This is a true story.
Jessica sent me a message quite early, telling me she’d decided to ditch Facebook for a few days, just until she’d “stopped absorbing” both the froth and fear that oozed from endless status updates.
Her decision was the result of something that had happened to her the night before, she explained.
“I had a dream in which I was fighting.
“I woke up and felt my throat constricting, and then I worried that I was getting sick.
“But then, I became aware of the sensation that was creeping into my body and head — it was fear.
“I realised the fear was all-consuming.
“And I realised it’s what we all seem to fear nowadays, and really always have — it was fear of death.”
We chatted about her experience for a while, and she wisely concluded that checking out of tuning into other people’s fear was the right thing to do.
She would go back (things aren’t “all bad” in the social media maelstrom), but not yet.
A few hours later, I started typing a question to her: would she mind if I wrote about her dream, and about death, and how this linked to the dangers of tuning into the mass mind “out there” too often?
She didn’t mind, no, and I was grateful.
As I ended off the chat, it struck me that there’s an added antidote to fear, and burnout, which naturally complements a break from being online: nature.
And here’s the funny thing — I glanced at my open computer tabs and spotted one that I’d never seen (and so hadn’t searched for).
It read: “Nature Fix”. I navigated to the site, and found Florence Williams.
“For centuries, poets and philosophers extolled the benefits of a walk in the woods,” writes Florence.
“Beethoven drew inspiration from rocks and trees; Wordsworth composed while tramping over the heath; Nikola Tesla conceived the electric motor while visiting a park.”
Williams, in her book (you guessed it), The Nature Fix (WW Norton & Company, 2017), sets out to uncover the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain.
She explores forest trails in Korea, tramps about islands in Finland and immerses herself in Californian eucalyptus groves.
What happens, asks Williams, in a promotional video, when you spend just five minutes in nature?
“Your body and brain start to change.
“Your heart rate slows.
“Your facial muscles start to relax.
“Your hardworking frontal lobes begin to quiet down.
“And this will boost your productivity and creativity later in the day.”
She’s done the research. The smell of pine trees, she says, strengthens our immune systems, while soaking up a natural environment has been shown to lessen our preoccupation with personal problems, makes us happier overall and improves our relationships.
The natural world is, quite frankly, unimaginably powerful.
We’ve forgotten this, as our modern lives “shift dramatically indoors”.
But now we must remember — now, more than ever.
Jessica wasn’t surprised that her fear of death had led us to discovering a new book.
“Tonight, I’ll dream about trees,” she said.
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