An Invitation to Your Backyard

Living in the age of technology has helped us vastly expand our ever-growing library of knowledge by making information readily available with a few simple clicks of a computer mouse or a tap or two on the screen of our smartphones. Feats of recent technology have also accommodated this generation with various means of entertainment including video games, high definition movies and various accounts of social media to name a few. Being surrounded with all these means of entertainment seems to have caused a rift in the once thriving relationship between humans and nature as more people are spending their time indoors, behind a screen than in the great outdoors where marvelous wonders are occurring, waiting to be observed! Take for example the video directly above of the carnivorous plant, Drosera capensis also known as the Cape Sundew, as it gradually encompasses its wasp victim. How fascinating it must have been for the person who first discovered that plants can eat insects! More so fascinating though is how this plant manages to catch insects. The tentacles covering D. capensis are coated in a thick, gluey substance called a mucilage which appears to insects as droplets of water, so when the insect land for what they think is a drink of water, they become trapped on this sticky substance and in trying to escape they actually cause the plant to start curling inward, encompassing the insect for later digestion. Now while the observation of this particular plant serves no real purpose outside of entertaining the observer, other forms of nature are studied which have helped to further our technological advancements.

Nature's B-2 (top) & Human's B-2 (bottom)
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To the left is an image comparing a common buzzard (from my best judgement; could be a hawk or falcon) in flight and a B-2 stealth bomber. The similarity in the profile of both the bird and the bomber suggest that birds were observed and studied for their streamlined design, which allows them to have the least possible resistance to the flow of air resulting in increased speed and ease of movement, qualities that would greatly improve the efficiency of our aircraft. This is just one example of several that show how much we can learn from observing nature and while studying plants and animals through online courses or databases can be very informative, there is no real substitute for experiencing them in their natural environment.
In going outside, whether to observe nature or enjoy a walk, you can experience several health benefits including but not limited to an increase in vitamin D uptake, an increase in brain function, an increase in creativity, a decrease in stress and even an increase in happiness. These claims come from an article published by the Huffington Post titled “Here’s Proof Going Outside Makes You Healthier”. The author of this article, Abigail Wise, uses scientific studies and interviews with professionals as proof for these claims. For the claim that going outside can cause an increase in happiness Wise refers to an interview with an environmental psychologist, Judith Heerwagon, who says, “Just looking at a garden or trees or going for a walk, even if it’s in your own neighborhood, reduces stress; I don’t think anyone understands why, but there’s something about being in a natural setting that shows clear evidence of stress reduction, including physiological evidence — like lower heart rate”. In addition to this, Wise reports that "One reason Mother Nature may work as such a gret stress-buster is through scent. The smell of many flowers, including jasmine, lilacs and roses, have been proven to decrease stress and increase relaxation. The scent of fresh pine has even been shown to lower depression and anxiety". More than just make us healthier, I believe being encompassed by nature can bring to surface a level of peace that can only be achieved in a natural environment. When you think about it, all of the buildings we are constantly contained within whether for work, school or shopping needs, are extremely boxed, being constructed like cubes so as to provide sound structural support. While strong structures are absolutely necessary I find that these cubical buildings coated with bland, boring paint, meant to appear clean and professional, contribute to depression. To better illustrate this, let’s compare two pictures.

New York City, New York
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To the right is New York City (NYC), located in New York and is a business and tourism capital of the United States. From an aerial perspective one can see tall, grey buildings for miles in every direction. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of NYC as of a 2015 estimate is 8,550,405 and is constantly growing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but a large population such as this means a large amount of garbage and other waste that can contribute to feelings of depression.

Glacier National Park, Montana
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 Now the image to the left is of Glacier National Park located in Montana in the United States. National Parks are preserved lands protected by law to help conserve the beauty of the natural world. There are far more colors in this landscape than that of NYC and because the area has more of a focus on nature than industry, the population of the closest city, Whitefish, is much less as well, a mere 7,073 according to a 2015 estimate by the Census. For those such as myself who experience anxiety among large crowds of people, the latter of the two locations will always be preferred and will help to ease the mind of any related stress.

Now looking once more at the two pictures, there’s another factor to consider that isn’t exactly obvious at first glance and that’s the subject of nighttime activities. Some people refer to NYC as “the city that never sleeps” and this is because there is always something to do at any given hour. When I visited NYC about two years ago, I remember walking into time square at 11 o’clock at night and thinking it might’ve been daytime because of all the light pollution produced by miles of billboards, storefronts and lights that lined the streets. The image of Glacial National Park shows the absence of any source of light pollution which means when nighttime comes, the only source of light will be the stars above or that of campfires made by campers. Something that’s not often thought about is the fact that all the artificial light we surround ourselves with at night contributes to a lack of sleep which results in feeling poorly in the morning and generally not well rested. This idea was tested in a study conducted by scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder who recorded levels of melatonin, a hormone that helps induce sleep, in eight people for one week as they slept in their homes and again as the same eight people went camping in the Rocky Mountain for a week. After the subjects spent one week camping, Kenneth Wright, an integrative psychologist at the University of Colorado explains that “the researchers found that the onset of melatonin shifted two hours earlier, and the subjects’ actual sleep shifted more than an hour earlier”. Wright continues to explain that while the subjects slept at home, surrounded by artificial light, “they would wake up but the melatonin in their bodies was telling them they should still be asleep; that might account for their still feeling sleepy”.

Enjoying a campfire at dusk, something not recommended for indoors.
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So to conclude, spending more time outdoors can make us healthier, happier, less stressed, more observant, more creative and allow us to sleep better. The reason I titled this post “An Invitation to Your Backyard” is because all of these beneficial effects are literally just outside your door, you just have to commit to spending a little time outside doing something that’s not just driving to or from wherever you go. Tomorrow I’ll be posting about the importance of being outdoors in children specifically, so parents especially should tune in for that post.