduce stress hormones, blood pressure, and even blood glucose levels in diabetics. Check out Shinrin-yoku; literally, “forest bathing” in Japanese. This has been used for centuries as a natural remedy to just about anything. Only recently have scientists discovered organic substances called phytoncides, which are produced by trees and proven to stabilise the hormonal and nervous systems.
Even in cities, nature is quietly influencing us. Studies show that people will pay 58% more for a property with view of water. Psychologist Miller found that nature has positive effects on classroom learning rates, recovery rates in hospitals, retail sales, productivity at work and reduces violence statistics. Surely that’s worth recognizing? (Check out terrapinbrightgreen.com for more details about this, it’s a great article). Daylight was key to all these positive outcomes – so get yourself outside when revision time comes around!
We nature-lovers knew it all along; the thrill of a peregrine chase, the peace that surrounds us on a countryside walk, the joy of painting and writing about nature. Nature really does become a part of you; it helps to make up your personality and biology. So when eyebrows are raised and “bird nerd” is whispered, you can explain your relationship with nature in a word: biophilia.
Meg :)
Sources: Harmony, by HRH the Prince of Wales, Ian Skelly and Tony Juniper; terrapinbrightgreen.com; asla.org