How you will tell Walking in Nature May Reduce Negativity?
Taking
a walk outside really can help you clear your head but only if you go walking
in a natural, green place, a small new study suggests. Researchers
found that the 19 people in the study who took 90-minute walks in a natural
setting had lower levels of negative, repetitive thoughts about themselves,
compared with another 19 people who took 90-minute walks in an urban setting.
Previous research has linked such thoughts, called rumination, to a heightened and related conditions.
The
people in the first group took walks near Stanford, in a grassy area with
scattered oak trees and shrubs. The people in the comparison group took a walk
on the busiest street in nearby Palo Alto, according to the study. More than 50
percent of people in the United States now live in urban areas, and the number
is expected to reach 70 percent by 2050, according to the study. But research
has shown that urbanization is associated with increased rates of mental
illness, including depression. Scientists do not know for sure why the two are
related, the researchers said.
It is possible that stress may raise people's levels of rumination,.
And these stressors could in turn be lowered through exposure to nature, which
may act as "a buffer against possible negative representation for some people," The new results also add to the
"increasing body of evidence that nature experience provides cognitive and
mood benefits