Unit7-Part1-Reading

Being in nature.

Research reveals that environments can increase or reduce your stress.

The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause you to feel anxious, sad, or helpless.

A pleasing environment does the opposite.

Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear and stress,

and increases pleasant feelings.

Exposure to nature makes you feel better emotionally.

It contributes to your physical well -being, reduces your blood pressure, heart rate,

muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones.

In addition, nature helps us cope with pain.

A study was done on patients who underwent surgery,

half had a view of trees and half had a view of a wall.

According to Robert Ulrich, the doctor who conducted the study,

the patients with the view of trees tolerated pain better.

Spending time in nature or viewing nature scenes also increases our ability to pay attention.

Because we find nature interesting, we can naturally focus on the things we see in nature.

This refreshes us for new tasks.

According to a series of studies, turning to nature connects us to each other and the larger world too.

This experience of connection may be explained by studies that used fMRI to measure brain activity.

When participants viewed nature scenes, the parts of the brain associated with empathy and love lit up.

But when they viewed urban scenes, the parts of the brain associated with fear and anxiety were activated.

Not being in the natural world, largely due to spending hours in front of TV or computer screens,

unsurprisingly leads to depression.

It is also associated with the loss of empathy and the lack of selflessness.