Nature Nurtures the brain

Hi y’all, Dan here!

Welcome to another episode of Monk Musings. In this blog, I share my experiences, thoughts, and ideas. Nature Nurtures the brain,

Last time I wrote about my upcoming hike through the Ozark Highlands Trail. I plan to begin that adventure next week. So, I will share what happens when I return in November. But today I want to though out my ideas for next year. 2023 is just around the corner. The temperatures are cooling down. The days are growing shorter, and the nights are growing longer. Soon, very soon the 100 plus temperatures that we complained about will be replaced by the below freezing temperatures that we will also complain about. We are so fickle!

Last time I wrote about hiking some Kansas trails in 2023, but not as many as I walked this year. Also, the format of my YouTube channel may change. I’ll share what I’m thinking about and then read you an article that a friend from Finland sent to me about, “How does nature nurture the brain?”

Okay, my past YouTube videos focused on the trails that I hiked. I shared scenes from Alabama’s Pinhoti Trail, Georgia’s Cumberland Island, the Carolinas Foothills Trail, Tennessee’s Fiery Gizzard, Kansas’ Flint Hills Trail and the Elk River Trail, and Wyoming’s breathtaking Wind River Range. I have more trails to share before the end of the year. I also did some gear and product reviews. You supported me by subscribing, watching, commenting, and hitting that “all important” like button. Thank you!

Nature Nurtures the brain

Next year I would like to bring more of a community feel to the channel. I’ll tell you what I am thinking about Nature Nurtures the brain, and you can tell me what you think. Please make suggestions. I really want to add value to your day, not just take up you time.

Here is my thought. I plan to make a live show each week. It will be a regular day and time. I plan to take one hour and divide the show into four or five parts. When the show starts, I will welcome you and layout what you will get from that day’s episode. The first section will be a “Mail Call & Shoutouts.” I get a lot of mail, stickers, and patches from this community. However, I seldom share those with you. I want to change that. So, each week I will begin with sharing my mail and giving shoutouts to other awesome people and channels that you will enjoy, Nature Nurtures the brain,

Next, I hope to invite guests to join me live on the show. I’ve learned that these invitations create community like nothing else. Dave Collier, my friend in Virginia, has a YouTube channel and goes live every Wednesday. You ought to check out his channel – Dave Collier. It is a free for all time. Totally out of control. And great fun. Folks from around the world join him live. They are from across the USA, Canada, even Australia. Nature Nurtures the brain, It’s great fun.

Dave inspired me to try the live thing. While my show will not be as freewheeling as Dave’s (I don’t think) it will offer topics of interest and insights beyond my feeble mind. It will be fun and it is an open invitation. I will probably have one or two guests at a time, and we will try to focus on a topic at hand.

After the time with guests, I may highlight a video from previous hikes, a hike that I just completed, or if a guest wants to share their video, we will try to make that happen. This, like the other segments of the show will last about 10 to 15 minutes.

Next we will have a period of “Trail Talk” to discuss what’s trending in the hiking/backpacking community. This may be a discussion with my guests, a gear review, or an article like the one I will share after telling you about the structure of “Wandering Monk Live, Nature Nurtures the brain.  

Finally, I will have a “game time” where you are invited to play a hiking game. Sometimes there will be prizes too. We’ll see how it goes.

This one-hour show will set the foundation for other videos. I will take sections from the show and share them during the week as shorter videos. I plan to publish 4 videos each week, the main show and 3 shorter videos highlighting a part of that show. Nature Nurtures the brain.

Well, that’s an outline of my plans for 2023. Nature Nurtures the brain, I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts. My goal is to add value to your day. I know that your time is a precious treasure and I want to honor it. So, send me an email or go through my website and message me. I’ll post both in the description of this podcast. My email is: dan@wanderingmonkhikes.com.

Now, I want to share an article that my friend sent to me. My wife often asks, “Why do you do this? Why go out and hike?” It is an important question. If I can’t answer why I do this, then I will lose interest and quit. But something compels me to keep going out. This article is a part of my answer. Nature Nurtures the brain, The following was published by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany.

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How does nature nurture the brain?

Living in the city is a well-known risk factor for developing a mental disorder, while living close to nature is largely beneficial for mental health and the brain. A central brain region involved in stress processing, the amygdala, has been shown to be less activated during stress in people who live in rural areas, compared to those who live in cities, hinting at the potential benefits of nature. “But so far the hen-and-egg problem could not be disentangled, namely whether nature actually caused the effects in the brain or whether the particular individuals chose to live in rural or urban regions”, says Sonja Sudimac, predoctoral fellow in the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience and lead author of the study.

To achieve causal evidence, the researchers for the Lise Meitner Group of Environmental Neuroscience examined brain activity in regions involved in stress processing in 63 healthy volunteers before and after a one-hour walk in Grunewald Forest or a shopping street with traffic in Berlin using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results of the study revealed that activity in the amygdala decreased after the walk in nature, suggesting that nature elicits beneficial effects on brain regions related to stress. Nature Nurtures the brain,

“The results support the previously assumed positive relationship between nature and brain health, but this is the first study to prove the causal link. Interestingly, the brain activity after the urban walk in these regions remained steady and did not show increases, which argues against a commonly held view that urban exposure causes additional stress,” explains Sim Kuhn, head of the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience. Nature Nurtures the brain,

The authors now show that nature has a positive impact on brain regions involved in stress processing and that can already be observed after a one-hour walk. This contributes to the understanding of how our physical living environment affects brain and mental health. Even a short exposure to nature decreases amygdala activity, suggesting that a walk in nature could serve as a preventive measure against developing mental health problems and buffering potentially disadvantageous impact of the city on the brain.

The results go in line with a previous study (2017, Scientific Reports) which showed that city dwellers who lived close to the forest had a physiologically healthier amygdala structure and were therefore presumably better able to cope with stress. This new study again confirms the importance for urban design policies to create more accessible green area in cities in order to enhance citizens’ mental health and well-being, Nature Nurtures the brain,

In order to investigate beneficial effects of nature in different populations and age groups, the researchers are currently working on a study examining how a one-hour walk in natural versus urban environments impacts stress in mothers and babies. Nature Nurtures the brain,

This is interesting. I often share that I have found healing on the trail. It’s true. I have and you can too! So, let’s go walking – together!