Moving about the world is an essential part of the experience of being human.

Movement, and听most especially lots of regular walking, is good鈥�indeed, great鈥攆or body and brain. I want to go far beyond these simple and relatively uncontroversial contentions and investigate the potential wider benefits of walking鈥攖o ask how walking affects mood, mental health,听and brain function.听Regular walkers (myself included) claim that, deprived of the opportunity to walk for even a few days, we feel sluggish and tired听and often a little bit down听and that the self-administered cure is simple鈥攖o go out for a good walk. Thrillingly, there is now an emerging body of science that supports this anecdotal feeling听and听indicates that walking, especially in regular doses, often in nature, does actually improve how we feel. Think of all those blustery, rainy听long walks that at the time might have felt arduous听but at the end left you feeling elated. A good walk boosts how you feel and much more besides.

Hippocrates famously claimed that 鈥渨alking is the best medicine.鈥澨齓et in our modern world, most of us spend all day indoors sitting down, which can have terrible consequences for our health and well-being. We spend less time outdoors than ever before. in the U.S.听showed that people spent 87 percent听of their time in the artificial environment of offices, houses, shops,听and other buildings.听Some have even claimed (only somewhat exaggeratedly, in my view)听that 鈥渟itting is the new smoking.鈥澨齌he sentiment behind this statement is straightforward: our bodies are built for regular movement听and profit from it. Sedentary life is fundamentally unhealthy, leading to a decline in muscle volume and strength. Moreover, long periods of inactivity produce not dissimilar changes in the brain.

One interesting study that lack of activity is even associated with a change in personality, and by this I mean a change for the worse. Overall, lower levels of physical听activity were associated with changes in three of (these are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness,听and neuroticism, easy to remember as OCEAN). Lower levels of physical activity were associated with declines in openness, extroversion,听and agreeableness, suggesting a 鈥渄etrimental鈥澨齪attern of long-term personality change. Even minimal levels of activity were found to have a moderating effect on personality changes.听

Those individuals who were the most inactive were the ones most likely to show听these negative personality changes. The pathway channeling such听negative changes is unclear听but is likely to involve the usual increases in illness and lack of well-being associated with prolonged inactivity,听the limitations to activities of daily living associated with inactivity,听changes in general cognitive function,听and perhaps even changes in mood. Given what we know, it鈥檚 highly likely that a simple behavioral change鈥攍ots of walking鈥攚ould be a viable way of reversing negative changes in personality resulting from a sessile life.

Standing leads to immediate changes in blood pressure, blood flow throughout听the body, and the rate at which we consume energy and generate heat (our metabolic rate). Walking entrains changes across widespread brain and body systems, from the production of new molecules all the way to behavior. Regular听up-tempo听walking is a simple and straightforward way of exercising the heart, and this in turn provides great benefits for the head-heart axis, because about 20 percent听of the output of the heart is directed toward the oxygen-听and energy-hungry brain. Similar effects occur in the gut, which is also oxygen听and energy hungry. The cure is right in front of us: to get up and walk.

Walking is one thing. Where we walk is quite another.

As more and more of us live in towns and cities, green spaces will only become more essential for our well-being. Building design, especially in northern听and inclement regions, has, in some respects, historically taken account of this fact. Cloisters in university buildings, monasteries,听and other locations听allow people to walk outdoors while protected from the elements. Cloisters are sometimes referred to by their ritual and processional purpose鈥�deambulatorium, obambulatorium, ambitus鈥攖he solemn听Latin descriptors of the architectural elements of a monastery, all derived from the root ambio鈥斺�淚 walk in a circle.鈥澨齌hey are also often called, appropriately enough, ambulatories. And听of course, cloisters are usually constructed around a garden, ensuring a tamed element of nature is at the center听of the walk.听

Walled gardens, dating from early times, are another way of bringing tamed nature within a building perimeter, yet allowing safe walking outdoors. In , Giovanni Boccaccio writes of one such garden that听鈥渋ts outer edges and through the center听ran wide walks as straight as arrows, covered with pergolas of vines which gave every sign of bearing plenty of grapes that year….听The sides of these walks were almost closed in with jasmine and red and white roses, so that it was possible to walk in the garden in a perfumed and delicious shade, untouched by the sun, not only in the early morning, but when the sun was high in the sky.鈥� Modern building design incorporating cloisters, awnings, courtyards,听and other features could make outdoor walking and exposure to nature easily achievable. Similarly, indoor walks around nature-bearing and displaying atriums could provide people with this feeling of connectedness to the natural world. Views from windows that听provide glimpses of the sky and of trees could also enhance well-being markedly.

Yet this need in our lives for time outdoors and connection with nature is something we consistently seem to underestimate. This has been conducted听in Ottawa. Ottawa is subject to weather extremes, with summer temperatures exceeding 86 degrees Fahrenheit and winter temperatures dropping below minus four degrees Fahrenheit.听A substantial fraction of the large campus of Carleton University in Ottawa is connected via a system of extended underground tunnels to allow walking during weather extremes. Experimental psychologists examined the effect of people undertaking walks where they are exposed to nature versus walking in an enclosed environment by using this network of tunnels. They asked 150 participants to walk the same distance between two locations on the campus: either through an underground tunnel or outside along a riverbank in an听urban space听with plentiful trees, plants,听and other features of the natural environment.

Prior to starting, participants were asked to state how they were currently feeling听and then to estimate how they would feel after the 17-minute walk outdoors compared to听the same walk indoors in the tunnels (using a rating scale). The results were clear: all participants substantially underestimated how the walk outdoors would make them feel relative to the walk indoors. The effect on the mood of the walk through the听urban setting was compelling. There was an improvement in the individuals鈥� self-rated mood scores of about one-third on average, relative to individuals who undertook听a walk indoors. (This study also demonstrates a persistent problem with how humans understand what affects our feelings: we are bad at forecasting how any activity is likely to make us feel鈥攌nown as 鈥渁ffective forecasting.鈥�)

But why does walkable green space matter so much for our well-being? What is it about nature that makes us feel better? Walking in the woods is something humans have done since time immemorial. Some cultures venerate this experience: the Japanese, for example, have the glorious tradition of forest bathing听(shinrin-yoku): the practice of absorptive, enveloping walking in deep forests for the soothing properties of being connected to, and fully immersed in, the sights, sounds,听and feel of nature. is an important manifestation of something that appears to be a universal in human experience鈥攁 veneration of nature as foundational to our lives, from early pantheistic theories, which imagine that spirits inhabit trees, woodland brooks, stones, and the like, through religions that worship the Earth Mother or deities (like the Inca goddess Pachamama)听, scientist James Lovelock鈥檚 contention that we should regard the planet and all life on earth as a single, self-regulating ecosystem.

Certainly, many take the view that we need to care for nature and that nature as a source of well-being is central in our lives. There is also the great concern that human activity is having perhaps irreversible, and certainly malign, effects鈥攆rom species hunted to extinction to contamination of water courses and seas with plastics, effluvia,听and toxic materials听to human effects on the climate of the planet itself.听

Scientific evidence also backs up our intuitive feeling that regular exposure to nature and the natural world has effects on human health and welfare which are positive, measurable, and enduring, and should be thought of as being akin to the provision of clean water, reliable electricity, public vaccination,听or public hospitals. The evidence to support this can be found by measuring people鈥檚 stress levels before, during,听and after their interactions with nature. The stress hormone cortisol is at the core of our 鈥渇ight, flight,听or freeze鈥� response. Cortisol is released in response to the presence of stressors, with potentially positive and negative effects. In the short term, it is adaptive, mobilizing听resources to help overcome stress. However, the chronic and sustained release of cortisol leads to a whole variety of problems, from the stiffening of our arteries and veins听to malign effects on our mood and memory. , Scotland听looked at how the amount of green space in a neighborhood might affect the levels of stress in residents of that neighborhood. This was measured both by perceived levels of stress (in other words, by self-report, how听residents thought they were feeling) and by measuring levels of cortisol, which can be readily measured in both saliva and in the blood. The concentration of cortisol in our saliva varies across the course of the day, peaking in the early morning听and decreasing toward听the end of the day. People experiencing high levels of stress do not show this downward shift as nighttime approaches. In the Dundee study, researchers found that this diurnal decrease is absent, or at least relatively absent, in a deprived population who do not have regular access to and use of green spaces in their urban environment. Finding a correlation of this type is suggestive, and it matches to a similar body of evidence suggesting听that exposure to nature may have important effects on human health and psychological well-being.

However, we should consider how听people use the available green space. Do they visit it regularly? Do they use it for social walking, to walk the dog, to supervise children playing? This is where larger-scale studies are required听and preferably studies that attempt to randomize听treatment conditions听so that some degree of causality can be figured out. Are your stress levels lower because you are exposed to nature, or is there some other factor? It may turn out, for example, that an extended experience of wild nature, involving long periods trekking or walking, might be a viable treatment for depression (at least in its milder forms) and听perhaps听even other stress- and anxiety-related conditions. Large-scale trials testing this idea have not been conducted, however.

Getting at whether or not exposure to nature has a causal effect in making you feel better鈥攖hat exposure to nature generates a positive mood鈥攔equires studies that vary the dose of nature you are exposed to: Does it take a little, or a lot, and how often? The effects may be strong, weak, subtle, or indeed nonexistent; the risk of fooling yourself into thinking there is an effect when, in fact, there is none, is high.

鈥淎ttention restoration theory鈥�听is the idea that the natural environment has profound restorative effects on our well-being, and that the human experience of the natural world markedly assists in maintaining and fostering a strong sense of subjective well-being. According to psychologists, a natural environment should have three critical elements to be fully restorative: it should give you the sense of being removed from your normal life and surroundings,听it should contain visual elements and sensory elements that are fascinating in some way,听and it should be expansive鈥攊t should have some degree of extension. The increasing pressures of modern life tend to increase mental fatigue, but restorative experiences in nature might decrease it. This restorative effect is best mediated through a connection to natural environments, because they play an essential role in normal human functioning.听

in the UK,听researchers investigated this phenomenon of 鈥渞estoration,鈥澨齞efined as feelings of calm, relaxation, revitalization,听and refreshment as the result of visiting a natural environment in the previous week. The recalled restoration from a visit to nature was very high, with an average score of four on a scale of one to five. There was a hierarchy of locations, with coastal environments providing the greatest feeling of restoration, followed by the rural countryside, with urban green spaces coming in third. This hierarchy should perhaps be treated with some degree of caution, though鈥攊t is derived from an overall average, and many town parks were just as restorative as the open countryside. A majority of the highest socioeconomic group (53 percent) visited nature in the previous week, whereas only a minority (31 percent) of the lowest socioeconomic status group did so. The higher socioeconomic group, of course, will have, on average, better education, health status, access to nutrition, and the like.

What鈥檚 clear is that park design is a vital factor: the extent to which a park is usable, accessible, and facilitates different meaningful activities is the driver of park usage. The differences in feelings of restoration found between time spent in these various environments鈥攖he coast, the rural environment, urban parks鈥攚ere not especially vast, and the study did not control for the activity that you could undertake in the differing areas. Urban green spaces can be used for tending to vegetables, as in an urban allotment; walking the dog, as in an urban park; or playing sports in urban sports fields. Easy access to听nature is very important to individuals,听families, social groups,听and society at large, and well-designed urban green spaces can substitute for, or mimic in important ways, the effects of being in the countryside. Parks, for example, might allow wilderness areas supporting urban wildlife, insects,听and birds, as opposed to carefully mown and tended grasses. Equally, the trails inscribed in these parks should, to the greatest extent possible, follow the undulations of the environment and of people鈥檚 鈥渄esire paths.鈥�

It鈥檚 also been shown that the positive effect on mood after spending time in nature applies to a range of people of different ages, both male and female, across the globe. Perhaps more importantly, the impact of exposure to nature is comparable to other factors affecting individual happiness, including personal income levels, level of education, degree of religiosity, marital status, volunteering,听and physical attractiveness.

It may not be possible to do much about one鈥檚 personal income, or indeed one鈥檚 perceived physical attractiveness, but getting out and going for a walk is something that we can all easily do. Because the evidence suggests that activity in nature has a long-lasting impact on our happiness and well-being, we should be encouraging our populations to regularly, habitually听walk in nature, even if they only have access to city parks.

Excerpted from , by Shane O鈥橫ara. Copyright 漏 2019 by Shane O鈥橫ara. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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