Green Movement: Take Your Mushy Mind Outside

When I’m faced with a mental roadblock or just feeling a bit fuzzy upstairs, I take a walk. Afterwards, I usually feel more relaxed and clear headed.

Little did I know that my cognitive functioning was also improving! A recent study in Psychological Science reported that cognitive functioning improves after people interact with nature. They had their participants do a complex mental task involving memorizing a list of things and mentally changing the order of the items around. Then half of the participants went on a walk through a park while the other half walked through an urban setting (downtown Ann Arbor). When they came back, they repeated the tests. Lo and behold, scores of those who walked through the park significantly improved while those of the city walkers didn’t. Oh, it gets better. Those of you without easy access to nature need not despair, because it turns out that they got the same effect using pictures of nature versus pictures of urban settings! As you may have already noticed, menopause doesn’t just wreak havoc on your body, but your mind, too. So the next time you find yourself in a mental fog, take a hike!