Teacher's Guide

Nature experience, friluftsliv and our mental health

About the publication: Report from the Nordic environmental project 'Friluftsliv and mental health'

Tags: Health Author: the Ministry of the Environment (Miljøverndepartementet) Web address: https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/md/vedlegg/rapporter/t-1474.pdf About the publication: Report from the Nordic environmental project “Friluftsliv og psykisk helse” Type of publication: Reports Published (year): 2009

Extract from the Ministry of the Environment’s report: “Naturopplevelse, friluftsliv og vår psykiske helse”

Friluftsliv is more than a form of physical activity. The fact that we get exercise is not sufficient to explain nature’s beneficial effect on health. It is also about relaxation and reduced stress, varied use of the senses, natural light and fresh air and more, something that cannot be offset by many hours of indoor training. Martinsen establishes that one aspect that has received little scientific attention is the significance of the environmental framework around physical activity, such as nature experience. For many, the pleasure of the encounter with nature and the nature experience will be an important motive for moving about in nature. Moreover, it can help to reinforce the health benefit. He also points out that different forms of physical activity have equivalent psychological effect, but that less drop-out is observed from walking than from jogging one year after the hospital stay where the training project began.

M-L. Sjong at the Directorate for Nature Management holds that there are three relevant factors that affect us positively when we practise friluftsliv: the physical activity, the change of environment and the nature experience. The human anatomy has developed over millions of years in the lap of nature. That cannot be erased over the course of a couple of generations. Many researchers therefore hold that friluftsliv’s positive effects on the mental and physical health of human beings lie precisely in this, that we are approaching our original way of life. She chooses to divide the health effects into four categories: psychological effects, social effects, learning effects and physical effects. Often it is the combination that has positive health effects. In the same way that the causes are composite, so too are the effects. The physical and mental health benefits of friluftsliv stand in close relation to one another.

The Swedish students Andersson and Arnlund hold that the effects of friluftsliv must rather be regarded as a whole than as the sum of the factors physical activity and nature experience. They further point to two central aspects of friluftsliv as a tool:

  1. The combination of physical activity and nature experience offers a performance-free and demand-free activity that is entirely unique.
  2. The intrinsic value of friluftsliv without a focus on effects — while the activity at the same time contains many health-promoting qualities. They also point out that friluftsliv can be adapted as a method within many areas of life. It can be used in prevention, rehabilitation, protection and care to treat poor mental health. It promotes health through active interplay with nature. For that reason it should in the highest degree be regarded as a suitable tool within occupational therapy, which is after all built on the central components of activity and environment — how the person is affected and acts in activity, in interplay with the environment.

According to A. Myrvang’s master’s thesis, the group that did general physical activity and reported a positive mental effect made up about 30%, while those who did friluftsliv with a positive effect were twice as large (60%). Friluftsliv’s positive influence shows smaller differences between the sexes than physical activity does. Several rehabilitation centres in the Nordic countries use nature actively in their therapy and many of them report good results. The vocational rehabilitation centre in Rauland can point to the fact that 70% of its users are back in work or vocationally oriented measures 12 months after a rehabilitation stay. Bjørnås’s studies from there show that the use of friluftsliv is justified on the grounds that it is suited to teaching users to take better responsibility for their own lives, and to experience security and meaningfulness. Mastery also emerged as a central factor, both on a general level, and for coping with anxiety and depression.

Many people with ADHD seek help for anxiety and depression. According to Falkum there is, as of today, little research and little literature on the connection between physical activity and ADHD. Activities out in nature turn out to reduce the symptoms in children with ADHD compared with when the same activities were carried out indoors. A “dose of green” thus appears to be able to supplement the use of medication. The symptoms were reported to be most reduced in the “greenest” surroundings. This also held when the same activities were compared in different surroundings. The findings were significant and very consistent.

Text: Koksvik, E. (2009). Naturopplevelse, friluftsliv og vår psykiske helse. Miljøverndepartementet. pp. 21-22.

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