Yes, our phones are stealing our brains and our focus, but there is an answer, and it’s simpler than you think. In this article, I’m going to share some personal experiences and an excellent book I’m reading which gives very simple and tangible and easy steps to take your power and your focus and most importantly, your creative imagination back from the tech lords and distractions of modern life.
By Louisa Deasey

I recently moved back to the inner city of Melbourne after 3 years on the edge of the wombat state forest in Central Victoria. For the last few years I’ve learnt about weather, trees, wood, heating, wind, rain, and my days had a certain rhythm that was largely dictated by the sun, moon, surrounding forest and weather patterns. But I grew up with the sounds of the city and lived in the city for most of my life before the forest sojourn – trains, trams, buses, cars, honking, shouting, movement of humans and multiple languages shouted across the street were my ‘norm’… (so much so that it took me six months in Trentham before I could sleep without playing my white noise machine with the sound of traffic!!!) so I’ve been surprised at how hard it’s been to adjust to the pace and frequency of the city again, after three years in nature.

There were numerous reasons for leaving what’s been a respite and a life-changing environment to live and work within. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but something I’m determined to make ‘work’ for the time being (for personal reasons), and part of making it work is the new understanding I have of just how much nature there can be in the city, too, when you look for it and consciously incorporate it into your daily life.
It’s crucial if you want to do anything creative, too, because study after study after study proves what we instinctually know to be true: walking in nature, being in nature, even merely observing nature, improves our focus, our attention, our cognitive function, our creative imagination, and can help us recover from all manner of physical and psychological ailments. Like the studies on meditation, too, incorporating green spaces into urban design can reduce crime and poverty, too. Yes.

So if you can’t just up and move to the edge of a state forest, don’t worry. I’m back in a city filled with millions of humans again too, but I have a completely new level of appreciation, observation and understanding of how much nature there actually can be, in the city. When you look for it. When you appreciate it. When you bring it into your everyday life!

The giant 50+ year-old trees, cracking through the cement in the footpath across the road. The star jasmine, climbing the bricks along the lane (ooh, the scent!). The roses pushing through every gap they can find in the picket fences to open and bloom, facing the sun…. the colours, climbing fences and doorways, in pots, in gardens, in doorways. The parks, creeks, beaches and river walks. It’s the basis of the city. Nature came first – the cement came second. And nature keeps growing. And growing.

Nature is a restorative

One of the reasons for moving back to the city was the impending death of one of my oldest friends, who was sick and who i couldn’t easily visit, from the country. Now that she’s gone, healing from such sadness and grief is a priority, and i know I’m not the only one whose heart is soothed by the endless life force of nature. I made it a priority to furnish my two outdoor spaces in the apartment where I live, gathering potting mix and hanging baskets before I’d even unpacked all my books and boxes.

Because I know exactly what a difference it all makes to my mind, my body, my very state of being.
Did you know that merely touching a plant, or the dirt around it, calms your heart and can soothe your nerves? The impact on your biology and physiology is immediate! Visually, I know that if I can’t see something green, natural and wild when I look outside my window I start to feel a bit jailed, without options. We know we need the sun for cheer (and i love to close my eyes and just sit by the morning sun for a minute or two to get its glorious beam on my face when I wake) but we need beauty, natural beauty, just as much.

Nature and the imagination

If I can’t see the sky when I’m writing, I don’t have as many creative ideas. To look at humans, I’m endlessly distracted, thinking small, trying to rise ‘above’ the sense that the world is racing around me. But to get pen and paper and sit by a window that looks to sky, or grass, or flowers, or a tree? You can forget about yourself for awhile. And think about the things that matter.
Regardless, it just feels better. There’s something about having a view that doesn’t contain humans (whether it’s tree, sky, water or flowers) that helps you think ‘outside the box’ and come back to your superpower: your imagination.

Seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth…
Anon

Once upon a time I would have apologised for being extreme, or a ‘hippy’, for needing a view without distractions to write, but there’s increasing volumes of scientific literature spanning health, biology, neuroscience, even economics and social psychology, that shows it’s not just me, and it’s not just aesthetic preference. The Earthing movie you can watch here has some fascinating information about neurodiversity and the affects of being barefoot in nature. It affects the way our brains work, it affects our central nervous system, it affects the very way we think, and it most definitely impacts on our creative output and ability to focus and concentrate.

But this podcast interview with the renowned psychology professor Dr Marc Berman gives some easy and practical ways to implement this knowledge, no matter where or how you live. Yes, even if you’re in a hospital or a school environment. Dr Berman shares numerous social and economic studies which provide tangible evidence that even using an artificial plant in an indoors space, or images of one, that give you the visual cues which mimic the circular and cyclical shapes and patterns of nature, and how it positively influences your health, your physiology, your ability to focus, and  your wellbeing.
In the most widely publicised study, Dr Berman shares that for those of us with ADHD, a 20 minute walk in nature can be as affective as medication, in helping us to regain focus and concentration. Wild, huh? Turns out that instinct to ‘go for a walk’ is a healthy one. Just try to make it somewhere less concrete, more green.

Nature can influence the very way we think….

What I loved learning in that podcast (and why I bought his book as soon as it was released), is that it’s not just health and cognitive functioning that nature affects, it’s the very concepts and ideas we think about. Now, consider the type of high level thought and executive decisions you need to make if you’re going through any major transition in life, if you’re wanting to write or create or produce anything original, innovative or exceptional… if you want to live, and build, and create, well.

And this is why it matters to anyone in any creative field. Whether you’re writing a book, a film, a play, or simply trying to get your brain out of the loops it’s followed and innovate and imagine new ideas for a new way of being, the solution could come from nature.

A fascinating nature and writing study…

In one of the more fascinating studies Dr Berman mentioned, which is included in his new book, Nature and the Mind, the same group of individuals were studied after spending time in a man-made built environment without nature views, then after walking through an arboretum.  They were asked to journal and reflect on their thoughts in both environments. The findings showed that in built environments with no nature (not even a replica of a tree or plant), we tend to think about ourselves. We become self-focused, self-critical, and comparative. In the natural environments, we tend to think more spiritually, and more of other people and how we can help them.

Isn’t that fascinating? Of course, we know all this stuff instinctually. My three years in the forest showed me just how more peacefully I think, feel and behave, and how much more regulated my nervous system is when I’m surrounded by trees. But sometimes, you need to live in an urban environment. For me, I couldn’t stay in the forest forever – a dramatic physical injury which affected my mobility, the danger of the bushfires and storms and floods were a constant threat (which taxed my nervous system in other ways!), I needed to be closer to loved ones, not isolated with no way to visit a dying friend when there were trees down on every road out of town.

Getting your nature fix even when you live in the city

So what’s the solution? For me, it’s about treating nature as a priority, not a ‘hobby’, as I once did. As I mentioned, the apartment now has furnished gardens on at both the front and back entranceway (and I know my neighbours appreciate the upgrades to their views, too!). There’s indoor plants in every room inside, and some fake ones in the bathroom (the ‘circular’ patterns in nature also influence our thoughts positively, too, whether it’s a real or artificial. Isn’t that beautiful? Even an image of a forest or a waterfall can help you think better!). And I’ve been walking to the parks, the creeks, and just around the streets with beautiful gardens, every day that I can, sometimes multiple times a day, depending on energy.

When I tore my meniscus and ACL in September last year, unable to walk or even bend over without pain for almost two months, I remember reading that just standing in nature and looking at it and breathing the air near grass would get me out of the fight / flight response. Because I was unable to exercise for so long, which is one of the biggest ways I relieve mental stress and anxiety, I would just hobble outside and touch a plant, breathing the air, looking at insects. I noticed that stressful phone conversations (about my sick friend, or whether or not I’d need surgery on my knee) didn’t flood my body with anxiety in such an overwhelming way when I took my phone outside, staring at a tree or patch of grass or flowers as I absorbed or discussed the information.

It doesn’t take much nature to have a positive effect on your mind, and I offer that in a time when tech, politics, all that’s been happening on a global level – regardless of your personal situation – is a lot for the human body to handle. The human brain isn’t meant to see wars playing out in real time, watch 1000 30 second clips of suffering humans or screaming injustices or half-crazed presidents and the associated 10 000 comments (which may or may not be from robots) or PDF files filled with the most unimaginable horror now open access to all.It’s clear now that our ATTENTION, and FOCUS is the energy we need to manage, not INFORMATION.

We have never been in this situation before as a species – with so much access to information, (much of it awful and which we have no control over). Yet we have always regenerated, healed, calmed and come back to balance… through nature.
The real power we can harness, foster and embody for ourselves, which is what’s going to change things, is not information. It’s personal focus of consciousness.

Breath.
Sound.
The way we grow and treat our food. The way we think of water.
Bare feet on grass. Views of an ocean. Smell of fresh cut grass. Walk through misty forest. The pleasure of Spring!
Out of the mind and back into your senses – THIS is what nature can help us do. 

Getting nature into your daily routine isn’t just a ‘nice’ to have, it’s essential.

And you don’t need to move to a secluded forest to reap the benefits. Here’s a few things you can do to come back to the beauty of living things no matter how ‘built’ your environment.

1. Touch grass. With your feet. Take your shoes and socks off and literally feel the earth under your feet. Do it for a minute, do it for ten minutes, do it for as long as you can. The benefits of ‘grounding’ like this have been studied and proven. From lessening inflammation to lowering cortisol, it works. It calms you. It’s good.
2. Walk in the park, or if you can’t walk due to injury, illness or disability, get to one in your vehicle of preference and sit there. Take an umbrella and a raincoat if it’s raining, or a towel if it’s hot (so you can lie on the grass) and just be there, breathing the scent of it, looking at the green, feeling it.
3. Touch a tree. My favourite is the trunk of the lemon-scented gum trees which grow nearby, so smooth and strong. It smells amazing in the summer time, but mainly because I know that if I can feel the energy of the tree, the tree can definitely feel me. Trees are living, breathing beings. Isn’t that incredible? Just touch one. You don’t even have to hug it (I do that, too). Just touch it. You’ll see what I mean. Read this study by Dr Berman on how interacting with nature can improve all aspects of your wellbeing if you need some research to encourage you!
4. Notice flowers and weeds that grow wild along sidewalks and in public spaces. Maybe you can pick some? When I lived in Trentham, I learnt more about edible weeds like dandelion, chickweed, purslane and fat lettuce. And I even found a pink rose bush growing behind a bush of weeds near the forest! Back In the city, I’ve noticed a beautiful blue flower growing at the base of lots of trees and as a bush along fences and footpaths. Apparently it’s called plumbago, and it looks lovely in a posy with geraniums or daisies I also pick when I see them growing wild on the footpath.
5. Whether you have indoor growing space or a balcony or terrace, even just one or two pots of herbs can make a huge difference. I’ve been growing spearmint and sage from cuttings I gathered in Trentham, and they make the most amazing tea! Swap cuttings with your neighbours, find a gap of sun, and learn how and when they grow best.
6. Smell things! I don’t cook with rosemary but I love the scent, and there’s a huge rosemary bush growing outside my window here so I rub my hands on it and inhale the scent. Same goes for lavender, roses and gardenia I pass on my walks. Sniff everything. Do you know how good that is for your body? Just stop and breathe.
7. Listen to the birds and creatures in your area in the day, and at night. Look outside your window, notice how the sounds change from morning, to noon, to night. While I no longer have kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, rabbits and echidnas wandering around my neighborhood back in the city, I’ve now got doves cooing in the morning, bats flying across to the trees at night, and ring tailed possums creeping along the back fence! When I was staying in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, once, a giant racoon climbed into my bedroom window and came into the room, presumably looking for food! Oh how I miss the forest ravens who got so friendly in Trentham they’d come to the back door, staring in at me (once even stealing my mango and rolling it down the stairs!), there are plenty of beautiful birds in the city, too.
8. If there’s only traffic noises and TVs blaring, pop your headphones on and tune into one of these beautiful tracks on youtube. There’s so many studies into how the frequency of these sounds can help you.

Remember that YOU are nature, too.
You’re a living, breathing conglomeration of atoms and consciousness, water and memory, time and perception. Read this beautiful book on the consciousness of water, of which you are 80%, to learn more about how just intention and feeling are reflected in the cellular makeup of water.

In summary…

Whether you’re going through a stressful period of transition or you just want to be more peaceful and creative, becoming mindful of nature and more aware of the impact it has on your wellbeing is only going to benefit you and everyone around you.

I could share the cross section of studies which show how the design, scent, patterns, frequency and ions in nature affect your biology and psychology but I’ll just recommend you read the book Nature & The Mind instead (or listen to any podcast interviewing the author, Dr Marc Berman, as he’s done such a great job making the science accessible and unarguable…) but I know that there’s book knowing and there’s real knowing. And the way I know something is to feel it for myself.

So just try it – go for a walk (or a sit) in the park. Find a flower or a herb you love, and incorporate it into your daily routine.

And let me know in the comments – what’s your favourite way to incorporate nature into your life and environmental design? It’s easy to get nature if you live in the country, but those of us in the city just need to be creative and intentional about it. But isn’t that why we are here? To create, to prosper, to thrive?
That’s why I believe I’m here. And then to share everything I learn and love about it.

 

To your peace and wellbeing,

Louisa