Wild Earth - How nature affects our health

Biophilia - Love of Living Things

Our food, our medicine, our energy, our water and our stuff all come from the earth. But also, we are directly and immediately affected by nature as soon as we come into contact with it. Even your die-hard city slicker will feel better after a walk outdoors with trees (even if wearing high heels).

Evolutionary Biologist E.O. Wilson coined the term ‘biophilia’: ‘the innate tendency to affiliate with other living creatures and processes’.

The common sense & evolutionary logic

Biophilia makes both common sense and works from an evolutionary point of view. Our physical and personal relationship with nature is very old and it is logical that this interdependence is complex and strong. Our ‘nature’ urges are still intact, from saving drowning bugs in swimming pools, to stalking rabbits, to watching the sun set or in my case, I am afraid to admit – hugging trees.

The science

- Studies in hospitals and prisons both show that rooms with a view of a natural landscape significantly affect our health positively. Natural landscapes have been shown to stimulate the parasympathetic system and reduce blood pressure (Studies reviewed by Roger Ulrich in The Biophilia Hypothesis).

- Recent research has shown that just five minutes’ “green exercise” – physical activity in the presence of nature – is all it takes to improve your mood and sense of well-being.

- Many things found in nature have been shown scientifically to have a healing affect on the body: including varying temperatures, micro organisms, uneven terrain, sunlight. But I suspect there are a plethora of more subtle and complex natural phenomena which have yet to be studied that are at work on our body when we are exposed to our natural habitat.

Wildfitness courses are an indulgence in nature. We spend all our time in the great outdoors and sleep and eat with the natural rhythms of the day. Nature exposure, we know, is a major part of the transforming results that people experience from our courses.

What to do

- Get out into nature as much as you can. Your body works best and heals best in its natural habitat. Train outdoors rather than the gym, have walking meetings under trees, bike home along the canal, dip in outdoor pools whenever you can. Naked. Or clothed.

- Be aware that our health is a reflection of the health of the earth, so think what you can do to help with earth health. Perhaps the earth also experiences a reciprocal version of ‘biophilia’ – people-love? – and gets something directly from us communing with mother earth.

Tara Wood – September 2010

You don't have to hug trees to commune with nature