1
00:00:10,010 --> 00:00:14,219
I recently moved from a place 
that had a backyard that looks like this,

2
00:00:15,919 --> 00:00:17,869
to one that looked like this.

3
00:00:18,779 --> 00:00:20,950
There are a lot of great
things about cities,

4
00:00:20,950 --> 00:00:23,660
but access to nature
isn't always one of them.

5
00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:27,519
Many days I felt like
the closest thing I got to nature

6
00:00:27,529 --> 00:00:30,129
was looking at grainy
cat videos on YouTube.

7
00:00:30,129 --> 00:00:31,149
(Laughter)

8
00:00:31,149 --> 00:00:32,689
I'm sure some of you can relate.

9
00:00:33,759 --> 00:00:38,280
Sometimes you don't realize how important
something is to you until you lose it.

10
00:00:38,820 --> 00:00:41,068
I wasn't like Woody Allen who once said:

11
00:00:41,298 --> 00:00:44,188
"I love nature, I just
don't want any of it on me."

12
00:00:44,388 --> 00:00:45,750
(Laughter)

13
00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:49,480
I wanted it on me, and I missed it.

14
00:00:50,480 --> 00:00:55,590
When I moved for my husband's job
from Boulder, Colorado, to Washington DC,

15
00:00:56,030 --> 00:00:57,510
I wasn't too happy about it.

16
00:00:57,950 --> 00:01:03,780
But I was still surprised by how swiftly
my sense of well-being plummeted.

17
00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:09,139
I got depressed,
I was anxious, I felt irritable.

18
00:01:09,539 --> 00:01:12,860
My brain felt sluggish and dull.

19
00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:18,679
I had to get used to new sounds, 
like overhead aircraft all the time,

20
00:01:19,969 --> 00:01:25,160
helicopters and those ubiquitous
leaf blowers that I hear all the time.

21
00:01:26,180 --> 00:01:28,789
But fortunately, shortly after I moved,

22
00:01:28,789 --> 00:01:32,149
I was given a dream assignment
by Outside Magazine

23
00:01:32,619 --> 00:01:35,238
to go visit the national forests of Japan

24
00:01:35,978 --> 00:01:42,029
to write about an obscure practice
called "shinrin yoku," or forest bathing.

25
00:01:42,729 --> 00:01:46,308
This essentially involves
just being on a trail:

26
00:01:46,668 --> 00:01:51,759
walking, sometimes sitting, 
sometimes just lying on a boulder

27
00:01:52,419 --> 00:01:55,410
and letting nature pour
into all of your senses.

28
00:01:55,940 --> 00:01:59,029
So perhaps imagine with me
for a minute what this might be like.

29
00:02:00,469 --> 00:02:05,020
You're sitting there and you're hearing
the birds and the crickets.

30
00:02:06,060 --> 00:02:11,420
You're smelling the rich loamy earth
and maybe the scent of fresh pine trees.

31
00:02:11,500 --> 00:02:16,249
You can feel the breeze on your cheek
and the moss under your feet.

32
00:02:17,179 --> 00:02:19,809
How do you think this makes you feel?

33
00:02:20,570 --> 00:02:24,510
Well, scientists in Japan wanted
to answer precisely that question.

34
00:02:25,259 --> 00:02:29,959
And so in a series of experiments
they sent 84 stressed-out college students

35
00:02:30,349 --> 00:02:33,609
to go hang out for 30 minutes
in these forests

36
00:02:34,379 --> 00:02:37,350
and then also to go hang out
on a city street.

37
00:02:37,980 --> 00:02:39,610
And here's what they found -

38
00:02:40,540 --> 00:02:42,580
this is me doing one of the experiments:

39
00:02:42,580 --> 00:02:46,790
A 16% drop in the stress hormone cortisol.

40
00:02:47,270 --> 00:02:49,400
A 2% drop in blood pressure.

41
00:02:49,940 --> 00:02:51,969
A 4% drop in heart rate.

42
00:02:52,179 --> 00:02:54,119
This is among the forest visitors.

43
00:02:54,459 --> 00:02:57,249
None of that happened
in the people who went to the city.

44
00:02:57,559 --> 00:03:01,919
And the people who went to the forest also
reported less anxiety and better moods,

45
00:03:02,359 --> 00:03:05,699
whereas the opposite happened
in the people who went to the city.

46
00:03:08,059 --> 00:03:12,370
So, nature has superpowers for us.

47
00:03:12,780 --> 00:03:14,649
And there's even a dose effect:

48
00:03:14,649 --> 00:03:18,189
it looks like the more time you spend
in nature, better things can happen.

49
00:03:18,399 --> 00:03:20,510
So in Japan they sent some
of these students,

50
00:03:20,510 --> 00:03:22,380
or some other people, some volunteers,

51
00:03:22,380 --> 00:03:25,359
to go spend three days at a forest lodge.

52
00:03:25,359 --> 00:03:28,180
And they found a 40% increase

53
00:03:28,180 --> 00:03:31,219
in an immune cell 
called natural killer cells

54
00:03:32,279 --> 00:03:33,969
It's critical to the immune system.

55
00:03:33,969 --> 00:03:36,679
When they went to vacation
in the city that didn't happen.

56
00:03:36,679 --> 00:03:40,429
So it's not just a vacation effect,
there's something about nature.

57
00:03:42,369 --> 00:03:46,109
I became so intrigued by this story
and by this science

58
00:03:46,109 --> 00:03:49,289
that I took another assignment
from National Geographic.

59
00:03:49,489 --> 00:03:52,769
And this one sent me to a handful
of other countries around the world

60
00:03:53,179 --> 00:03:56,569
studying this topic
to improve the health of citizens,

61
00:03:56,999 --> 00:04:00,750
sometimes even going as far as
to recommend nature as medicine.

62
00:04:01,610 --> 00:04:04,861
So in Japan, as we just saw, there are
these forests therapy trails.

63
00:04:04,861 --> 00:04:06,911
They have 48 of them.

64
00:04:06,911 --> 00:04:12,091
Korea will have 37
healing forests by next year.

65
00:04:12,091 --> 00:04:13,631
These are entire forests.

66
00:04:13,641 --> 00:04:18,191
And to go along with that,
they're training 500 healing rangers

67
00:04:18,470 --> 00:04:23,200
to lead programs for everyone,
from digital addicts to school bullies.

68
00:04:23,508 --> 00:04:24,999
The school bullies, by the way,

69
00:04:24,999 --> 00:04:29,369
take a train called "the happy train"
from the city to the forest.

70
00:04:29,369 --> 00:04:30,589
(Laughter)

71
00:04:30,589 --> 00:04:34,470
Also programs for firefighters with PTSD,

72
00:04:35,170 --> 00:04:37,580
and even prenatal women
and cancer patients,

73
00:04:37,580 --> 00:04:40,358
I mean, it just goes on and on
what they're doing there.

74
00:04:42,238 --> 00:04:43,499
I also went to Finland.

75
00:04:43,499 --> 00:04:48,329
And Finland has gone so far as
to recommend, it's a very precise country,

76
00:04:48,330 --> 00:04:52,559
they recommended a specific dosage
of nature to ward off depression.

77
00:04:52,849 --> 00:04:54,918
And what they recommend, take note:

78
00:04:54,918 --> 00:04:59,930
five hours a month of being in nature
or a little over an hour a week.

79
00:05:00,340 --> 00:05:04,179
Now, Finland is really fortunate because
it's a country covered with forests

80
00:05:04,179 --> 00:05:06,259
and coastlines and parks.

81
00:05:06,739 --> 00:05:09,109
But many parts of the world
are not so lucky.

82
00:05:09,429 --> 00:05:13,148
Already, over half of us
in the world live in cities.

83
00:05:13,478 --> 00:05:16,990
And by 2050 that proportion will be 70%.

84
00:05:18,060 --> 00:05:20,279
So making cities green and livable

85
00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:23,218
will be one of the greatest
challenges of our century.

86
00:05:24,188 --> 00:05:30,408
How can cities and civic institutions
make spaces of awe and restoration?

87
00:05:33,490 --> 00:05:36,999
The city of Wellington, New Zealand, 
has made a space of awe

88
00:05:37,439 --> 00:05:42,119
by designating and signposting
a snorkel trail very close to downtown,

89
00:05:42,119 --> 00:05:44,778
where you can just jump
in the water, swim around,

90
00:05:44,778 --> 00:05:48,898
and she things like octopus,
and butterfish and seahorses.

91
00:05:49,230 --> 00:05:50,348
How cool is that?

92
00:05:50,678 --> 00:05:53,210
Seattle offers low-tide walks

93
00:05:53,210 --> 00:05:56,909
where children love to see
sunstars and moon snails.

94
00:05:57,979 --> 00:06:02,639
In Singapore there are parks 
interspersed with public housing projects

95
00:06:02,959 --> 00:06:06,719
so that people from all over the city
have access to nature.

96
00:06:07,369 --> 00:06:10,260
And the city also encourages
architects and developers

97
00:06:10,730 --> 00:06:14,200
to incorporate butterfly-loving
vertical gardens

98
00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:16,818
into corporate and residential towers.

99
00:06:17,068 --> 00:06:19,968
When my cab driver
dropped me off at this hotel,

100
00:06:20,198 --> 00:06:22,250
he said how handy it was
I was staying here,

101
00:06:22,250 --> 00:06:25,429
because I could just wake up
in the morning and start grazing.

102
00:06:25,429 --> 00:06:27,518
(Laughter)

103
00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:32,320
The University of California at Berkeley
has created a space of awe

104
00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:38,740
by protecting one of the tallest
hardwood groves in North America.

105
00:06:39,550 --> 00:06:43,249
And this is great because the students
can go here to recover from stress

106
00:06:43,679 --> 00:06:47,360
and psychologists at the University
can study it happening.

107
00:06:47,690 --> 00:06:49,119
So one way to do this

108
00:06:49,649 --> 00:06:54,859
is they sent students go look up
at this grove of trees for one minute

109
00:06:54,859 --> 00:06:56,399
and they also sent another group

110
00:06:56,399 --> 00:06:59,519
to look up at a building
on campus for one minute.

111
00:06:59,519 --> 00:07:01,550
And in a clever bit of trickery,

112
00:07:01,550 --> 00:07:06,020
a research assistant dropped a box of pens
in front of each subject.

113
00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,540
So guess who helped her
and picked up more pens:

114
00:07:10,100 --> 00:07:13,020
people in the forest
or the people looking at the building?

115
00:07:13,940 --> 00:07:15,959
If you guessed the forest,
you are correct.

116
00:07:15,959 --> 00:07:20,709
And it only took one minute
of them feeling awe

117
00:07:20,709 --> 00:07:23,187
to behave in a more generous way.

118
00:07:23,869 --> 00:07:27,640
So it looks like time outside in nature
can also make us more creative.

119
00:07:28,380 --> 00:07:31,540
When we spend time outside
in beautiful places,

120
00:07:31,540 --> 00:07:37,470
a part of our brain called the subgenual
prefrontal cortex quiets down.

121
00:07:38,399 --> 00:07:39,900
And this is a part of the brain

122
00:07:39,900 --> 00:07:43,139
that's associated with negative
self-involved thoughts.

123
00:07:43,879 --> 00:07:47,059
A researcher at Stanford
made the nature connection

124
00:07:47,059 --> 00:07:49,869
when he sent a group
of subjects to go walk

125
00:07:49,869 --> 00:07:52,910
in a beautiful park
in Palo Alto for 90 minutes,

126
00:07:52,910 --> 00:07:56,040
and he sent another group
to go walk in a city street,

127
00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:58,460
and then he imaged their brains.

128
00:07:58,460 --> 00:08:00,750
And it was only the people
who walked in the park

129
00:08:00,750 --> 00:08:03,080
who experienced this beneficial change.

130
00:08:06,290 --> 00:08:10,520
So nature can be so helpful
to us in so many ways.

131
00:08:11,740 --> 00:08:16,380
It can also make us creative
in small doses.

132
00:08:16,380 --> 00:08:19,530
For example, here's Facebook,

133
00:08:19,530 --> 00:08:22,679
and hi-tech communities
all over are now figuring out

134
00:08:22,679 --> 00:08:27,329
that if they incorporate green roofs
and trails into their very structures,

135
00:08:27,329 --> 00:08:29,300
that this can benefit their business.

136
00:08:29,300 --> 00:08:31,070
We've known this for a long time.

137
00:08:31,620 --> 00:08:34,919
Everyone from Aristotle to Beethoven,

138
00:08:35,548 --> 00:08:39,708
to Darwin, the Brontë sisters,
Wordsworth, Einstein,

139
00:08:39,708 --> 00:08:41,058
the list goes on and on,

140
00:08:41,058 --> 00:08:46,139
so many people attribute
walking in these beautiful spaces

141
00:08:46,139 --> 00:08:48,489
to being critical
to their creative process.

142
00:08:51,809 --> 00:08:56,240
What happens, though, when we spend
even more time in nature,

143
00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,130
as far as our brains and our psychology?

144
00:08:59,340 --> 00:09:01,390
We know that physiological changes happen,

145
00:09:01,390 --> 00:09:04,190
which we saw with
the natural killer cells.

146
00:09:04,190 --> 00:09:06,970
But what happens
on a more psychological level?

147
00:09:07,540 --> 00:09:10,770
This was something I was fascinated
to actually witness,

148
00:09:11,460 --> 00:09:14,170
when I met a woman named Tania Herrera.

149
00:09:14,690 --> 00:09:17,689
She had just returned
from two tours of Iraq,

150
00:09:18,139 --> 00:09:24,010
and she'd been badly injured in rocket
grenade fire and also by a car bomb.

151
00:09:24,430 --> 00:09:29,539
She'd experienced a bad concussion,
she'd lost the use of one of her arms.

152
00:09:30,129 --> 00:09:34,110
She experienced seizures, 
anxiety, depression.

153
00:09:34,530 --> 00:09:38,060
She had trouble performing
simple tasks and even reading.

154
00:09:38,620 --> 00:09:40,619
She never wanted to leave her house,

155
00:09:40,619 --> 00:09:43,699
because she felt like
she was a prisoner in her own body.

156
00:09:44,380 --> 00:09:47,650
But when she'd been young, 
she'd participated in a program

157
00:09:47,660 --> 00:09:50,420
to take inner-city kids out into nature.

158
00:09:50,740 --> 00:09:53,650
And she'd remembered
that that had given her some comfort.

159
00:09:54,530 --> 00:09:59,370
So she signed up for a six-day river trip
down the Salmon River in Idaho.

160
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:07,940
She and her other fellow warriors
on this trip paddled and swam,

161
00:10:08,210 --> 00:10:11,750
and slept under stars and talked
in the camp, around the campfire.

162
00:10:12,300 --> 00:10:17,500
And I had the privilege of watching
them emerge from cocoons of sadness

163
00:10:17,830 --> 00:10:23,299
to full-bodied full-sensory survivors
helping each other,

164
00:10:23,739 --> 00:10:27,439
relishing their new friendships
and the possibilities ahead.

165
00:10:28,629 --> 00:10:29,979
She said to me:

166
00:10:30,599 --> 00:10:35,249
"When I'm home I feel overwhelmed,
there's nothing to brace on,

167
00:10:35,779 --> 00:10:39,289
and I'm overwhelmed
by bad thoughts and feelings.

168
00:10:39,369 --> 00:10:43,769
When I'm out here life is simple,
there's something to brace on,

169
00:10:43,769 --> 00:10:46,710
there are good thoughts,
there is balance."

170
00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,938
Wilderness advocate John Muir understood
the power of wilderness

171
00:10:54,488 --> 00:10:56,229
to help heal our psyches.

172
00:10:56,859 --> 00:10:58,049
He wrote:

173
00:10:58,049 --> 00:11:04,140
"Between every two pine trees, there is
a door leading to a new way of life."

174
00:11:05,430 --> 00:11:10,580
There is a simple recipe to improve
the quality and meaning of our days.

175
00:11:11,180 --> 00:11:13,360
And it's to open Muir's door.

176
00:11:14,190 --> 00:11:16,650
Go outside, go often.

177
00:11:17,332 --> 00:11:18,560
Thank you.

178
00:11:18,560 --> 00:11:19,900
(Applause)