Nature & landscapes help with positive thinking
Humans are social beings and many people usually escape their homes and seek outdoor activities, maybe a cup of coffee with a dear friend, fishing on the weekend or even more sportive activity such as hiking or skating. But why!? well the idea is very simple, something within our selves humans is demanding us to go out more. To clear our minds and souls of negativity, life is very hard specially for a modern society where everything is surrounded by digital clock works, food, work, sleep, even going out with someone is pre-arranged!! So there is no fun or excitement in our modern life. Although humans are very good at easing their life up by inventing gadgets or building skyscrapers, something got lost along the way!! Our excitement, fun and simply not knowing what’s gonna happen tomorrow.
The science behind it
A recent scientific research proven that going out much, seeing landscapes and natural views actually helps, and it makes people more forward-thinking in their everyday life & decisions. The researchers started by preparing two different photographic slide shows – one of them depicting lush green natural landscapes and the other depicting urban environments. The volunteers were almost 50, The team then assigned each volunteer to one of the slide show rooms at random. In each room, volunteers listened to an audio script encouraging them to become immersed in the environment shown in the photographs. After each of the volunteers had watched one or the other of the slide shows, the researchers offered them a choice between two types of financial reward: 100 euros ($135) now, or a larger sum in 90 days’ time. And to test just how willing each participant was to wait for a reward, the researchers ratcheted the amount of the delayed reward upward in 10-euro ($13) increments until each volunteer chose it over the immediate reward. As you might expect, very few of the volunteers chose to wait 90 days for 110 euros when they could have 100 euros right now – and on the other hand, almost all of them were willing to wait 90 days for 150 euros or more. When the value of the delayed reward fell in between these two figures, though, a clear distinction became apparent. Participants who’d viewed the natural-scene slide shows were far more willing to wait for an extra 20, 30 or 40 euros than were the ones who’d seen urban scenes – hinting that their exposure to natural beauty may have made them more amenable to delayed gratification.
What’s happening!?
These subsequent experiments confirmed the team’s results: Participants who’d spent time viewing or exploring nature had the lowest thresholds for delaying future reward, implying that their exposure to natural scenes made them more inclined to care for the future. The results appear this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The researchers say the psychological benefit could be because nature moves at a slower pace overall, while city life relentlessly bombards us with pressure to acquire status, material goods and mates. When we take a step back and see the environment as a whole, all those tiny struggles vanish into the grand timescales of the Earth itself.
