Let us enjoy nature's miracles

by Lionel Wijesiri

It was a spring evening in Athens ten years ago. After dinner, a group of us who were travelling together went up to the roof of our hotel. Laughing and chatting, we each looked for a vantage point around the parapet. Suddenly someone cried, "Look!" As we turned to follow his gaze, we all fell silent.

The moon was rising over the city. Its light turned the barely perceptible fog into a golden mist. Beneath us lay the ancient, linen-white metropolis. Far away, the moon caught the mystery and splendour of the Parthenon on its lofty hill. Nearer to us, it shone on the silvery branches of an olive tree.

For a moment the city seemed the antechamber of eternity. It was as if one could hear solemn music behind all things. A friend standing next to me said softly, "What a beautiful night it is."

Love for nature

When we wake and see a sunrise, when we walk and feel a breeze, when we gaze at the mountains and the splendour of the seas, when we see the earth renew its beauty at each season of the year, and when the stars shine at night, we should be grateful to the Mother Nature for giving us all these wonderful and miraculous things.

Why is nature so beautiful? Why does a short walk amidst nature have such a calming influence on our mind? Why does the sight of flowers, butterflies and rainbows fill our hearts with joy unspeakable? Mankind's love for nature is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of life, one that even evolutionary biologists are hard-pressed to explain.

Perception

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I declare this world is so beautiful that I can hardly believe it exists." The beauty of nature can have a profound effect upon our senses, those gateways from the outer world to the inner, whether it results in disbelief in its very existence as Emerson notes, or feelings such as awe, wonder, or amazement. But what is it about nature and the entities that make it up that cause us, oftentimes unwillingly, to feel or declare that they are beautiful?

One answer is that the simple perception of natural forms is a delight. When we think of beauty in nature, we might most immediately think of things that dazzle our senses - the protrusion of a mountain, the expanse of the sea, the unfolding of the life of a flower. Often it is merely the perception of these things itself which gives us pleasure, and this emotional response on our part seems to be crucial to our experience of beauty.

William Wordsworth alluded to the idea that nature has the power to restore our weary hearts and minds. In one of his poems, he eloquently describes how the beauty of nature can provides us with tranquil restoration.

Words

The sublime words of Wordsworth also point out that city living, whether in the 18th or 21st centuries, often causes us to feel depleted, disconnected, and isolated, with the painful thought that nothing makes sense including our own stressful lives.

As a result of these thoughts and feelings, we work at low efficiency with no sense of fulfilment. We are often irritable, barely able to tolerate the many minor difficulties of living in a complex society.

The good news is that recent psychological research clearly supports the very solution that Wordsworth proposed so eloquently 218 years ago, specifically the solution of taking time to experience natural beauty to bring about "tranquil restoration" of our minds and souls.

There is considerable scientific evidence that taking time to be in a beautiful outdoor nature setting can increase the efficiency of the brain and improve our general psychological mood.

Few years ago, two researchers, Kaplan and Berman, in the respected journal "Perspectives on Psychological Science," reviewed the considerable scientific evidence and listed 13 studies showing positive mental or physical consequences of increased exposure to nature.

Kaplan and Berman in the paper explain how the restorative power of nature works. They utilize what is known as "Attention Restoration Theory" (ART) to prove their point.

Attention Restoration Theory describes a person as being in several states of attention: Directed, Effortless and Restored.

Tasks that require mental effort draw upon "directed attention". We must expend effort to achieve focus and to inhibit distractions. Performing such tasks also require other knowledge and skills. However, after a period of directed attention, we begin to suffer "directed attention fatigue". We become distracted, irritable and become less effective in performing our tasks. Attention may be "restored" by changing to a different kind of task that uses different parts of the brain. Alternatively, exposure to natural environments and wilderness has psychological benefits including attention restoration.

Nature has an abundance of fascinating objects. "Soft fascinations" such as clouds moving across the sky, leaves rustling in a breeze or water bubbling over rocks in a stream, gain our attention relatively effortlessly. After spending a reasonable time of effortless attention to soft fascinations, we may quietly take the stress off our system. This brings a "restorative" benefit which allows us to return to our normal activities.

Nature

When most of us think of nature, what comes to our minds are blue seas and golden beaches, its jungles and its mountain peaks and magnificent waterfalls. But what constitutes nature and the ways in which we feel connected to nature are quite varied. For example, I love watching hurricanes,whipping winds and rain, thunderstorms, lightening and even listening to the rhythmic sound of the surf.

Yet, the romantic, mystical part of my brain tells me that the "tranquil restoration" occurs because our subconscious mind warns us that if we disconnect from the natural world, we become disconnected from who we are.

(The writer is a freelance journalist and a retired corporate director having four decades' management experience. He can be contacted on [email protected])