Prescribing Nature: Rx for Nature Relatedness!
TAKEAWAY: Nature could well be one of our strongest sources of health, happiness and well-being. The best part is that you can self-prescribe it to enjoy its transformative effects on your body and mind!
We spent most of human history, about 200,000 years give or take, in close contact with nature. Then, over the course of only a couple centuries, we moved from rural to urban living. While the benefits of urbanization are clear and undeniable, this rapid transition came with a host of challenges.
Civilization has been largely defined by man's alteration of his environment and rampant exploitation of natural resources. Such cultural norms have had a detrimental effect on our daily well-being, health and relationships with the rest of nature.
In response to this, doctors may prescribe small doses of nature for the same reason they prescribe medication specifically for you!
Yes, nature prescriptions are a thing… What's more, they work! Before we get to that, we’ll take a look at this city-dwelling phenomenon and how it affects our relationship with nature—or in other words, nature relatedness.
What is Nature Relatedness?
Nature relatedness is the degree to which people feel connected to or dependent on nature. It is the sense of connection, belonging and meaning that people experience when they are in natural settings. A state of mind, nature relatedness is characterized by feelings of awe, wonder, love, comfort and curiosity in response to the natural world.
Nature relatedness refers to our emotional attachment or relationship with nature—that is, how strongly we feel connected to it or how we maintain our perspective when experiencing it. It's different from simply liking or disliking something like going outside or spending time in parks or other green spaces. Nature relatedness is a deep sense of belonging that comes from being immersed in natural environments and having experiences there that make us feel at home.
Humans have an intrinsic connection to nature, while they are being increasingly disconnected from the world around them. In a world full of technology and the conveniences that come with it, more people than ever are disconnected from nature. This lack of relationship with nature, or low nature-relatedness, can have a negative effect on our mental and physical health, and overall well-being.
What do these facts mean for us? It means that if our kids don't get enough time in nature, we need to take them to the park! If our cities are not providing enough opportunities for safe outdoor play, we need to create more! And if we ourselves enjoy visiting nature, but don't have time to get there regularly, we can spend some of our free time searching for plants native to our region and growing them on our balconies.
To treat nature-deficiency, doctors may have to start giving prescriptions for nature exposure.
Effects of Nature on the Body and Mind
Urbanites are more likely than rural folks to have anxiety and depression. That's just a fact! In urban centers there are fewer opportunities for direct contact with nature. While its benefits are clear and undeniable, urbanization has a big downside to it. And the most effective remedy against urban life's unintended consequences is by adopting a back-to-nature lifestyle, literally!
To name just a few, benefits of spending time in natural environments include:
Promoting relaxation and stress reduction and improved moods;
Boosting focus and concentration;
Improving memory recall;
Increasing empathy toward others by promoting perspective taking;
Helping children develop better attention and social skills such as empathy.
Encouraging environmental awareness.
Many previous studies have shown that exposure to nature can help us thrive in so many ways—physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively. Now, there’s new scientific evidence suggesting that closeness to nature can help us develop healthy eating habits. In a recent study, published in the American Journal of Health Promotion (source 2), a research team at Drexel University looked at the benefits of nature relatedness on dietary diversity and the consumption of fruit and veggies.
"Our findings extend this list of [nature relatedness] benefits to include dietary intake," said Brandy-Joe Milliron, PhD, an associate professor in Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions and lead author of the publication. "We found people with higher nature relatedness were more likely to report healthful dietary intake, including greater dietary variety and higher fruit and vegetable consumption."
Nature Rx and Self-Medication With Nature
Nature is a powerful healer. That’s what we are learning from a growing scientific literature. The natural world is filled with sights, sounds and smells that can help us manage our minds and bodies. The challenge is finding ways to commit yourself to being nature-related. The answers may lie in the prescription pad; i.e, nature Rx.
We are used to thinking about human health as something that can be improved with a pill, shot or procedure. But there is another way: by prescribing nature. Nature Rx is a prescription for nature that helps you use the natural world for better health and well-being. It's a way for you to try harder at incorporating nature into your daily routine and find the time to enjoy it regularly.
Our brains have evolved to be deeply wired to respond positively to the natural world around us. Nerve cells, or neurons, are designed to respond positively to positive stimuli (such as sunshine, blue sky and green grass) while negative stimuli (such as darkness, storms and heavy rain) trigger a fight-or-flight response in our bodies.
If you’re feeling anxious or stressed out, taking a walk in the park may be just what you need! And there are many other nature-related activities for children and adults alike to engage in and enjoy:
Nature-based play dates for families
Family outings to parks, forests, beaches and more
Nature walks with children or adults
Nature-themed birthday parties
Nature-focused summer camps
In 2020, B.C. Parks Foundation launched PaRx, Canada's first national program focused on nature prescription (source 1). The program aims at helping people spend more time with nature as a therapy to enhance overall well-being. A Parks Canada Discovery Pass (for an adult) would normally set you back $72, now thanks to the PaRx program, your doctor can prescribe it free of charge.
The PaRx program is just an example of how governments around the world can promote nature relatedness on a national level. Wherever you live, you can self-prescribe nature wherever you are without any risk!
Conclusion
As cities, towns, and suburbs all become more crowded and people find themselves being disconnected from nature and other humans, it is important that we, as a society, try to bring things back into balance and integrate more natural settings into our daily lives.
We are hopeful that more doctors, parks and recreation departments, and other community leaders will recommend nature. Although some challenges remain, the research demonstrates the potential of nature prescriptions to promote psychological health, lessen environmental estrangement, and reduce the costs of absenteeism and healthcare expenditures.
But we wouldn’t leave you without giving you your prescription, so here you are:
Simple Rx for Nature Relatedness: Nature, 1 dose per day (of being outside in a natural area.) Take your dose at any time of day, but it’s best to do it before lunch or dinner.
This quick fix comes with a multitude of benefits, so if you haven't started yet, we hope that this piqued your interest and motivated you to do just that! Nature is literally all around, just waiting to be "prescribed!"
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