Boost your Brain Power: Invest in our planet
"If we surrendered to earth's intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Earth Day is approaching and this year’s theme is “Invest in our Planet.” Whether you are a native city-dweller, an open-spaces seeking tree-hugger, or one of us that lives in between, there is scientific evidence that immersing ourselves in nature has cognitive benefits. Investing in a sustainable planet is then an investment in our mental performance.
Three Ways Nature Boosts Brain Power
Improved Working Memory
Flexibility of Cognitive Processes
Attention Control for tasks that require focus
Working Memory
Working memory is your mental scratchpad. It is a short term memory vault for manipulating and transforming information to solve a problem.
You use working memory when you remember an email address while finding a place to write it down, learn a name at a networking event and keep it in mind throughout a conversation, or remember the sequence of directions for new software the first time you use it.
Cognitive Process Flexibility
Cognitive Processes allow us to think, learn, recall, and reason. There is a laundry list of actions our mental computer uses to operate successfully. Having flexibility in how we approach mental tasks leads to more successful outcomes. These processes include actions that employ knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These are all skills we need to succeed in the knowledge sector.
Attention Control
Succumbing to distraction derails productivity. Capturing your attention is the goal of our devices, family, co-workers, inner gremlins, bosses, and (fill-in-the-blank). Your mental attention can be disrupted by small and otherwise irrelevant stimuli if we are overburdened and haven’t taken breaks to smell the flowers.
Key Takeaway
As Earth Day approaches, regardless of your opinion on environmentalism, consider the benefits of investing in our shared planet. A plethora of evidence suggests our natural world has tremendous benefits for our both physical and psychological well being.
“You can boost your mood just by walking in nature, even in urban nature. And the sense of connection you have with the natural world seems to contribute to happiness even when you’re not physically immersed in nature.”
Lisa Nisbet, PhD, a psychologist at Trent University in Ontario, Canada
So take a moment to immerse yourself in nature this week. Consider how you may want to protect the gift we call our earth and find a way to invest in our planet in celebration of Earth Day.
It is ultimately a gift to ourselves.