"I don't know how Marsha gets anything done with this view"
Why Nature is not a distraction
I hear it from everyone who visits my home in the mountains soon after they walk in the door.
“I don’t know how Marsha gets anything done with this view.”
I bought six acres on a ridge in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains more than six years ago because of the solitude and soul-inspiring views from every window. The daily awe and wonder outside my windows changes endlessly.
So I've found it ironic that people perceive the view as a distraction pulling me away from my computer, like that's a bad thing.
From the day I moved in I've always thought of the view as doing the opposite, as a restful balm for my computer-weary eyes and a welcome moment to shift my attention. It's a chance to look for vultures riding the air currents above the gorge below, maybe catch a hawk flying past, wonder at what weather is forming the clouds and be mesmerized by the endless play of shadows and light on the mountain ridges.
It’s not just a pretty view
Turns out there's a technical explanation as to why the view is the reason I get stuff done.
My views of Nature — whether it's the long-range mountain view, the forests around my home or my attempt at a moss garden in the front yard — restore my attention, not deplete it. Attention Restoration Theory, or ART, was proposed by University of Michigan environmental psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in 1989. It suggests that time spent in or looking at Nature can improve mental fatigue and concentration.
ART says that our brain has a limited capacity to focus on a specific task.
Hard fascination vs soft fascination
Your brain becomes fatigued — called “directed attention fatigue” — when concentrating on one task because it is simultaneously inhibiting other distractions competing for your limited attention. Prolonged work on computers and screens fits the bill here with the hard fascination required.
Hard fascination is defined as when your attention is held by a highly stimulating activity that doesn’t offer the opportunity for reflection and introspection because you are completely absorbed.
Natural environments, on the other hand, promote wider-angle attention and more effortless brain activity. Our attention has a chance to wander. Our brains have a chance to recover and replenish our directed attention capacity.
Nature promotes soft fascination, when your attention is held by a less active or stimulating activity that offers the opportunity for reflection and introspection. Which is what I'm doing when I turn away from the computer to gaze at clouds and their shadows or how the colors on the distant ridges are shifting with the sunlight.
The details are already built-in
To get into the technical weeds, the natural environment must have four properties to be restorative according to ART:
1. Extent: the ability to be immersed in the environment
2. Being away: the escape from the day-to-day grind
3. Soft fascination: elements of Nature capture your attention effortlessly
4. Compatibility: You must want to be in and appreciate the natural environment
In other words, find a happy place (or two) out in Nature where you can have a wander.
To be fair, 35 years later researchers continue to analyze and study ART’s premise regarding exposure to natural environments to determine the precise mechanism and degree of attention restoration. At the same time hundreds of studies have demonstrated the positive effects of time in Nature on mental health, energy, sleep, cancer, chronic conditions and many other health problems.
The idea of Nature as an antidote isn’t new
Does it make you wonder why it’s taking science and psychology so long to work out what the ancient mystics, Taoists, philosophers and Romantic writers have been saying for centuries? (That's another post.) There’s far too many philosophical and wisdom tradition teachings to ignore.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein
Looking back I think I was drawn to Nature when as a kid I laid on my stomach on the grass in my parents' postage stamp backyard in Detroit, following the instructions in a science book to observe insect life. I remember being shocked at how much was going on in a few square inches of grass.
I spent the first 50+ years of my life knowing only a heavily populated, car-dependent metropolitan environment. Like many people, Nature views were limited to vacations out of the city, often to the Great Lakes or Michigan's "up north." Friends allowed me to stay at their isolated riverside cabin several hours north in the middle of Michigan for many years after my divorce.
Getting out whenever I could
I found other ways to get outside and get my "fix" during a couple dozen years working in gray offices without windows, gray newsrooms and gray cubicles with few chances to see the sky during the workday.
I was the weird one who took solo walks during lunch, or took my lunch to a hawk preserve a few miles away from the suburban publishing company where I worked, or preferred to walk through razed neighborhoods where I once spotted a pheasant to an old pub near downtown Detroit.
It took me years to realize that once-a-year vacations and occasional weekends away gave me the reset I needed in the moment, but didn't provide enough Nature time to keep me balanced long term. The gorgeous perennial gardens I cultivated on my small suburban lot definitely helped, as did a short-term stint as a professional gardener.
I started to understand the power of simply viewing Nature when I moved my home office from looking out on the street to looking into my backyard garden. My energy shifted and softened every time I looked up; my shoulders relaxed.
With just a turn of my head
The visual touchpoints out my windows now reground me instantly.
I can feel the instant connection to the larger living world around me. I am restored by the beauty, the awe, the wonder. Almost daily I experience "Wow!" moments when I look up and the sunlight, clouds and shadows on the mountain ridges have magically organized themselves into a stunning composition of color and shadow.
"OMG! Look at that!" I run outside with my phone to capture the fleeting moment. I often miss it.
The gift that keeps on giving
I'm constantly energized and revitalized by the ever-changing cycles of life around me.
It's the reason I have thousands of photos and still keep jumping up to take them. The view is never ever the same. Someone told me when I first moved here that I'd eventually ignore the scenery and it would fade into the background of life.
Oh hell no.
That would be like ignoring your lover's smile or your child's laugh. What matters more than the richest slivers of life?
What are you paying attention to?
I am vividly reminded and comforted by the huge world beyond my momentary challenges.
The living world that rolls through its rhythms and cycles whether I'm aware of their pull on me on not -- whether I notice the full moon flooding the edges of the forest or hear the fresh rain roaring over the waterfall below.
One of the most amazing — and frankly, sacred — things about our innate response to Nature is that it doesn't take much to help us reset to our natural balance. Don't make the mistake I did in my early career and think the only way to find enough Nature to reset is to get out of the city.
Nature is always where you are
Find the nearby Nature around you. A city park, a corner of your yard, plants on a balcony or a patch of sky has enough natural presence to help you ground. Let your curiosity roam even if it’s only for a short time each day.
Even one natural element, like a tree, helps you soften your gaze and fascination as you let your eyes play on the repeating patterns in the bark, leaves and branches. Interestingly, studies show that even images of Nature trigger the same calming effect on mental fatigue, heart rate, breathing and more.
Find what you need. And do it daily.
Now, go outside and wander!
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Questions for you
Reflections, questions and ideas to break the digital spell.
Q: Where can you find a place and time in your daily routine to soften your gaze, breathe and reground?
Q: Is there a particular window or place to sit in your home where you can gaze outside and let your eyes wander?
Q: Have you instinctively figured out a way to bring Nature into your office or home?
Tell me below in the comments!
If you’re new here, welcome!
I’ve curated my posts into three collections to help you find the topics you’re most interested in.
My favourite office in the City of London terrified me at first because it was on the 17th floor and I'm not keen on heights. But I grew to love it because it faced West and I could see the prevailing weather coming towards me from a long way off. I loved watching the change in the sky and the clouds. And cloud gazing is still one of my favourite things to do. Lovely piece Marsha.