We've Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden

By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And Everywhere there was song and celebration.

And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky,
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation.

We are stardust.
Billion year old carbon.
We are golden...
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

--Joni Mitchell

Woodstock, U of M Therapy Chicken

Guess what?
Nature is good for you!

You already knew that?
Well, so did I, but now many people are publishing evidence that this is so.  Quantifiable evidence and documentation to prove the benefit of "nature relatedness."

Peaches, Dodge Nature Preschool Therapy Chicken

My tongue is really not in my cheek.  I do value the findings of this growing body of research, but I think it is kind of funny that we humans can't totally sign on to something that we know innately, that we live and breath every day, until we find a way to study and research and publish and prove it officially.  And I don't mean just publish, no, we've got to have our researchers publish in reputable outlets, thank you, reviewed by more doctors and scientists.  The great paradox of researching the human connection to the natural world, is that the hypotheses behind the effort suggests that humans are estranged from the natural world.

Therapy Sunflower, Dodge Nature Center Garden

Well, we might not be as connected to the rest of the world as we would like, but there is no escaping the fact that we have a relationship with the world, good or bad.  We have an impact on the world, and the world has an impact on us.  We humans are just another animal, after all.  And the most exciting evidence to support the idea that we benefit from exposure to nature, really just states an obvious fact about us:  we are made up of the same elements that comprise all life on earth.  That old Joni Mitchell song about "stardust" is true:  we have elements of the space dust, the "billion year old carbon" the Earth evolved from in every cell of our bodies.  This is an inescapable fact.  And we are ruled by the same hormones and chemicals that rule other forms of life on Earth too.  Oxytocin, I recently learned, is manufactured in our brains to bond us to each other and our offspring and to keep the hemispheres of our brains clicking along happily, so that we can eat, sleep, talk, drive a car, go to work and generally function as human beings.  So, sure we "benefit from exposure to nature," but that's because we are nature, and we need nature to literally survive (preschoolers here at Dodge can tell you we need plants to breathe; a hamburger is just another form of sunshine, really).  And we need even more oxytocin and nature to survive happily.

Sunshine = Grass = Ben (or Beef)

You can probably tell that I just returned from a conference.  Yup, I attended, "Nature-Based Therapeutics-- Nature's Way of Healing," at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last week.  This day-long event was put on by the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing.  Dr. Jean Larson, Head of this department, organized the conference.  Speakers included brain scientist Dr. Paul Scheele,  environmental psychologist, Dr. Lisa Nisbet, and writer, producer and researcher, Meg Olmert.  The conference also included interpretive dance, a film presentation and, believe it or not, improv (The Theater For Public Policy is really, really good and you should go see them at Huge Improv Theater in Minneapolis).  The gestalt of the the whole thing was organized to hammer home one main point:  nature is so good for you that you better get some.  I'm on board with this thesis, and, while I appreciated the more touchy-feely portions of the day's agenda, I really liked the more straight ahead, sciency stuff.

Sunshine = Oxytocin

The brain researcher, Scheele, underlined the basics about our brain composition:  reptilian, mammalian, right and left hemispheres and how they work together.  And of course, people function better if their reptilian and mammalian brains are happy.  And you can guess what makes them happy:  oxytocin.  And we get oxytocin from... Nisbet, the doctor with all the Venn diagrams and bar graphs, presented her evidence that Canadians, at least, are happier when they walk outside than when they walk inside or through a "built environment."  Nature relatedness correlates to happiness.  And the happier brain is the brain with higher levels of...  oxytocin.  AND, the oxytocin hormone promotes bonding, in fact, it promotes pair bonding with other people and animals, and with nature itself.  Olmert, who has just published a book on the importance and evolution of inter-species relationships, Made for Each Other, sent the ball out of the park:  you not only get oxytocin from a hot bath, from wine, from chocolate, from human physical contact, you get it from petting pets and exposure to nature.  And since oxytocin promotes bonding, it seals and promotes your relationship to animals and nature.  Even looking at a picture of "nature" raises your brain's oxytocin levels and in turn increases your relatedness to nature-- Olmert had the brain scans to prove it.

Horticultural Therapy

I may have felt a little jaded during the interpretive dance, but I think the research and the message is powerful.  Your brain on nature isn't just happy, its chemistry is more balanced, allowing you to be a more productive and effective human being.  You are also more likely to take care of nature, because you are bonding with it, just as a mother bonds with her newborn child.  Olmert, who is the Director of Research and Development for Warrior Canine Connection, which trains veterans to train dogs for therapy, reports that the vets in her program no longer need the drug cocktail regimen prescribed for their PTSD.  The vets' relationship with the dogs they work with, the meaningful work they and the dogs carry out for other patients, and the resulting oxytocin bump in their brains is making these drugs obsolete (Olmert joked that we might "find her in the river some day," because these findings are not what "Big Pharma wants to hear").  Olmert's message is that the necessity of maintaining our connection to the natural world cannot be over-stated.  She asserts that, because we are in danger of losing our natural, necessary connection to the rest of the world, by virtue of the way most of us need to live our lives in the modern era, we can maintain a measure of health and happiness and connectedness through at least a relationship with domesticated animals, and domesticated plants too.  To quote Mitchell, "We've got to get ourselves back to the garden."  The world is complicated and its environmental problems are large, but small steps (and pets) taken every day can make a big difference in the quality of our lives, and our brains.

We are golden

So now you can tell your boss that she should let you bring your dog to work.  Your brain chemistry will be better and you will be more productive, and you'll be more likely to recycle!  Your brain on dogs = :).  And now you know why Dodge preschoolers are such highly effective people for their age!  Someone should come and take pictures of our brains; they must be awash in oxytocin!  Your brain on nature = :)

This post is dedicated to Maisy, the dog who never had to prove the value of inter-species relationships.   Neither wine, nor chocolate will ever compare.

Further reading:
Made For Each Other:  The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond by Meg Olmert
Your Brain on Nature by Eva Selhub
Cleo:  The Cat Who Mended a Family by Helen Brown