100 studies have shown that being in nature—or even watching it in videos—benefits our brains, bodies, feelings, thought processes, and social interactions.   Humans have long intuited that being in nature is good for the mind and body. From indigenous adolescents completing rites of passage in the wild to modern East Asian cultures taking “forest baths,” many have looked to nature as a place for healing and personal growth. A large body of research is documenting the positive impacts of nature on human flourishing. Why nature? No one knows for sure; but one hypothesis derived from evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson’s “biophil... posted on Dec 7 2017 (16,559 reads)

Nature of Gratitude is an ensemble of artists who come together to explore and share their experience of nature and gratitude on stage using music, spoken word, and photography. After five years of offering this program, The Nature of Gratitude has evolved into a core ensemble of committed artists who include accomplished singer/songwriter and Oregon Book Award-winning poet Beth Wood; award-winning singer/songwriter Halie Loren; GRAMMY® award-nominated Native American multi-instrumentalist Gentle Thunder; performance poet Jorah LaFleur; and co-founders Tom Titus, performance prose and author of Palindrome: Grateful Reflections from the Home Ground,&... posted on Mar 5 2020 (6,241 reads)

exactly how genes make the body and how the body gives rise to feeling and consciousness—the view that life is organized like a chain of military orders fails. In genetic research, developmental biology, and brain research, scientists are increasingly realizing that they can only understand living beings if they re-introduce a factor into biology that has been thoroughly purged from it for centuries: subjectivity. Biology, which has made many efforts to separate emotions from nature since the nineteenth century, is rediscovering feeling as the foundation of life. Until now, researchers, eager to discover the structure and behavior of organisms, had glossed over the problem... posted on Jun 29 2021 (4,104 reads)

these trends, we will surely make our planet uninhabitable. But how do we encourage people—especially our kids—to care more and take action? Social scientists are beginning to look for answers to this question with some promising results. Research indicates that motivating people to care takes more than just reciting facts and making doomsday predictions. Instead, it requires promoting compassionate concern for our natural world, which comes from early contact with nature, empathy for our fellow creatures, and a sense of wonder and fascination.  Specifically, scientists are starting to uncover how to encourage that compassionate concern in children, so t... posted on Nov 3 2016 (12,487 reads)

kids spend less and less time outdoors, and it’s taking a toll on their health and well-being. Research has shown that children do better physically and emotionally when they are in green spaces, benefiting from the positive feelings, stress reduction, and attention restoration nature engenders. No one has brought attention to this issue more than Richard Louv, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network and author of Last Child in the Woods, The Nature Principle, and, most recently, Vitamin N: 500 Ways to Enrich the Health & Happiness of Your Family & Community. Louv has written eloquently about the impor... posted on Nov 23 2016 (16,671 reads)

been an avid hiker my whole life. From the time I first strapped on a backpack and headed into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I was hooked on the experience, loving the way being in nature cleared my mind and helped me to feel more grounded and peaceful. But, even though I’ve always believed that hiking in nature had many psychological benefits, I’ve never had much science to back me up…until now, that is. Scientists are beginning to find evidence that being in nature has a profound impact on our brains and our behavior, helping us to reduce anxiety, brooding, and stress, and increase our attention capacity, creativity, and our ability to connect with other peo... posted on Mar 20 2016 (27,764 reads)

Kevin Stark August 31, 2017 In 2008, Ecuador's leadership rewrote its constitution to include the rights of nature, effectively awarding legal rights to the environment. This change was led by many grassroots environmental advocates, including Natalia Greene, an organizer and environmental activist who played a key role in the development of the constitutional changes. In a 2015 talk about her experience, Greene said the changes were very bold: "It is very important because this means we don't necessarily depend only on the state to guarantee the rights of nature. Anyone in Ecuador can guarantee these rights." Indigenous communities have recognized the r... posted on Jan 20 2018 (12,944 reads)

planning, consulting, and investment firm. Among his many awards are MIT’s Visionary Leadership Award and The Urban Land Institute’s global award for Excellence. Jonathan is the author of The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations and Human Behavior Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life. Tom Andersen: Jonathan, can you contrast what you consider “ecological civilization” with the western paradigm of conquering or dominating nature, and explain how the two differ. Jonathan Rose: So it’s interesting because the western paradigm began with the idea of conquering nature and then moved on to the idea of ignoring... posted on Jul 30 2018 (9,044 reads)

accessible, more affordable, more transparent, and non-hierarchical. And there is a pioneering element to her work that combines both radical new ways of approaching this ancient art as well as a deep respect for the tradition and for the form. There are many contrasts that come into play in Mayuka's life, and she really is a bridge builder and has this way, I think, of dissolving constructed barriers -- the barriers between doing and being, between head and heart, between business and nature, between life and death. So it is such a gift to have her here with us today. And this is very unusual ... not every day that we get to sit with someone who has sat so deeply with flowers. S... posted on May 3 2023 (2,561 reads)

TIPPETT, HOST: I have rarely discovered a book that so delighted and galvanized me at once. The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy is written by the English naturalist and journalist, Michael McCarthy. “The sudden passionate happiness which the natural world can occasionally trigger in us,” he writes, “may well be the most serious business of all.” We could stop relying on the immobilizing language of statistic and take up joy as a civilizational defense of nature. With a perspective equally infused by science, reportage, and poetry, he reminds us that the natural world is where we evolved, where we found our metaphors, and it is the resting place for ou... posted on May 28 2018 (6,755 reads)

women sang back in chorus: What do the forests bear? Soil, water, and pure air. Soil, water, and pure air Sustain the Earth and all she bears. Beyond Monocultures From Chipko, I learned about biodiversity and biodiversity-based living economies; the protection of both has become my life’s mission. As I described in my book Monocultures of the Mind, the failure to understand biodiversity and its many functions is at the root of the impoverishment of nature and culture. When nature is a teacher, we ­co-create with her—we recognize her agency and her rights. The lessons I learned about diversity in the Himalayan forests I transfer... posted on Feb 13 2013 (17,532 reads)

the first cities collectively as centers of worship and trade that we are only now discovering in South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. These city cooperatives too have been experiencing their own youth as cities became the centers for competitive empire-building over thousands of years up to national and now corporate empires. We have at last reached a new tipping point where enmities are more expensive in all respects than friendly collaboration, where planetary limits of exploiting nature have been reached. It is high time for us to cross this tipping point into our global communal maturity of ecosophy. Exploring Ecosophy ‘Economy’ once meant the careful, effic... posted on Feb 26 2015 (22,780 reads)

the time we’re 60, we will have been alive for almost 22,000 days on this planet, rarely, if ever, stopping to watch just one. By immersion into nature in solitude, we allow the natural human to become entrained to the nature of the planet we are part of. On the 7th day, my mind was flowing at the speed of sea fog. Or maybe that was the description of my nervous system. I felt so present with a gentle flow — and my mind felt open to whatever arises. Good stuff. I had been camping in solitude in nature — on a hill over the ocean on the coast of California — as I have done twice a year for the past 20+ years. I jokingly call it my “People Fast&rd... posted on Apr 13 2020 (7,314 reads)

years ago, Minneapolis’s Washburn Center for Children, provider of mental health services to about 2,700 youths each year, decided a new facility was needed to replace the old building. This morning, the business journal Finance & Commerce reported on the Center’s coming Grand Opening — and on Washburn’s pioneering idea. “One of the keys to treating … children is connecting them with nature…” wrote Brian Johnson. “Large windows, abundant natural light…curved hallways, high ceilings, extensive landscaping and strong ties to the outdoors jump out at visitors… On the outside, a large playground with gra... posted on Jan 7 2015 (27,752 reads)

and went on long hiking trips in the mountains of Germany and Switzerland. Between 1904 and 1912 he lived in a rural setting in Gaienhofen on Lake Constance, where he built his own house. Reading good books and a walk in the woods alternated and filled Hesse’s daily schedule throughout his years. An avid gardener with much knowledge about the art and science of taking care of plants, he nourished his creativity by direct experience, by the cultivation of contemplative interaction with nature. The harvest of this dedication was rich, full of insightful analogies and an abundance of perceptive metaphors. With a growing awareness he understood the meaning of the great Hermes Trisme... posted on Jun 9 2019 (9,014 reads)

origins are of the earth. And so there is in us a deeply seated response to the natural universe, which is part of our humanity,” Rachel Carson wrote in reflecting on our spiritual bond with nature shortly before she awakened the modern environmental conscience. The rewards and redemptions of that elemental yet endangered response is what British naturalist and environmental writer Michael McCarthy, a modern-day Carson, explores in The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy (public library) — part memoir and part manifesto, a work of philosophy rooted in environmental science and buoyed by a soaring poetic imagination. McCarthy writes: ... posted on May 4 2021 (5,154 reads)

who I am. I am everything.” T: How do you get closer to her? M: By understanding who she is. The moment you understand who she is you come closer to her. As you are talking about her, we are coming closer to her and she listens. But the moment we abuse her we are distancing ourselves from her, from the Tree of Life. T: How do you understand who she is? M: Go and talk to her, your own way. It could be through having in mind this woman during your yoga sessions, your nature walks. Think of her and you get in very close to her. She will talk to you. She speaks all languages, known and unknown. That is why she is a mystery.  T: Do we hear her in our hea... posted on Dec 8 2019 (6,110 reads)

(Host): Today, our guest is none other than Jacob Needleman, someone who really embodies today's theme and hopefully we'll be able to dive into on, "Money and the meaning of life." We are really looking forward to it. I know I am, personally. I really want to thank all of you for joining us. Our theme for this week is " Money and the meaning of life". Our guest today wrote that, " we as humans are uniquely beings of two natures. The material, which is focused on the world of action and doing and the spiritual or transcendent, longing for something higher greater and more inclusive of the ordinary self. He has noted that our great possibility... posted on Jul 4 2015 (8,889 reads)

origins are of the earth. And so there is in us a deeply seated response to the natural universe, which is part of our humanity,” Rachel Carson wrote in reflecting on our spiritual bond with nature shortly before she awakened the modern environmental conscience. The rewards and redemptions of that elemental yet endangered response is what British naturalist and environmental writer Michael McCarthy, a modern-day Carson, explores in The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy (public library) — part memoir and part manifesto, a work of philosophy rooted in environmental science and buoyed by a soaring poetic imagination. McCarthy writes: ... posted on Aug 22 2018 (10,021 reads)

this in-depth interview, Dr. Suzanne Simard—the renowned scientist who discovered the “wood-wide web”—speaks about mother trees, kin recognition, and how to heal our separation from the living world. Transcript Emergence Magazine You’ve described your work as an exploration of how we can regain our respect for the wisdom and intelligence of the forest and, through that, help to heal our relationship with nature. And over the course of your career, you’ve made some remarkable scientific discoveries about the ways that trees communicate and the intelligence that lies at the heart of the forest eco... posted on Aug 16 2021 (7,487 reads)