With countless viruses, dangerous bacteria and illnesses that lie in wait to threaten our health, it’s inevitable that we will come down with something. There’s nothing like plugged sinuses, a nagging cough and a throbbing headache to devour the energy from our bodies and put a temporary stop to the enjoyment of life. Imagine if you could indeed catch something that you would enjoy. I do believe that Elaine and I have had a frightening sounding condition for a number of years. No, it’s not marriage, but something else. We’ve got biophilia!
Living beside Alberta’s largest city, provides challenges from a dis-ease based perspective. A commonly held belief is that urban living is generally associated with higher rates of mood disorders, aggression, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Modern life operates at an incredible pace, where urbanites are sensorily and attentionally overstimulated on a day-to-day basis. Cellphones, social media, traffic and overuse of technology make it difficult to concentrate on a single task for an extended period of time. Some scientists and psychologists have noted that human attention span has decreased from two and a half minutes to forty-five seconds over the last twenty years.
A second commonly held belief is that the natural environments, those parks, forests, lakes, foothills and mountains provide relief and recovery to truly re-energize us, both physically and mentally. While people claim to have benefited from natural environments, the question of actually being able to measure these benefits was posed to scientists. In a 2024 Scientific Reports publication, a fascinating study was described. Using ninety-two subjects, scientists used electroencephalography (EEG), attaching metal disks to the scalp, to explore three aspects of attention. These were alerting, orienting and executive control, all from a behavioral and neural perspective. The ninety-two subjects took an “Attention Network Task” before and after taking a forty minute walk in nature or a controlled urban environment. Nature walkers reported the walk to be more restorative than those who walked in an urban environment. The nature group also experienced enhanced “executive control” at a neural level, demonstrating a potential neural mechanism for attention restoration in nature. In short, a nature walk improves ones focus and attention.
Elaine and I make an effort to get outdoors every day, often birding as a key focus. Although we do use local parks, I must say my favourite locations emphasize silence. Pine Coulee Campground, west of Stavely, is the best in spring and fall with virtually no traffic in the campground. Alberta’s marvelous foothills and Rockies provide the visual backdrop. Natural grasslands beauty and a reservoir to view add to the ambience.. It’s so quiet one could hear a mouse flatulate. Just six kilometres away from Pine Coulee, one can enjoy the silence and beauty of Willow Creek Provincial Park. The slow trickle of water, the whisper of each leaf falling to the ground, create that Shangri-La our souls seek A third location, the gaps between the south end of Alberta’s famous hoodoos provide ample opportunity to enjoy both silence and beauty. Here, Least Chipmunks, most certainly curious, come out to pose and visit, before pursuing a morning meal. Ravens soar over the hoodoos, truly as free as a bird can be. The azure skies seem endless.
If you are already infected with biophilia, rejoice! If you are looking to catch it, be sure to head outside, connect with nature for at least forty minutes each day and feel those neural pathways enhance your day.
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