Ecopsychology tells us what our ancestors knew...nature is the soul’s best healer.
“Ecopsychology is the study of the human psyche in the context of the larger systems of which it is part. It aims to promote sustainable relationships among humans and extend to sustainable relationships with the more-than-human world. We want to redefine sanity, revise the practices of psychotherapy and ideas of mental health — that’s our mission. We ask: how is the earth speaking through this symptom?” Sarah Conn, ecopsychologist(1)

“The priorities of life and survival are very different today. In the past, the environment was obviously a part of survival and was respected. Survival depended on being close to nature. Now, most of us don’t acknowledge the part played by the environment in our lives.” Sue Wright, psychologist(2)

“Our detachment from nature lies behind a host of modern psychological, emotional and physical problems…. Just as our bodies are unable to adapt to a permanent surplus of calories and the invention of the automobile, so our minds are unable to acclimatise to the peculiar stresses of high-density urban living. We are, deep down, creatures of the countryside, even if most of us see less of it than ever before.”(2)

“Without vegetation, people are different beings.” Frances Kuo, researcher(1)

• Residents of a Chicago housing project who lived near trees were more sociable, suffered less domestic violence, were less afraid of crime and more content with where they lived than those who didn’t.(1)
• Office workers with a window view of nature experienced significantly more enthusiasm for their jobs and less frustration than windowless workers.(3)
• Hospital patients with a view of nature needed less time in the hospital and less medication than others who looked out on brick walls.(1)
• A University of Essex (UK) study found that rural views reduce blood pressure significantly.(1)

References
1 Hester Lacey in “Barking Up a Different Tree,” The Independent (London), Oct 29, 1995
2 Hugh Wilson in “The Green Pages: The Force of Nature,” The Independent (London),  Aug 29, 2005.
3 Carin Gorrle in “Nature’s Path to Inner Peace,” Psychology Today, July 2001.

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