Welcoming Nature's Embrace: Revealing the Healing Power of Urban Green Spaces

How to live in Harmony with Mother Earth:

Ever wondered how simply standing under a leafy canopy could transform your mental state? That's what we're unraveling on today's Give a F*k podcast, where as your storykeeper, I'll guide you through the truths of Nature's healing powers.

Imagine the urban landscape not just as a sprawl of concrete but as potential sanctuaries waiting to nurture your mental well-being. From the cooling embrace of shaded streets to the vibrant biodiversity that thrums with life, we delve into how green spaces are not just a balm for the body but also a fortress for the mind. The science is clear: Nature's embrace is a proven panacea for anxiety, sleeplessness, and even the hefty price tag of healthcare.

We're not merely discussing theories; we're exploring actionable insights from studies like the one from Clemson University and Kaiser Permanente, which highlight the vast benefits of intertwining more greenery within our cityscapes.

Join me as we traverse this topic, and I promise, you'll leave with more than just thoughts; you'll emerge with a revived intuition ready to make a difference. No guests this time, just us and the profound conversation that might just be the catalyst you've been seeking for personal growth and environmental enlightenment.

Resources:
https://blog.nwf.org/2022/10/living-near-nature-is-linked-to-lower-healthcare-costs

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Y'all probably know on some level that nature is vital to our mental health, but just what does that really mean? I'll break it down for you. On season 2, episode 2 of Give a Fuck, presented by Spark Consciousness, we're dropping knowledge bombs and answering your burning questions about nature, animals, spirituality, mental health, women's empowerment and other profound topics. This podcast probably won't change your life, but hopefully it will give you some food for thought, some guidance on this twisted path we call human existence. My role as an award-winning story keeper and catalyst for healing humanity and Mother Earth is to help you reawaken to your own connection with nature and, through this reconnection, reacquaint you with your intuition. And through this reconnection, reacquaint you with your intuition. What you do with it, how you incorporate that into your life, is up to you. I hope you'll make changes that benefit both you personally and Mother Earth as a whole. I hope you'll share what you learn here with others and that they'll make different, more compassionate and enlightened choices too. Either way, take what works for you, leave the rest, and always work to be the best version of yourself, and try to leave the world a little bit better than it was when you arrived. Once again, we would normally have questions from listeners in this slot, but we are just getting going for this season so we don't have any quite yet. I highly encourage you to join my Patreon community and submit me a question, because nothing gives me more joy than to answer your burning questions. I do my best with each episode to anticipate what those might be, but unless you ask, I don't really know.

Speaker 1: 2:14

That being said, let's jump into the seitan of the show, where we are going to talk about this connection of nature and mental health. So again, you probably have some idea that these are pretty important. Have some idea that these are pretty important. For example, maybe you're aware that having a shaded area in an urban environment actually makes it temperature-wise much cooler. The streets themselves are cooler, and that little area of trees, what they call the urban heat island effect. Not only is that little area cooler, it's also more climate resistant. There's more biodiversity in that area, the storm water is absorbed more, so the streets don't get all flooded. The air quality in that little spot is better. So that's all really great stuff, right?

Speaker 1: 3:16

We need that for our physical health. That is super important. Clearly, we need more trees, particularly in more urban areas, and we're having more and more of those as the population on the planet grows. With all of that understood, there is an ever-growing collection of scientific literature and studies that also prove that there is this positive relationship between exposure to nature and improved not just physical health, but also psychological health. Spending time in a natural environment, even one of these urban islands, will decrease anxiety, improve your ability to sleep by the very nature of getting out there and being amongst the trees, improves your physical activity and this extends not just to grownups but also kids Helps them to feel less stressed, improves their concentration in school, their academic performance and this is just what they know about right now.

Speaker 1: 4:18

And because all of these positive effects, both physical and mental exposure to nature actually decreases healthcare costs. Whoa, now a whole different podcast could be done about how screwed up the healthcare system is in this country. This is neither the time nor the place for that, but I'm with you and I agree that it's messed up. However, that being said, if we could decrease healthcare costs in a proven way and, in doing so, put some money back in your pocket, wouldn't you love that? Yeah, me too. So some researchers. This study is a couple years old now, but it's still super valid.

Speaker 1: 5:03

So some researchers at Clemson University and Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, their research division, they did this study that looked at healthcare costs over a very diverse population of 5 million residents in Northern California Now Northern California. I don't know their demographics, I don't know how diverse that is or how that compares to the rest of the country. I would have to imagine it is more diverse than, say, new England. So they covered in this study. They covered 25,000 square miles, 22 counties, suburban, urban, rural, including greater San Francisco, oakland, san Jose and Sacramento. So it's a pretty good spread. They report that the population study region was made up of approximately 25% Hispanic, 25% Asian, 7% Black and 40% non-Hispanic whites. Again, I don't know the demographic spread of that region but that seems to be probably pretty accurate based on what I do know.

Speaker 1: 6:06

And so with funds from the US Forests, urban and Community Forest Grant Program they conducted this study and measured the presence of vegetation in the region and they used remote sensing imagery, municipal tree inventories and tree plot inspections from the Fire and Resource Assessment Program to figure this out. Then they looked at how much did the healthcare system spend for each patient, not how much you spent of their own money, but the healthcare system in general. And so what they found was that the annual healthcare coverage cost was $374 lower per person per year for those who live in areas with more green space and tree cover per year for those who live in areas with more green space and tree cover. Now you think, okay, maybe $370 for one person isn't that big of a deal, but let's keep in mind how many people were in this study, right, and that was just one section of the country. What's the population of America right now? I'm not exactly sure, but it's got to be in the millions, and that's per year.

Speaker 1: 7:20

So if we took that money that's being spent on healthcare out of the system and having to be spent on patients and instead that could be spent on, if we wanted to keep it medical, it could be spent on finding cures for things, finding new treatments for things, although I would argue we would need to cure fewer things. If there was more nature in people's lives, we could remove it from the healthcare system entirely and spend it on oh, I don't know schools, perhaps, just a thought. And so this is just one of many studies that prove these benefits and this long-term, and it's short-term this. However, the study was pretty groundbreaking because it was the very first study to directly link trees and urban greenery with economic benefits in the form of health care spending. So, very clearly this is if we're going to invest money in something to improve the world for everyone, green spaces and urban environments are pretty good bet. Like we said, it helps, you know, you create these urban islands, so to speak, and they help humanity with all of these health care benefits, humanity with all of these healthcare benefits. They help nature and diversity and all of that.

Speaker 1: 8:47

It also and this is something I don't have a bunch of statistical data on in front of me right this minute but in adding green spaces to urban areas that don't have them, it does address some environmental inequities. Let's think about who lives in the most urban areas with the least amount of green space. It's generally people on the lower end of the economic spectrum. If we were to add green spaces in and naturally improve their health and well-being, that's a huge thing, because health and well-being, that's an inequity. Inequity isn't just about money, it's about your health, it's about your mental status, it's all of those things, and so as those inequities get addressed, discrimination also starts to go away. Addressed discrimination also starts to go away, and this is a huge way of lift all boats.

Speaker 1: 9:48

Plant some trees, people plant some trees. Did you feel a glimmer, a spark, a light in the dark during this episode? You will absolutely love my online course, the Soulful Seeker. You can check it out at sparkconsciousnessnet slash TSS and you can support the show as a Patreon member or episode sponsor. Learn about all of these opportunities and find additional resources about the topic we covered today in the show notes and to help you remember this, just hang on to the word trees to help jog your memory and remind you to hop on over back to season two, episode two of Give a Fuck, presented by Spark Consciousness, to see all of that awesome info. I will see you next time, thank you.