The Therapeutic Power of Nature

Source: Pexels (free stock photo - adapted)

It’s common to find urban dwellers yearning for the green spaces of nature (even if their romantic image of ‘the countryside’ is often something of an idyllic fiction). I’m intimate with this sentiment myself: the concrete and noise of the city can make one dream wistfully of wide open fields, far from the madding crowd. Indeed, this longing appears to be grounded deep within the human psyche: on some deep level, we are nourished by contact with nature. And while people may have long known this in an intuitive way, now psychology is waking up to the therapeutic power of the natural world.

This is reflected, for instance, in the emergence of paradigms such as ecopsychology, devoted to understanding the close interdependence between humans and nature. Literature in this area often takes an evolutionary perspective, pointing to the fitness value of a connection with, and appreciation of, the natural world. The benefits of nature are likewise reflected in the pioneering work of Wil Gesler, whose ideas around ‘therapeutic landscapes’¹ and ‘healing places’² are beginning to inform approaches to physical and mental health issues. This includes designing hospitals so that they afford patients opportunities to interact with natural spaces as they recuperate³.

Learning from other cultures

In its emergent appreciation of nature, psychology has many resources and traditions to draw upon. These include practices and concepts developed in different cultural and historical contexts. And in doing so, we may come to appreciate that the field of psychology is not synonymous with Western, English-speaking psychology.

Scholars in Western societies can often assume that their approach to psychology constitutes the discipline in its entirety. However, their scholarship—like any endeavor—is inevitable shaped by their cultural context, one that has been described as ‘WEIRD’ (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic⁴). Such researchers will, to an extent, be influenced by prominent Western ideologies and traditions. These include an individualistic conception of selfhood (as opposed to more ‘collectivist’ or socially-oriented conceptions)⁵, and the related idea that wellbeing is an internal mental state shaped primarily by cognitive processes (as opposed to a communal state shaped by social and environmental processes)⁶.

As such, we (Western psychologists) have much to learn from stepping outside our cultural context —insofar as that is possible—and engaging with the ideas and practices of other cultures. A fascinating pathway to such engagement is through "untranslatable" words, i.e., terms which lack an exact equivalent in our own tongue. These are significant, not least in highlighting phenomena which have been overlooked or underappreciated in one’s own culture and language.

For that reason, I’ve been searching for such words, focusing on wellbeing specifically (as a researcher in positive psychology). The result is an evolving positive lexicography, as I discuss in two new books (see bio for details).

‘Forest bathing’

The lexicography has many intriguing themes, including—most relevantly here—ones relating to an engagement with nature. Among the most prominent is the Japanese notion of shinrin-yoku. This can be rendered as ‘forest bathing’, implying the restorative benefits of luxuriating—literally and/or metaphorically—in the tranquillity of natural environments.

Shinrin-yoku is particularly notable, as it has been widely recognised and moreover harnessed in Japanese clinical contexts for the treatment of physical or psychological ailments⁷. As such, it is a good example of a psychological practice developed in a non-Western context, from which the field more broadly might learn.

In saying that, I do not want to imply a simple "Orientalist" East-West binary⁸ (where it is often asserted, for example, that Western cultures are individualistic and Eastern ones collectivistic⁹). After all, cultures are not only heterogenous—with traditions of collectivism in the West, and of individualism in the West—but moreover dynamic and permable. Ideas, practices, and people from the West can easily find their way East, and vice versa, especially in this age of globalisation.

Nevertheless, one could draw insights from the way shinrin-yoku has been influenced by cultural traditions within Japan, such as Buddhism and Shintoism, which both have a rich heritage of appreciative engagement with nature¹⁰. And, to the extent that psychology—as a global endeavour –studies and learns from these contexts, its understanding of human beings and their wellbeing will be enriched accordingly.