Moral Education - Remote Learning Plan -Grade 1 Week - 5

Lesson: Nature is a family      

How Nature Makes Us 

Healthier and Happier

Humans have long intuited that being in nature is good for the mind and body. From indigenous adolescents completing rites of passage in the wild to modern East Asian cultures taking “forest baths,” many have looked to nature as a place for healing and personal growth.

How does Nature Help Us Feel Good And Do Good?!

Viewing nature in images and videos seems to shift our sense of self, diminishing the boundaries between self and others. Nature videos are a powerful way to feel awe, wonder, gratitude, and reverence—all positive emotions known to lead to increased well-being and physical health.

Positive emotions have beneficial effects upon social processes, too—like increasing trust, cooperation, and closeness with others. Since viewing nature appears to trigger positive emotions, it follows that nature likely has favorable effects on our social well-being.

How does Nature Help Our Health?!

Besides boosting happiness, positive emotion, and kindness, exposure to nature may also have physical and mental health benefits.

Why is nature so healing? One possibility is that having access to nature—either by living near it or viewing it—reduces stress.

Nature experiences lead to reduced stress… and behavioral changes that improve mood and general well-being.

Why do We Need Nature?!

All of these findings converge on one conclusion: Being close to nature or viewing nature improves our well-being. The question still remains: how?

There is no question that being in nature—or even viewing nature pictures—reduces the physiological symptoms of stress in our bodies. What this means is that we are less likely to be anxious and fearful in nature, and thereby we can be more open to other people and to creative patterns of thought.

Also, nature often induces awe, wonder, and reverence, all emotions known to have a variety of benefits, promoting everything from well-being and altruism to humility to health.

Viewing natural beauty activates specific reward circuits in the brain associated with dopamine release.

It’s time to realize nature is more than just a material resource. It’s also a pathway to human health and happiness.

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