Five minutes in contact with nature. This Is Enough To Improve Your Mood In An Instant, According To Research published in the Journal of Positive Psychology last December. “The results on the benefits for emotional health are particularly interesting, because they seem to be observed very easily and quickly”comment to site PsyPost the author of the study Katherine D. Arbuthnott, of Campion College (Canada).
Hedonic and transcendent emotions
In a first study, 123 University of Regina students were randomly separated into two groups. One in an urban park. The other in a windowless laboratory room. Participants were asked to put away all their electronic devices and concentrate. Before and after each exposure, the volunteers were also asked to indicate their emotionsat a time hedonic (associated with comfort and pleasure) and transcendent (love, empathy, but also feelings of awe, gratitude, wonder, being part of something…).
Regarding hedonic emotions, those who sat outdoors experienced an increase before and after the test, while those who sat indoors did not. The same goes for positive transcendent emotions. But the results also revealed a sense of dread, brought on by only spending five minutes outside.
An “emotional boost”
The second study, involving 70 students, followed the same principle as the first. Only, the participants remained this time fifteen minutes in one or the other of the environments. The researchers also asked them to rate their negative emotions, such as stress, depression or anxiety, on a four-point scale.
Although increasing the amount of time spent in nature did not increase the amount of positive emotions experienced, the study found that in both situations, with five minutes of rest, negative emotions were reduced.
“When you need an emotional boost, the quickest and easiest way is to spend a few minutes in nature”, advises Katherine D. Arbuthnott to her students. She also notes that being outdoors is the best option, but looking at photos of natural scenes can also help. Scientists now need to test whether much longer exposures, or time spent in larger natural areas, would influence our emotions differently.
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