To be happier, spend more time outdoors! A survey of 20,000 participants illustrates the weight of the environment and nature in particular in the feeling of well-being. Researchers at the University of Sussex equipped the smartphones of the 20,000 participants with an application capable of measuring their personal satisfaction at a given moment.
At various times of the day, notifications were sent to them to find out what they were doing, with whom and how they were feeling. Each phone was connected to a GPS so as to know exactly where the respondent was. Thus, in all, 1 million locations were recorded.
The results of their study, published in Global environmental change, show thedirect impact of nature on personal feelings. Participants felt happier when they were outdoors surrounded by trees or in a natural habitat. This link was even more true among respondents in an urban environment (parks in the city for example).
Nature, this cheat sheet
“This study […] reinforces the evidence of a positive relationship between subjective well-being and exposure to a natural environment on a daily basis, ”the study concludes.
This survey is not the first of its kind to study the benefits of nature on psychological health. An American neurologist from the University of Utah recently demonstrated that being in the great outdoors stimulates our creativity.
So if you’re feeling fit and lacking inspiration, put on your sneakers and go for a walk in the forest!
