What to expect this week:

If you admire the strength of the ocean, the color of changing leaves, or the night sky, this video is right up your alley.

This week, we take a look at the relationship between our species and the natural world. We see that it has changed over time, through various cultural revolutions.

As a result, our current relationship with nature is much different from the one early humans experienced. We are more separated and there are health consequences to that.

Check out this video and if you like it, make sure you watch this one below on outdoor exercise too!

• The Incredible Benefits of Outdoor Exercise

Housekeeping:

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The Hidden Benefits of Nature (Why We CRAVE It)

Sitting down to write this, as I do with all my articles, I place my laptop at my desk and open the windows, allowing the natural light to fill my room. It has become a pre-writing ritual of mine, though it didn’t start as such. I had been playing guitar for years before I even started Evolve.2, and I would do the same thing right before I practiced. I couldn’t explain why. It just felt right.

After exploring the literature on evolutionary psychology, it became clearer to me why this ritual is so intrinsically satisfying. A central tenant of evolutionary psychology is the concept of an environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA). Put simply, an EEA is defined by the features of the environment in which a species evolved and is adapted to. 

Many shark species' environments have remained relatively unchanged for millions of years. There is no dissonance between their EEA and their current environments. As a result, they have reached apex predator status and experience insufficient selection pressures to change biologically. 

This is not the case for humans. The difference between our EEA and our current environments is drastic. It is the difference between the natural world and artificiality. Additionally, this change occurred rapidly. The two major cultural transformations in human history that reshaped our environments, the agricultural and industrial revolutions, took place only about 12,000 and 200 years ago, respectively. Compare this to the millions of years living in completely natural settings, and the dissonance between them far surpasses that of the shark’s environments.

The change has happened so abruptly that our species has not had enough time to adapt. We are hunter-gatherers living in an ever-industrialized and urbanized environment. We are born with a genetic expectation to live in that world of hunting and gathering. As a result, much of our physiology and psychology are still adapted to such a lifestyle.

By opening the windows in my room, and allowing the sun to illuminate my workspace, I am feeding my mind and body what they crave - natural stimuli. We are becoming detached from the natural world our species evolved in and something as simple as the walls shaping my room are symbolic of that.  Aside from my own anecdotal experience, scientific evidence supports the idea of reintegrating nature into one’s lifestyle for both physical and psychological health. 

A Brief History Of Nature

In 1984, biologist E.O. Wilson published a book called Biophilia. In it, he proposes the idea that humans have evolved an instinctual love and affinity towards nature. Let’s conduct a thought experiment. Take two archaic humans living 500,000 years ago. One expresses a tendency towards exploring their natural surroundings and as a result, becomes competent at recognizing safe and resource-rich environments. The other is fearful or disgusted by the dirty ground and wild animals. They show an aversion to nature. Which one is more likely to survive and reproduce?

The flora and fauna of ancestral environments were indicators of food, shelter, and water. Therefore, humans better attuned to perceiving, capitalizing on, and appreciating them were more likely to survive and reproduce. The appreciation of this is evident in the animistic religions of traditional cultures, which saw all living organisms as spiritually significant. 

This was the original state of Homo sapiens, before living in the artificial environments our cultures have gradually constructed. The original human-nature relationship was not mediated by cultural intervention. Researchers Giuseppe Barbiero and Rita Berto argue that there have been three stages of the human-nature relationship [1]. The latter two were caused by major cultural events, which seriously changed this relationship.

The first stage is what we just discussed. Throughout the Paleolithic (2.5 million - 10,000 years ago), groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers explored lands far and wide. They used nature to their advantage, while simultaneously becoming more biophilic towards it - more in love with the life that surrounded them.

Next was the Neolithic period. This is marked by the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Here, we began to domesticate plants and animals. This changed our perspective on nature. The living beings we produced and bred were seen as more valuable than wild beings. Big cats and weeds became threats, eating our cattle and choking our crops. We developed a bias towards the living things that we engineered. 

The transition from rural to urban environments, following the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, brought about the third and final stage in the human-nature relationship. Urban environments are defined by a lack of nature, whether wild or domestic. The farms, which replaced the forests, were replaced by city blocks. Ever since, humans have become more detached from nature. We found ourselves in environments completely constructed by cultural means. As a result, the feelings of biophilia began to atrophy. 

Many cultures still live in close proximity to nature. The Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania forage for natural plants and wild animals. The Maasai of Kenya are pastoralists, raising herds of cattle. However, most modern cultures in the West have reached that third stage, with no sign of turning back. We have distanced ourselves from nature so quickly and so dramatically, that we are likely experiencing negative consequences as a result. 

We may not be conscious of these ramifications, but science is starting to point to the benefits of re-establishing a relationship with nature. 

Support For A Better Human-Nature Relationship

Studies, especially in the world of psychology, support the concept of people having a natural tendency to gravitate toward nature. Some of the earliest work on this was performed in the late 70’s and 80’s. Included were the findings that:

• Young children have an innate preference for African-like savanna landscapes [2].

• People prefer landscapes with flowing water and vegetation over naturally barren scenery [3].

• Viewing natural scenery is accompanied by greater emotional benefits than urban scenes [4]. 

More modern research has come to similar conclusions. A literature review published in 2009 looked into the negative health consequences associated with the visual absence of things like plants in our everyday environments [5]. The authors stated that:

Importantly, they framed their review in the context of evolution, arguing that the mismatch between present and past human environments can account for the discord people experience when not in the presence of nature.

Another team of researchers published a meta-analysis in 2022 looking at 49 different studies that tested the emotional effects of nature on humans [6]. They concluded that exposure to nature has “a medium to large effect on increasing positive emotion and decreasing negative emotion.” They too attribute this effect to the evolved affinity humans have towards nature.

The studies above are primarily investigations into the psychological effects of nature, but there are physiological benefits too.

The Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, which translates to “forest bathing” has caught the attention of many health researchers and scientists in recent years. It is the practice of immersing oneself in nature by passively idling in a forest or walking through one. Studies have reported it to have physiological benefits and suggest that it has potential for therapeutic applications [7]. For example, subjects experiencing shinrin-yoku have been shown to have decreased blood pressure, lower blood glucose levels, and lower cortisol concentrations.

Another nature-focused practice that can improve blood pressure is grounding [8]. Grounding is simply the act of walking on natural surfaces barefoot. In addition to improving blood pressure, grounding has been shown to reduce inflammation, stress, and even pain [9]. Nature should not only be sensed through sights, sounds, and smells. It should be a tactile experience as well.

A final way to reap the benefits of nature (which your DNA is hungry for) is to move your exercises outdoors. Gladwell and colleagues call for “green exercise”, claiming that nature and physical activity work synergistically to improve health [10]. You can attain the psychological and physiological benefits of both physical activity and nature by exercising outside. 

Gladwell and colleagues also note some interesting studies that suggest that people who participate in outdoor exercise perceive it as less effortful [11]. The workout feels easier to them. This has positive implications for making exercise more accessible to those who may feel less motivated.

Conclusion

Our environments have changed dramatically in the last 10,000 years, and acceleratingly so within the past 200. From our species' origins in the Paleolithic, through the Neolithic age of agriculture, and up to modern urbanization, we have seen changes in how humans perceive the natural environment. We have slowly become detached from it, like the sanity of a schizophrenic patient waving goodbye. 

Various studies showing the positive effects of nature on our mental and physical health indicate that this detachment is not without its consequences. The environments we evolved in are largely going extinct, but our health and soundness of mind yearn for their return. Through proactive efforts, we can satisfy those needs. However, if we continue to respond to modernity with passivity, we may lose sight of where we came from and what it still has to offer.

References:

[1] Barbiero, G. and Berto, R. 2021. “Biophilia as Evolutionary Adaptation: An Onto- and Phylogenetic Framework for Biophilic Design.” Frontiers in Psychology 12:700709.

[2] Balling, J. and Falk, J. 1982. “Development of Visual Preference for Natural Environments.” Environment and Behavior 14(1): 5-28.

[3] Dearinger, J. 1979. “Measuring Preferences for Natural Landscapes.” Journal of the Urban Planning and Development Division 105(1):63-80.

[4] Ulrich, R. 1981. “Natural Versus Urban Scenes: Some Psychophysiological Effects.” Environment and Behavior 13(5):523-556.

[5] Grinde, B. and Patil, G. 2009. “Biophilia: does visual contact with nature impact on health and well-being?” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) 6(9):2332-43.

[6] Gaekwad J. et al. 2022. “A Meta-Analysis of Emotional Evidence for the Biophilia Hypothesis and Implications for Biophilic Design.” Frontiers in Psychology 13:750245.

[7] Tsunetsugu, Y. et al. 2010. “Trends in research related to “Shinrin-yoku” (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing) in Japan.” Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine 15:27–37.

[8] Elkin, H. and Winter, A. 2018. “Grounding Patients With Hypertension Improves Blood Pressure: A Case History Series Study.” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 24(6):46-50.

[9] Menigoz, W., et al. 2020. “Integrative and lifestyle medicine strategies should include Earthing (grounding): Review of research evidence and clinical observations.” Explore 16(3):152-160.

[10] Gladwell, V., et al. 2013. “The great outdoors: how a green exercise environment can benefit all.” Extreme Physiology & Medicine 2:3.

[11] Focht, B. 2009. “Brief walks in outdoor and laboratory environments: effects on

affective responses, enjoyment, and intentions to walk for exercise.”Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 80(3):611–620.

Fit Fuel Song Suggestion

The Fit Fuel song suggestions are hand-picked by yours truly to elicit the motivation (and possibly aggression) needed to initiate or persist through a grueling workout. They consist of heavy, brutal guitar riffs and gruesomely guttural vocals. Additionally, I timestamp what I believe to be the best riff of the song - one that will kick your nervous system into overdrive when approaching a personal record (PR).