After a morning hike in the Saneum HealingForest,46-year-old firefighter Kang Byoung-wook has tea made from the bark of an elm tree, practices yoga (瑜伽),and makes a picture with dried flowers. He is one of 40 firefighters taking part in a three-day program, the aim of which is to offer"forest healing" (森林治愈);the firefighters all have posttraumatic stress disorder (创伤后应激障碍).
Saneum is one of three official healing forests in South Korea. Soon there will be 34 more. South Koreans-many of whom suffer from work stress, digital addiction, and great academic pressure have accepted the medicalization of nature with great enthusiasm.
There is increasing evidence that being outside in a pleasant natural environment is good for us. But how many of us get to enjoy nature regularly? Fewer and fewer, it seems. According to Lisa Nisbet, a psychology professor at Canada s Trent University, evidence for the benefits of nature is pouring in at a time when we are most disconnected from it.
"We don't think of being outdoors as a way to increase happiness," says Nisbet."We think other things will, like shopping or TV."But South Korea is starting to challenge this opinion.
So what are some of the benefits of nature that Nisbet refers to? Being surrounded by nature has one obvious effect: It calms us and reduces our stress levels. This has been shown to lower blood pressure and heart rates.
Another experiment conducted by psychologist Stephen Kaplan found that people who took a 50-minute walk in a park had better attention and short-term memory than those who took a walk along a city street.
Perhaps what's more surprising is that nature may also make us more creative. David Strayer, a psychologist at the University of Utah, showed as much with a group of participants, who performed 50 percent better on creative problem-solving tasks after three days of wilderness backpacking.
In fact, we may never know exactly what nature does to the brain. Something mysterious will always remain, and maybe that' s as it should be.
