My father was a familiar figure in our area well into his eighties, cycling to the shops in his yellow oilskin cape and matching over-trousers; if it was dry weather, he would walk the distance, but in the rain he cycled. He had a car – but that was used only for longer distances or for outings with my mother. When we were children, at the weekends, we would cycle in single file in front of him to the beach or nearby river. He maintained that fresh country air and exercise was good for us – and he ensured that we had a lot of both!
It is only recently that scientists have delivered the proof that before was only gut-felt certainty. We now know that a fifteen-minute walk in a forest – as compared to an urban setting - significantly reduces the stress hormone, cortisol, as well as reducing pulse rate and blood pressure. We also know that people who live in greener environments are less likely to suffer poor mental health; an analysis of more than 300 studies demonstrated that children spending significant amounts of time in green spaces benefit massively; they enjoy more than a 100% improvement in health and cognitive outcomes. (Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health, Kathy Willis, 2024)
Another interesting study that Willis reports was conducted in 2020 in Finland with younger children using different play areas over the course of a single month. Those children who played on forest soil and with peat blocks forming their climbing frames showed a large increase in the diversity of the microbes on their skin and in their gut, compared to those children playing in more manufactured playgrounds. Their blood samples indicated much stronger signs of a healthy immune system – and that was after just one month of the experiment!
A coalition of British charities, including ‘Playing Out’, ‘Save the Children UK’, and ‘Wildlife and Countryside Link’ presented a report to the government late last year requesting that the government prioritises outdoor play for children as a way of promoting mental and physical wellbeing. Alice Ferguson of ‘Playing Out’ stated: ‘Compared to previous generations, children’s lives have become incredibly restricted, indoors, isolated and inactive, largely due to changes in the outdoor environment. Government could reverse this trend and hugely improve children’s health and wellbeing by making streets safer and neighbourhoods more child-friendly, enabling them to get outside every day and play.' (Quoted from The Guardian)
Many researchers suspect a primal need for nature is baked into humans' DNA, and diminishing access to nature is putting our health at risk. New research from the University of Utah ( A.S.McDonnell & D.L. Strayer, 2024, Scientific Reports) proves that a walk in nature enhances certain executive control processes in the brain, above and beyond the benefits generally associated with exercise. The participants in the research who had walked in green spaces showed a distinct improvement in their executive attention to a particular task, whereas the urban walkers did not.
All of this requires government intervention to bring about changes that will improve children’s mental health, executive functioning and immune system. In the meantime, it behoves you and I to take whatever steps into a greener environment with our children that we possibly can.
P.S. In 2019, Princess of Wales designed a garden called ‘Back to Nature’ for the Chelsea Flower Show. The Princess’s co-designers suggested that her ideas were inspired by “forest bathing”.
If the term “forest bathing” sounds a bit weird, that’s because it’s a literal translation of the Japanese phrase shinrin-yoku, which means walking slowly and thoughtfully in woodland, literally to “bathe” in its peace and beauty and recharge the body’s batteries.
