Can walking in green, natural spaces (parks, outdoors, natural environments) improve your mental health? Yes! A growing body of research shows that being in nature does in fact lower stress levels, improve memory & enhance affect (mood). But how exactly does it do this? According to a recent study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Gregory Bratman & co-authors, experiencing nature actually changes our brains in some very important ways — in particular, by reducing rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation (sgPFC). Read more…
Thank you to Andrea Houchard, Ph.D. for bringing this wonderful article to our attention! Also…for those of you who are local (Helena, MT) and interested in taking a philosophy walk with us, please visit our Philosophy Walks page!