There is something infinitely healing in the repeated
refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes
after night, and spring after the winter.
Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder (1965)
BRINGING THE OUTDOORS INTO OUR HOMES AND LIVES
No matter how much we wish to take the green cure and connect with nature out in the world—in neighborhood parks or camping trips, botanic gardens, or even favorite cemeteries—at some point we must all return home. There are ways of incorporating the green cure into our everyday lives that are practical, surprising, and perhaps mystical. How can we sustain this every day, not just as a cure but as a preventative? And how can we help others benefit from something that is healing and accessible to everyone in some capacity?
Biophilic hacks
If we fill our homes with living, growing things, perhaps we can inoculate or at least fortify ourselves against times of difficulty or stress. There’s an entire field of study devoted to biophilic design and architecture, applying the German psychologist and sociologist Erich Fromm’s term biophilia—“the love for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom.” The theorist and naturalist E.O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis proposes that humans have evolved an inherent “urge to affiliate with other forms of life” and to love the beauty of nature. Biophilic design incorporates natural materials and light, vegetation, green views, and other experiences of the natural world into the modern built environment. Feng shui—the Chinese system of creating harmonious environments—operates by similar principles.
If you’re in a position to build, renovate, or redecorate your own home, the possibilities are thrilling. Most people are not, but fortunately there are other ways to connect with our biophilia, involving little expenditure of money or effort.
PLANT THERAPY
As we know from Dr. Ulrich’s study (see page 12) and many others, there’s a science behind why we bring plants and bouquets to people when they’re sick or grieving. Even just looking at flowers can make us feel better, and there can be a preventative aspect, too. I made suggestions about houseplants, cut flowers, and greenery in earlier chapters, such as vases of tree branches or stored herbs, but it’s not just psychological health that can get a boost—we can improve our physical health, as well.
Living, potted plants can help to purify the air even if you’re living on a space station! In the 1980s NASA did a lot of research to determine which ones could remove contaminants, such as benzene, formaldehyde, and ammonia, from the air, and found that the very best ones for the job are peace lilies and chrysanthemums.1 Unfortunately, both these are toxic to dogs or cats, so in your own home you might want to choose nontoxic plants that still have air-filtering capabilities:2
• Date and bamboo palms;
• Boston and Kimberley ferns;
• Spider plants;
• Barberton daisies.
CONSIDER A TERRARIUM
Another way to bring nature into the home is by creating a terrarium. In her essay “Biophilia at My Bedside,” Elisabeth Tova Bailey, the author of The Sounds of a Wild Snail Eating (2010), wrote of a time when she was confined to bed by a mysterious illness that affected her mitochondrial function and immune system, and she longed for the hikes and time in nature that she could no longer enjoy: “During one of my bedridden years, a terrarium made by a relative became a welcome oasis for my mind. Its small green world distracted me from the intolerable symptoms of illness and the myriad worries of my disabled life.” She spent hours entranced by the moss, the spiders, a snail, the unfurling of a fern frond: “Terrariums have gotten me through the coldest winters and the worst stretches of illness; they hold the promise of spring and the hope of convalescence … a microcosm that contains all of life from birth to death: the challenges, intricacies, and mysteries.”3
How to create a simple terrarium
• Find a glass container—a large mason jar, a deep wide vase, an abandoned fish tank, or something specially sold for terrariums.
• Spread pebbles or small stones in the bottom of the container, in a layer thick enough that water can drain through (rather like you’d use at the bottom of a flowerpot).
• To stop bacteria from growing in your terrarium, add a thin layer of activated charcoal, which is available inexpensively at pet stores or garden centers.
• Top with a layer of potting soil gauged toward the types of plant you’ll be using—sandier for succulents, moister for ferns. If in doubt, use a good-quality general-purpose potting medium.
• The plants can be as elaborate or as simple as you like but should have similar light and moisture requirements. Perhaps root cuttings from plants that you already have on hand, or experiment with things like succulents or moss.
• Water about once a week, but do not overwater (keep the soil moist, not waterlogged), and make sure your terrarium gets the right amount of sunlight for the types of plant you’ve chosen.
• If you have small children or are prone to rescuing creatures, a spider could find a happy home in your terrarium as well.
• If you’re feeling ambitious, an aquarium will have many of the same benefits and delights as a terrarium, and aquatic plants are fascinating. However, this would require more expense and more time to maintain.
Bringing the green cure into our homes can be simpler and involve even less maintenance than keeping houseplants or making a terrarium. Handling or simply touching objects from nature can bring its own healing. My husband keeps little bits of nature—an acorn, a favorite piece of driftwood, a smooth stone—on his desk, and fidgets with them when he’s thinking or creating. It turns out he’s onto something. According to a study of the effect of touching wood compared to artificial materials such as metal or plastic, by Chorong Song and her associates of Chiba University’s Center for Environment, Health, and Field Sciences in Japan, handling wood resulted in changes to systolic blood pressure, an indicator of decreased physiological stress. Even looking at wood in a home—beams or panels in a living room, for example—had a beneficial effect on blood pressure and pulse rate.4
Although we cannot all live in traditional Japanese wood and tatami homes, we can be conscious of the materials we come into contact with during the course of our everyday lives. You might want to choose a wooden chair over a metal or plastic one, and perhaps keep an acorn or other tiny treasure from nature nearby.
TECHNOLOGY AS FRENEMY
Turn it off! We’ve been conditioned to turn on the light when we enter a room, and close the car windows and switch on the air conditioner when we go for a drive. Sometimes these actions are necessary, but how often are they not? What happens when we enjoy the natural light streaming in at the window and maybe even appreciate an orange sunset that we might have otherwise missed? What happens when we drive through the countryside with the car windows down and catch a breeze or a bit of birdsong? Try it and find out!
Of course, technology is not always the enemy—I for one am devoted to movies on demand, the immediacy of e-books, and the remarkable efficiency of an Internet search—and it can bring more than ease of access. In 2017, studies for the BBC into watching natural history television content found that it can inspire “real happiness” and positive emotional change. Apropos of Wilson’s “biophilia” hypothesis, the researchers found that nature immersion, even in the form of still images or video footage, triggers a constellation of responses affecting an individual’s emotions, thought patterns, and physiology that enables goal-directed and adaptive actions (such as, in an evolutionary context, focusing on finding food or collaborating on building shelter),5 hearkening back to Dr. Ulrich’s research. It follows that listening to recordings of natural sounds would have a similar result.
Just as a smartphone can be a distraction and take us out of nature and the present moment, so too can it help us to connect with nature. There are apps with real-time stargazing and moon-phase maps that can connect you to the beauty and awe of the night sky. There are others that use facial-recognition techniques to identify plants, trees, and even mushrooms, so that you can learn more about the greenery you pass each day. Go online and search for your favorite botanic garden, planetarium, or natural history museum to find out what they recommend.
Sharing the green cure with others
The American forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, a professor of biology at the University of Utah, has made a bold and fascinating point about hospitals. She likens them to prisons, because the “inmates” of both are in situations rife with “extreme stress and anxiety, as their activities and fate are no longer under their own control. Interior spaces are stark and sterile—for punitive and security reasons for prisoners; for health reasons for patients.”6
In 2004, Nadkarni created the “Moss-in-Prisons” project, which combined tending and observing moss with participating in a conservation undertaking that had an impact beyond the prison walls. She found that it improved social interaction among the inmates and gave them a sense of purpose and meaning as they did something that had value for the wider world.7 The work she did with prisoners, her “nature intervention,” lowered stress and irritability, decreased violence, and fostered a “sense of calmness.”8 Nadkarni sees practicing natural history—and the love that grows out of that action—as a critical thread in the tapestry that makes up our world, an entity that is complex, connected, useful, strong, fragile, and beautiful. Who could disagree? It’s a reminder to us all not to forget about the people who might be out of sight, or those who are living in confined or limited situations—not just prisons but places such as nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
As we learn more about the green cure and insights like Nadkarni’s, it is only natural to want to share it with others. That might involve something as simple as picking up trash on your way home from work, adopting and tending a street tree, or tossing flower-seed “bombs” into a vacant lot. It might involve helping children to develop an appreciation for nature, or just limiting their screen time and giving them more opportunities to play in the mud. It might mean organizing more ways for them to conduct “fieldwork” in botany, geology, astronomy, and other non-classroom learning through programs at school or at afterschool programs.
Sharing the green cure could be more ambitious, such as by making sure older family members and friends have the chance to be in nature by bringing them plants and helping them to tend them. Or better yet, help them to get outdoors. We know from Chapter 5 that gardening and spending time outdoors regularly has benefits for the elderly, and recently a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health that followed 6,500 people in the United Kingdom over ten years found that living in a place with natural surroundings may help to prevent cognitive decline in elderly people.9 The research found that older people who lived in greener neighborhoods tended to lose cognitive function at a slower rate than those who lived where there was less verdure. (Interestingly, there was a stronger impact for women than for men.)
Think about how you can apply these findings to an elderly parent or neighbor. Moving to a new home may not be an option, but planting—especially spots that can be seen from a porch or through a window—might be. You could spend a little more time together, taking your favorite senior citizen for a walk to the local farmers’ market instead of picking up groceries for them or driving them to the supermarket. Or, if mobility is a problem for them, even playing them nature videos or sound recordings could help.
I started this book looking out the window, so I thought it would be nice to come full circle and end it the same way. Esteemed American Buddhist meditation teacher Lama Surya Das shares a sky-gazing meditation that can be done by anyone at any time—a lovely way to connect and interconnect with nature. It can promote healing on many levels—meditation fosters basic relaxation, improved concentration, slowed heart rate, and more—and fill us with a sense of awe.
Seated with a view of sky or clouds,
Or even just a leaf from a beloved tree,
Close your eyes.
Inhale deeply, and exhale fully,
Letting totally go.
Now do it again, twice more.
(Three is the magic number.)
Let go, let it all come and go;
Let it be.
Just be,
As you are.
Rest naturally and at ease
In your body and mind, heart and soul,
And enjoy the natural state—
or whatever state you seem to be in.
Let body and mind settle in its own place,
Its own way,
Its own time,
As it is.
Natural breath and energy,
Natural fl ow,
Let it go,
Free from interference, evaluation, or manipulation …
and enjoy the joy
of natural meditation.
Don’t be deceived or seduced by momentary
thoughts and experiences.
Allow all experiences to pass freely, like clouds
In a vast, open sky.
Simply Observe, Allow, and Accept.
Embrace and surrender.
Letting go means letting come and go,
letting be.
This is the essence of inner freedom
and autonomy
within interconnection.
Be still
and know
all is well.
All is as it must be, right
here, right now—
this very moment, the only moment;
this very breath, as if the only breath.
Don’t let attention stray elsewhere.
Nothing to fi gure out, understand,
Achieve, track, or remember.
No need to fabricate or contrive;
No need to even meditate.
Simply present, undistracted, at home
And at ease
In the natural state
Of natural perfection,
let awareness unfurl
its myriad colors.
We are within nature, just as nature is within us. We are it and it is us.10