OUR BRAIN & NATURE – November 4, 2015
OUR BRAIN AND NATURE – November 4, 2015
There are so many ways that nature makes a difference to our health, happiness and vitality. Even though I am in my 70’s I am learning something new every day.
Today I want to mention just one new way we are trying to make our home a cleaner & healthier place to live in.
A few years ago I bought a book called “The Brain And Nature.” The authors revealed the results of tests where they compared urban and country living. In other words living surrounded by buildings, busy streets, & concrete compared to living surrounded by parks, forests, plants and gardens.
Children did better in schools where there were plenty of plants around the room. Patients recovered more quickly after surgery if they were put into a room with a window with trees and grass visible or even having flowers and plants in the room.
Simply watching a sunset, closing one’s eyes and visualizing a peaceful natural setting or viewing a picture of nature can improve one’s mood, relax our mind, and restore cognitive energy.
The book goes on to say that plants are like vacuum cleaners. Chemicals from building material, furniture, electronics, carpets, air fresheners & other toxins pollute our homes & buildings. These affect our brain, influencing cognitive and emotional behavior negatively.
Plants can come to the rescue acting like a vacuum cleaner for the air. We often think of plants & trees as only providing the oxygen we need and forget that they are also cleaners or purifiers in our environment; be it outside or inside.
Light, water, the sounds of nature, exercise, animal interaction, gardening and everything we put into our bodies all play a very important role in our cognitive restoration and overall health.
After reading the book, I started growing house plants. Because spider plants are excellent at cleaning the air, I bought one plant, which soon turned into 2 dozen this past February. I gave a dozen plants plus the book to the school in the hope that they will read the book and continue to grow plants in the rooms.
Last week I cut off and planted 30 in large pots. I will give these to our children & grandchildren. But I now have 10 plants around our house with 3 huge ones in our bedroom. I want to keep about 3 in every room. I already notice the air is cleaner and I breathe better. It is too soon to tell but I am believing we will sleep better.
If we breathe and sleep better, this is just another way we can try to stay healthier.
Melvin has Parkinson’s Disease and last week his specialist said the disease hadn’t progressed any worse since his last annual check-up. He is still not on any medication. PTL. We are always working on our diet, exercise and any other ways we can keep the health we now have. All for today!
Winnie