Herler Wacken

lurking crocodile

"Only in the forest everything came to rest in me, my soul was balanced and full of power." (Knut Hamsun)

Renate Cervinka, environmental psychologist from the University of Vienna and her team discovered that walking in the forest makes the heart beat quieter, lowers the blood pressure and relaxes the muscles.

A new insight from the researcher Jo Barton from the University of Essex: Only five minutes in the forest boost your self-confidence!

Tension, stress and exhaustion disappear. Positive feelings and thoughts seem bigger and more important than those that wear us down.

Environmental psychologist Marc Berman of the University of Chicago compared the tree density within Toronto with the health data of the locals. The more trees in a neighborhood, the lower was the risk of diabetes, hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases.

The introverts feel more comfortable in the mountains than extroverts, who recover better on wide beaches.

Small climbing tours in different levels of difficulty can be selected if needed.

For these gentlemen it is an easy climbing tour, and they are happy to be here surrounded by the forest.

Some people find happiness on the horse`s back, the other under the stars, walking with his dog, watching the birds, fishing, simply laying in the autumn foliage or designing his garden. What about you?

According to a survey in Germany, 94 percent of adults believe that nature is part of a good life.

Ludwig Tieck: "Only under the crowns of the trees does man become man."

Sounds like the rustling of the leaves, crackling, splashing, chirping make us happy even today.

The power of the trees, their fighting for a place between the rocks inspires me.

Nature itself shows the most beautiful landscape shots.

In kindergartens, children often play outside, which stimulates their imagination and creativity or they walk in nature, to the animals, where they learn to establish an emotional bound.

We love green light, even though many people are not aware of it.

The ground is soft, not quite flat. Such underground is good for our joints.

Megacities are global growing, and so are the common diseases such as depression, obesity, heart and respiratory diseases. According to Prof. Terry Hartig the unhealthy environment plays a key role in their emergence.

Behavioral scientist Roger Ulrich compared the case histories of 46 newly operated patients. A half of them gazed out onto a brick wall, the other onto the trees.

Ulrich found that patients who gazed out onto the trees needed lower doses of painkillers than their fellows who gazed out onto the brick wall. They also had fewer complications and were released earlier.

This study "Gaze-out-of-the-window" was recreated by Prof. Thomas Kistemann from environmental medicine.

He said that the psychologists explain traditionally the personality and problems of a person through attachment to others, in particular the relationship with the parents. The "environmental oblivion" has found no place in psychology.

Teenagers look for the challenge in nature. They develop a sense of what they are capable of and where their limits are. All this is important for building a stable identity.

Psychotherapist Wernher Sachon knows many people whose psyche is burdened with symptoms of anxiety, depression, burnout or other things. He uses nature as a therapy. A few days in the nature and the protective armor erected to disregard the impositions of the world, breaks open. "Then I see," says Sachon, "how they come alive again!"

But the trips that Sachon made in nature with his patients were not about stress reduction and recovery, but more about personal change. The first step can be painful. Anyone who opens up to a landscape, feels its vastness or silence, is visible moved.

Sorrow for dreams that have not been realized. Anger at being left by a partner or persevering in a wrong job. But the nature also shows us ways to evolve.

Especially where animals and plants unfold freely: in wild forests, on proliferating meadows. Where nature shows its unbridled power to constantly renew itself and find its own balance.