Nature Exposure Achieves Comparable Health and Well-Being Improvements as Best Practice,Positive Psychology Interventions

Abstract

Folk wisdom and scientific research alike suggest that spending time in nature is good for mental and physical health. Despite a growing body of evidence supporting this idea, questions surrounding whether and what kind of “nature prescription” promotes health and well-being, and how these effects compare with non-nature-based active treatments remain. In this study, we assessed the effects of spending time in nature for 2 weeks compared with participating in exercises adapted from positive psychology. Participants who received the nature exposure treatment improved in physical health, well-being, diligence, and fatigue to the same extent as the established interventions from positive psychology, and increased in nature identity above and beyond these comparison groups. In other words, nature may be just as good as established interventions for improving health and well-being while also promoting a connectedness with nature. This study provides further evidence that nature-based interventions can be beneficial and advances the field by providing an ecologically valid test of the effectiveness of nature-based interventions.