Take the time to watch sunrises or sunsets. This is the conclusion of the study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology and led by Alex Smalley, researcher and PhD student at the University of Exeter, UK. All of his works focus onthe emotional reactions provoked by contact with nature”. In recent years, he has published studies on the impact of forest sounds on our minds. 7,600 people volunteered three years ago to listen to the sound of leaves cracking under their shoes, wind in the branches, birdsong, confirming what we imagine: yes, without even physically going walking in a wood, the sound alone, the soundscape has a soothing, de-stressing, anxiolytic effect.
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Three years later, Alex Smalley has abandoned noises to study images. He asked 2,500 participants to assess variations in their nervous state when faced with 3D models of natural events. For example, videos of lightning streaking the sky of a city or rainbows in formation, all this over several days, and the scenes chosen by the participants as being the most significant in their change of emotional state are sunsets and sunrises.
Feeling of amazement
The researcher explains that most of the work that measures the impact of nature on mental health concerns static moments, when the sky is blue and the sun is at its zenith. However, when there is action, movement, typically a passage from day to night, then we are no longer simply in contemplation, we are impressed, and it is this feeling of amazement, of wonder, which then will have a positive impact, reducing stress and anxiety.
“We, Western and urban populationshe said to the Washington Post, we have deeply disconnected from the natural world, from the weather, from the seasons, from the environment in which we are, and what this study shows is that we can reestablish this connection without going very far, simply taking an interest in the time of sunrise, giving yourself two minutes to watch it”.
In the end, what this work demonstrates is that we can be amazed, find ourselves everywhere, without waiting, and thus set our record straight.
