{"id":997,"date":"2016-04-28T12:26:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T16:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/?p=997"},"modified":"2016-10-24T09:22:08","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T13:22:08","slug":"lessons-from-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/lessons-from-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_4926\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I went for a walk up to the peak of the mountain, feeling dismayed at the patches of treeless land visible below me, streaks of Earth cutting the forest into parcels.<\/p>\n

I had spoken with one of the older woman in the village the day before. Her words\u2014vivid descriptions of a road-less, rainy, wild space now crisscrossed by human progress\u2014 haunted me.<\/p>\n

Starting back down the hill, I stopped to admire a few flowers poking through a barbed wire fence. They grew up in artistic tendrils, softening the harsh metal barbs and treeless landscape behind them. I knew that someone had planted them here, next to a few saplings were coming through the ground as well. I felt my face warm into a smile.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_6510\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We live at both a disastrous time, and one at which I think we might look back on as the beginning of a great awakening.<\/p>\n

There was a story in the New York Times recently by Sabrina Tavernise, titled \u201cWhite Americans Are Dying Younger as Drug and Alcohol Abuse Rises\u201d<\/a>. The disturbing piece explained that recent increases in deaths among whites from between to their mid-20s and their mid-50s were so large as to bring the life expectancy of the entire racial demographic down in 2014.<\/p>\n

Tavernise explained, \u201cThe pattern had puzzled demographers, but the recent analyses have pointed to suffering and anxiety among working-class whites\u201d.<\/p>\n

It seemed fitting somehow, that the next couple of articles that I stumbled upon that day spoke of the healing properties of being in nature\u2014as if the Universe felt compelled to bring the cure right to my doorstep.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic published over two years ago an article<\/a> about the power of nature to \u201creset our mind and bodies\u201d. The pieced explained that \u201cpeople who are exposed to natural scenes aren\u2019t just happier or more comfortable; the very building blocks of their physiological well-being also respond positively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studies showed that patients heal more quickly\u2014experiencing less pain and suffering from fewer bouts of depression–when exposed to natural views. While urban environments drain us, natural landscapes recharge our brains, reduce stress, lift moods, and enhance focus.<\/p>\n

National Geographic also recently published an article about nature, announcing research completed by David Strayer (a cognitive psychologist from the University of Utah), demonstrating that people did 50 percent better on creative problem-solving tasks after spending three days in the wilderness. It reported several other studies as well, and stated perhaps most excitingly that researchers have found \u201ca lower incidence of 15 diseases\u2014including depression, anxiety, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and migraines\u2014in people who lived within about a half mile of green space.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this makes me wonder\u2014could healing the world simultaneously heal ourselves? Is the path to salvation a story of intertwined destinies?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_9928\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do know that we can change the world by planting seeds. Deforested, barren land becomes green again, flowers welcoming back the return of the trees, which are perhaps our greatest weapon against climate change. Simultaneously, I think that the trees remind us again what it means to be human\u2014they heal not only the Earth, but all of her lost creatures as well.<\/p>\n

I still have hope that each generation may be wiser than the last, that there are people of all nations committed to making this world home again. I\u2019m open to letting a dream carry us into the future\u2026convinced that real change may come in acts of healing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_0985\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m hopeful that in some places, it’s already begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I still have hope that each generation may be wiser than the last, that there are people of all nations committed to making this world home again. I\u2019m open to letting a dream carry us into the future\u2026convinced that real change may come in acts of healing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,22,30,26,57,29,20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[32],"class_list":["post-997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-climate","category-conservation","category-environmental-health","category-esc","category-forests","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/files\/2016\/04\/IMG_6510.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5bk8s-g5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1001,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions\/1001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/exploring-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}