So much of our existence has become fragmented. And, our sense of stress has increased accordingly.
According to Outside magazine, Americans went on 1 billion fewer hikes, bike rides and walks in 2018, compared with 2008. And, Axios Finish Line reported that while the share of people spending time in nature ticked up during the pandemic as folks had more free time, we're still spending more time indoors than we did a decade ago. More startling is the statistic that some 100 million Americans, including 27 million kids, don't have access to decent green spaces.
One Nature.com study — with 20,000 participants — by researchers from the University of Exeter found that people who spent two hours a week in parks, at beaches or in woodlands scored higher than others on metrics related to physical and psychological well-being.
For years now, I have noticed a similar pattern — something about spending time in nature shifts an internal dynamic about reality for me. While I'm guessing it could be debated what that shift is, I'm pretty confident that our internal systems signal the impact of a more natural orientation to our existence (than the hybrid-ized one we have ended up with). And, you don't have to look very long to discover that people throughout time (ancient or more recent) have reached similar conclusions. Even sacred narratives seem to point this out.
Our sense of self is better understood in the context of the range of broader relationships with the world we all live in (acknowledged or not). We exist within something larger and that is important to know about, if not more fully understand. While many features of American life are often somewhere between interesting and good, many others are not. Stress caused by the isolation often felt from a false sense of autonomy is pretty evident. According to widely available reports like those referenced above, it would do us all well to make some re-prioritizations...like routinely spending even a small amount of time outside, where a full range sensory impacts can be experienced in a way that connects us to the larger goods of reality.
In the wilderness, I sense the wholeness hidden “in all things.” It is in the taste of wild berries, the scent of sunbaked pine, the sight of the Northern Lights, the sound of water lapping the shore, signs of a bedrock integrity that is eternal and beyond all doubt.
-- Parker Palmer
