With every step along the path, fallen leaves rustle under your feet. The trail follows a stream that rushes and gurgles over smooth gray rocks as the breeze rustles the branches overhead. Now compare that blissful mental image to the things you might pass by in the city: traffic, crowds, concrete and glass. Which do you think is better?
Entering nature was shown to strengthen physical and mental health, reduce stress and restore attention. But researchers are finding many mental health benefits from walking in urban areas.
You just need to find the right way and pay attention to your surroundings.
“Look at the greenery,” says Whitney Fleming, an environmental psychology researcher at Bangor University in Wales, UK. “Most cities have greenery. No matter where you are, you can find a beautiful tree.”
She noted that walking, considered moderate exercise, is good for you overall; it can reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, dementia, depression and many types of cancer. Walking in nature goes beyond the benefits of physical movement: “Humans have an innate, evolutionary tendency to love nature.”
Fleming's study found that people who were asked to pay attention to plant life while walking subsequently experienced significantly less anxiety than those who were asked to focus on man-made elements. The first group also reported experiencing more positive emotions.
“Having natural elements in cities is really important in terms of these effects because you can still get benefits even if you're not in a natural environment,” she said.
Other researchers have challenged the belief that cities are inherently stress-prone, says Cesar San Juan Guillen, a professor of social psychology at the University of the Basque Country in Spain.
Until recently, he said, many environmental studies were biased toward the built environment, comparing natural conditions with stressful urban environments such as high-traffic streets.
San Juan Guillen compared people who spent time in a leafy city park with those who went to a busy plaza with a historic church, playground and bars. Both showed improved cognitive performance and attention, as well as a reduction in negative emotions such as anxiety, hostility and fatigue, he said.
But the group in the more built-up area felt even more energetic and less stressed.
Spending time in the city's historic areas, walking through cemeteries and panoramic views, for example, has a “sort of easy charm,” San Juan Guillen said.
“This type of involuntary attention may be more effective… (at restoring) the attention we deplete during work or school,” he said.
The fields of environmental psychology, neuroscience and architecture build on each other's research to better understand how people interact with the built environment, says Tristan Cleveland, an urban planning consultant at the Canadian firm Happy Cities.
“Blank walls actually make people walk past them faster, as if they're trying to escape,” said Cleveland, who received his doctorate from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. “And they're less likely to stop and talk if they see a friend.”
When thinking about where to stroll in cities, Cleveland suggested looking for places that evoke a sense of easy charm. You'll learn that the destination or route passes the “first kiss test” where you can ask someone out on a date, he said.
Annabelle Ebbs-Streets, author of The Walking Cure and 52 Ways to Walk, said she has experienced this feeling of bliss in a variety of places. She suggested looking into cities that are walkable, like Boston; Taos, New Mexico; and Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Or simply find a historic cemetery near home—Ebbs Streets is a fan of London's Victorian “Magnificent Seven” cemeteries.
“It’s not that green is good and gray is terrible,” Ebbs-Streets said. “The truth is that green and gray are very different. Sometimes the difference is a good one.”
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Albert Stumm writes about health, travel and food. Find his work on https://www.albertstumm.com
