and improves ability to focus, explains Marc Berman, an environmental neuroscientist and associate professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. “Humans have two kinds of attention—directed attention, which is what we use at work and is the kind of attention that is fatigable or depletable, and involuntary attention which is automatically captured by interesting things in the environment and is not fatigable.
,” an unthreatening, pleasant experience that’s interesting but doesn’t require your full attention. This way, “your mind can wander and you can think about things at the same time,” Berman says. “When people are in nature, they tend to think about topics related to spirituality and their life journey.”, which suggests humans have an innate desire to connect with nature and other forms of life.
. “It allows for sensory stimulation, allowing us to take in what we see, hear, smell, and feel. It helps us be fully present.”Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. In addition, “we associate natural sights and sounds with key resources—there’s an evolutionary basis for that,” says Amber Pearson, a health geographer and an associate professor in the department of public health at Michigan State University. “When birds are silent, that’s often a sign of danger. We may pick up on that.”
The flip side is true, as well: People find comfort in many sounds from nature. A meta-analysis that Pearson co-authored andexamined the health benefits of exposure to natural sounds—from birds and animals, wind, and water—in national park sites and found that they were associated with reduced stress and annoyance, decreased pain, and improved mood.