What Trees Know About Us
We live in a world that never seems to slow down. Notifications often replace silence, screens occupy spaces once reserved for contemplation, and cities remind us daily of urgency, performance, and constant movement. Yet when we step into a forest, sit by the ocean, or simply rest beneath the canopy of a tree in a park, something changes. Without conscious effort, our breathing slows, our bodies relax, and our minds seem to rediscover an older rhythm.
For a long time, this experience was considered little more than a poetic intuition. Today, however, a growing body of research from psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, and medicine suggests otherwise. Nature is not merely a pleasant backdrop. It affects us in profound ways.
One of the most influential studies in the medical literature was published in Science. Researcher Roger Ulrich observed that hospital patients recovering from surgery healed more quickly when their rooms overlooked trees rather than a wall or an urban setting. They required less pain medication, experienced fewer minor complications, and were discharged sooner. Simply looking out at living greenery appeared to support the healing process.
Since then, numerous studies have confirmed that access to green spaces is associated with lower stress levels, improved emotional regulation, reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression, and better cognitive functioning. Neuroscience research suggests that natural environments reduce the activation of brain networks involved in chronic stress while enhancing parasympathetic nervous system activity, the biological state associated with restoration, recovery, and calm.
The Japanese have a name for this encounter between human beings and the forest: Shinrin-yoku, often translated as “forest bathing.” It is neither hiking nor exercise. Participants are encouraged to slow down, notice light filtering through leaves, listen to the wind, touch tree bark, and, in some practices, even embrace trees. While this may seem unusual from a Western perspective, it reflects a cultural tradition that recognizes the relationship between humans and the living world as an important dimension of health. Research conducted in Japan and elsewhere has linked forest bathing to improvements in mood, sleep quality, stress reduction, and overall well-being.
From a psychological perspective, nature offers something increasingly rare in contemporary life: a space that demands nothing from us. It does not evaluate us. It does not compare us to others. It does not require productivity or achievement. Within such an environment, psychological defenses may soften. Thoughts become less congested, emotions can move more freely, and an inner sense of openness often begins to emerge.
Psychoanalysis has long emphasized the importance of environment in psychological development and emotional well-being. Donald Winnicott described the need for a sufficiently supportive environment in which the self can unfold and experience safety. Without replacing human relationships, nature may at times serve a similar function. It contains without confining. It welcomes without demanding. It offers a steady presence in a world often marked by uncertainty and change.
This question has become particularly relevant as eco-anxiety has emerged as a growing clinical concern. Increasing numbers of people report distress related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental uncertainty. The work of Panu Pihkala suggests that eco-anxiety should not necessarily be viewed as a disorder but rather as a deeply human response to real and unprecedented challenges. In this context, contact with nature can play a paradoxical yet meaningful role. It reminds us simultaneously of the fragility of life and of its enduring resilience. It reconnects us with what remains alive.
Contemporary psychiatry increasingly recognizes that mental health is influenced not only by individual psychology and neurobiology but also by environmental factors. Psychological well-being develops within relational, social, cultural, and ecological contexts. We are not separate from the world around us. We are living organisms embedded within larger living systems.
Professor Henri Joyeux has frequently emphasized the importance of prevention through lifestyle, physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and maintaining a connection with natural rhythms. Nature is not, of course, a treatment in itself. Yet it may be one of those protective factors that modern medicine is slowly rediscovering.
Perhaps trees have no advice to give us.
Perhaps they simply offer what our era makes increasingly difficult to find: time, space, and silence.
And perhaps that is already enough.
References
Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., Hahn, K. S., Daily, G. C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(28), 8567-8572.
Hansen, M. M., Jones, R., & Tocchini, K. (2017). Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) and nature therapy: A state-of-the-art review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(8), 851.
Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169-182.
Li, Q. (2010). Effect of forest bathing trips on human immune function. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 15(1), 9-17.
Ohly, H., White, M. P., Wheeler, B. W., Bethel, A., Ukoumunne, O. C., Nikolaou, V., & Garside, R. (2016). Attention restoration theory: A systematic review of the attention restoration potential of exposure to natural environments. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 19(7), 305-343.
Pihkala, P. (2020). Anxiety and the ecological crisis: An analysis of eco-anxiety and climate anxiety. Sustainability, 12(19), 7836.
Twohig-Bennett, C., & Jones, A. (2018). The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes. Environmental Research, 166, 628-637.
Ulrich, R. S. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science, 224(4647), 420-421.
World Health Organization. (2021). Urban green spaces and health: A review of evidence. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.
