Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us – Discover Healing Wisdom of the Outdoors for Body, Spirit, and Earth

by Emma Loewe

Discover the new science and ancient wisdom on why nature makes us healthier and happier in body and soul from the co-author of The Spirit Almanac and mindbodygreen’s Senior Sustainability Editor. For centuries, we have known that getting outside is good for us. Yet we have become increasingly disconnected from the earth that nourishes us, with most of us spending 87% of our days indoors. In response, writer and environmentalist Emma Loewe demonstrates the power of nature’s healing properties in a guidebook organized by eight landscapes. In each chapter, you'll find research-backed ways to explore that landscape right now and protect it in the future, so that it can be healthy and nurturing for generations to come. Drawing off modern science and innate wisdom, she Alongside beautiful four-color illustrations that inspire us all to get outside in big and small ways, this stunning book—more urgent than ever—will appeal to anyone looking to connect with the world around them, whether in their neighborhood park or on a backpacking getaway. 

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Science, Health, Self Help, Audiobook, Psychology

288 pages, Hardcover

Published April 12, 2022

Reviews

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return to Nature is essentially a guide book, subtitled “the new science of how natural landscapes restore us.” The power of nature is underrated — Even as many of us already know this, it can be hard to step away from commitments and allow ourselves to a take break, but it feels so good when we do, even if it’s a brief one! It was clear to me early on in reading this book, that Emma Loewe is knowledgeable and has done her research.

Eight different landscapes are covered across the chapters in this book, combining science, some stories, and suggestions for how to make the most of time spent at each of them and what benefits we can derive from each of them. The chapters on Parks and on Oceans & Coasts resonated with me the most, likely because these are the landscapes I frequent most and love.

I don’t read a ton of books in the nonfiction nature/ environmental genre, but found Return to Nature informative. It’s a great guide for people looking to reconnect with nature.

[Alexandra (birdyreads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was inspiring, beautiful, informative, challenging. It took me forever to read because I would get caught in the chapters absorbing everything and thinking of ways to make change. Overall a very lovely book

[Stacy Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return to Nature is a wonderful guidebook backed by dozens of scientific studies about the benefits of nature to our mental health, our spirits, and our physical bodies. Loewe, an environmental journalist, offers short and lengthier exercises to get out of doors and shares ideas for rethinking our connections to nature and our responsibility to the plant. She also digests scientific studies that link health to the sound of water and forest bathing, for example. The book features journal prompts, meditation exercises, and charming original illustrations by Harriet Lee-Merrion. I ran across this book on a themed book cart at EIU library, but there are so many fabulous ideas in the book, I have purchased a copy of my own for ongoing reference.

[Loraine Van Tuyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an ecopsychologist, Return to Nature tops the list of favorite kinds of books to read. Emma Loewe's cutting edge insights -- guided by love instead of fear -- hit the nail on the head each time and have me nodding and smiling as I turn page upon page. I grew up in the rainforest, am surrounded by mountains, and just spent 5 days in the desert. I found it fascinating to read that many others similarly benefit from these landscapes as I do, and loved the practical and doable suggestions how to reciprocate the love and care for our Earth Mother and mitigate climate change. Here are some of my favorite nuggets:

"These days, stepping outside for some air can feel like an act of resistance—a blatant disregard for the emails that need to be sent, the projects that need tending to, the family that needs taking care of."

"I’ve come to believe that these dual emergencies—the mental health crisis and the climate crisis—are intricately connected. Removing ourselves from nature is making us sick, stressed, and profoundly out of sync. And it’s doing the same thing to our environment."

"How can we convince ourselves that backing away from our screens and stepping outside is not a luxury but an essential part of being human? How can we see nature not as a place to escape to on the weekends but as a refuge that is always sitting outside our front door?"

This book has been added to my essential reading list for my students and clients, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the dramatic healing benefits of the natural world and how to preserve it for generations to come.

[Shaneik Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books reads like nature- simple, informative and refreshing. The author reminds us of why our connection to nature or lack there of impacts our overall health. While managing to deftly showcase how our use of nature should be informed and equitable. A sustainability handbook for the nature lover… and wanna be nature lover.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don’t need to be an avid hiker, surfer, or climber. I myself am none of these things. While I love being outside, my anxious personality and not-insignificant fear of heights means that my ideal nature excursion is a day in the park or an afternoon walk through the woods—not a weeklong backcountry trip or whitewater rafting journey. This used to make me feel slightly ashamed: How could I write about loving nature without ever having experienced it in these more traditionally “outdoorsy” ways? But over time, I’ve started to embrace the idea that everyone—myself included—is outdoorsy, in the sense that we all have the capacity to tap into the best parts of ourselves outdoors. My hope is that this book will be a source of ideas to help you do so, no matter what outdoor experience you opened it with.

Amazing, perfect, wonderful book I had been looking for! I am beyond privileged and fortunate to live in Colorado where the mountains are less than an hour away, and I can see dramatic vistas and wildlife every day, but I know so many are not in the same situation, so this book does a fantastic job of compiling things that people can do even in a city to engage with nature, which has so many benefits to the human, and by loving it, will get more protection and reverence it needs to survive.

We’ve evolved to feel safer, more comfortable, and more productive inside, on our devices—even though the outdoors is where many of us are our most calm, creative, and captivated. Is it any surprise, then, that levels of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm have reached soaring heights? The World Health Organization has called stress the health epidemic of the twenty-first century and considers depression a leading cause of disability worldwide. As of 2019, nearly one in five adults in the United States lived with a diagnosable mental illness, with anxiety disorders being the most common.

I believe that soon, neuroscientists will tell us that being in the presence of nature lights up our brains the same way as the faces of those we love. . . . When we step outside, nose to nose, eye to eye, fully immersed in the wild, we are the best versions of ourselves. —WALLACE J. NICHOLS

Attention restoration theory (ART) states that, in such a distracting world, we use up a lot of our cognitive resources trying to stay focused on the tasks at hand. Constantly needing to actively direct our attention this way leaves us mentally fatigued. After years of studying people’s perceptions of nature both near and far, the Kaplans theorized that nature is one place we can go to restore our attention, given that it has four key qualities: extent (there’s enough of it to explore to keep us occupied), being away (it feels removed from whatever is draining our cognitive resources), compatibility (it’s in line with what we expect and supports our goals), and fascination (it’s a place for the attention to rest). As their theory goes, natural scenes provide a place for our attention to recharge, so we can go back to cognitively draining activities feeling a little more rejuvenated and alert. Emails, pings, and other distractions empty our mental cups, so to speak, and nature fills them back up.

Stress reduction theory (SRT) says that humans are hardwired to relax while looking at environments that have extensive views, areas to retreat, and essential resources like shade and water. Since these are the places that our primitive ancestors sought out for survival, it would make sense that they still feel innately welcoming to us. When our stress response—another vestige from the early days of humanity—is activated and our bodies go into fight-or-flight mode, these natural settings can subtly remind us that we are, in fact, safe.

To think of spirituality as a connection that has some degree of randomness to it. It can’t be completely explained or predicted, but we know it when we feel it. In the outdoors, it might look like a moment of ecstasy, a feeling of total peace, or an unexplainable serenity and clarity in the presence of a new view.

I wanted to carry this book beyond the quantifiable and into the realm of the unproved and unprovable: to, as the ecological scientist and member of Citizen Potawatomi Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, “be bilingual between the lexicon of science and the grammar of animacy.”So, alongside measures of heart-rate variability and brain waves, you’ll find descriptions of archetypes, fables, and spiritual and religious philosophies that further probe how nature makes us feel in body and mind.


These days, so many of us think that nature has to be some grand, distant place without a hint of the human: a national park, a secluded beach, a mountain summit. In the report The Nature of Americans referenced earlier, when nearly twelve thousand Americans of all ages were asked to define nature, respondents “overwhelmingly regarded nature as something separated from and independent of human influence or activity.”

I’d argue that wilderness is not the same as nature, and confusing the two is problematic on many levels: for one, untamed wilderness areas are not available—or necessarily appealing—to everyone. Many people don’t have the money or physical ability to go to them, don’t feel safe in them, or feel unwelcome in them because of their gender, their physical ability, or the color of their skin. (Long-standing oppression, control, and institutional racism have historically robbed people of color of many liberties in America—and access to outdoor spaces is one of them.) There’s also the concern that, as one researcher put it to me, when we all flock to the relatively few pristine natural places left, we will “love them to death.” When everyone chooses to fly to national parks over their own neighborhood nature, we’re left with a lot of carbon emissions—and some overrun national parks. The more we see nature as something untouched and far away, the more it will become impossible to find.

We need a new definition for what nature can be. For that, I’m drawn to a response that researchers got in a qualitative study on how listening to bird sounds makes us feel. The study participant noted that when she connects to nature, she’s connecting with something “more real than some of the stressful things that happen in life.” Nature is, simply put, something real—more real than the indoor lives we have constructed for ourselves.

Environmentalist David Orr’s response during a conference I attended with him: Orr told the room that he had to stay hopeful because “hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. If you’re optimistic, you don’t have to do anything. If you’re in despair, you can’t do anything. But if you’re hopeful, you have to do something.”

You might find that when you enter a new landscape, it invites you into a new part of yourself—and holds a lesson you need to internalize the most.

Observing Wildlife Is a Shortcut to Mindfulness: Urban green spaces and parks don’t just give us a comfortable place to gather with other humans: they also provide an arena for animal watching. For both amateur and avid birders, the practice inspires wonder, mindfulness, relaxation, and joy—and a park with running water and the possibility of scraps from someone’s picnic is an ideal place for it. Walking slowly, ears open and binoculars at the ready, birders demonstrate how going out into nature to look for something can boost the experience. Richard Fuller, a conservation biologist and professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, is a self-proclaimed “obsessive bird-watcher.” “When I go out to a natural landscape, I’m often bird-watching,” he tells me from the other side of the world. “For me it’s absolute mindfulness. When you’re bird-watching, you’re entirely focused on what’s happening right there in the present. Nothing in the past, in the future, or elsewhere really matters.”

To root us in the immediate present, birds first engage our senses. Before you see one, you might hear its song, which the acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton says is the primary indicator that a habitat is safe and hospitable. “We have a very discreet bandwidth of supersensitive hearing, and that’s between 2.5 and 5 kilohertz in the resident frequencies of the auditory canal. Is there something in our ancestors’ environment that matches our peak hearing human sensitivity?,” he asks Krista Tippett, a journalist and author, during an episode of her podcast, On Being.18 “Indeed, there’s a perfect match: birdsong.”

Cloud Appreciation Society: “We think that clouds are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them,” reads the society’s “manifesto” in Pretor-Pinney’s book The Cloudspotter’s Guide. “We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of a person’s countenance.”

There’s something about the rhythm of walking . . . It’s a natural human rhythm. If you want to get a baby to sleep, walking it up and down is much more effective than standing still. But there’s also something therapeutic about the rhythm of walking—something I’ve noticed often with families in difficult circumstances is that talking about things while walking is actually very different from sitting across the table. The combination of physical activity, the rhythm, and the natural environment offers something particularly valuable. —CATHARINE WARD THOMPSON

While most structured mindfulness programs are conducted indoors in relatively bland environments, Freddie Lymeus, a clinical psychologist specializing in health psychology and environmental psychology at Sweden’s Uppsala University, recently studied how meditating outdoors in a greenhouse garden setting could enhance people’s ability to drop into mindfulness. After some trial and error, he created a five-week outdoor mindfulness course, called restoration skills training (ReST),27 that harnessed the elements of nature as guides and motivators instead of distractions. Over the course of the nature-based outdoor training, he found that participants’ performance on attention tests improved—an indication of restoration. Those who took part in a traditional mindfulness program didn’t see the same restored attention performance as the outdoor program participants.

Do an open-monitoring meditation. See if meditating outside makes the practice any easier for you to stick with by heading to a local park or quiet grassy area where you feel safe enough to close your eyes or soften your gaze for a few minutes. In an environment as engaging and dynamic as a park, the point isn’t to tune out your surroundings. Instead of telling yourself to focus on your breath or only pay attention to how your exhale feels on your upper lip, feel free to let your attention latch onto whatever comes its way. Say you see a drop of water fall onto a surface, for example. You might allow yourself to consider how its ripples are a metaphor for the benefits of mindfulness expanding out and out and out into the rest of your life. This type of open-monitoring (versus focused-attention) meditation lends nature room to attract your attention in its signature effortless way—and in doing so, help you relax into the moment and shed stress.

Engage with your walks in new ways. When we head to the park equipped with curiosity, we’re more likely to be rewarded with moments of wonder. One study by Jason Duvall at the University of Michigan found that people who followed “awareness plans” on outdoor walks tended to rate their environment more positively than those who walked without awareness plans. These simple plans prompted the walkers to take on new personas in their environments, such as an artist on the hunt for beauty in everyday things. The results suggest that actively looking for something when you’re out in green space might help you perceive your surroundings as satisfying.

You can approach park experiences with a more curious attitude by pretending you’re a painter looking for your next landscape, a botanist on the hunt for a unique plant species, or a writer searching for a lively scene to put into words. In adopting a fresh perspective, you also might find yourself noticing new details in old scenery. “You can go out and discover things that you didn’t see before and see that there’s richness that’s available to you,” Duvall says of the value of going into nature with an awareness plan of your own. “It adds another layer to the experience.”

Another way is to grow a houseplant corner. In his work as a horticultural therapist, Matthew Wichrowski rolls a cartful of greenery across NYU’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, popping into patient rooms to allow them to plant, touch, and tend to plants of all kinds. Anecdotally, he’s seen that gardening is a calming activity to do during otherwise stressful stays—and he’s got some research under his belt to back this up: in his study on 107 cardiac rehabilitation inpatients,39 those who did horticulture therapy tended to report a better mood and lower heart rate after sessions than those who did traditional rehab therapy.

Connect to landscapes past. Given the innate human attraction to green space, this landscape in particular lends itself to revisiting history and exploring tradition. If you have older relatives, ask them about the parks or neighborhood spaces that they frequented growing up. Go through old photos together and see if the nature in the background reminds you of the places your family still visits today. If you’re the oldest in your lineage, do this ritual with younger relatives. Consider which landscape preferences have been passed down through the generations, and which ones have shifted with the times.

Neighborhoods that are poor and have more residents of color can be five to twenty degrees Fahrenheit hotter in summer than wealthier, whiter parts of the same city in major US metropolises like Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Portland, and New York.

George MacKerron, a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Sussex, also has evidence of blue space’s ability to promote happiness and relieve stress. (You’ll notice that much of the research in this section is happening in the UK, which is surrounded by water and run by a government that has historically been financially supportive of such work.) Throughout MacKerron’s “Mappiness” study, almost sixty-six thousand people in the UK downloaded a cellphone app that randomly pinged them to check in on their self-reported happiness levels twice a day.

Some researchers claim that when water molecules pinball off each other, negative ions form in the air (also known as the waterfall effect12), and these might ease depressive feelings13 and activate our body’s natural killer cells14 to fight infection the same way that trees in the forest do (more on that in the forest and trees chapter)—though there’s some debate about this.

Mathew White, a prolific environmental psychologist at BlueHealth who has authored dozens of studies on oceans and human health, guesses that the visual patterns of the waves—the way they invite us away from our thoughts and give us another point on which to focus—play a role too.17 In keeping with attention restoration theory, they are dynamic enough to hold our attention but not so stimulating as to cause mental fatigue, making them a helpful tool for disengaging with some of our inner chatter, at least for a little while. Their soothing blue color, a universal favorite that encourages creativity and connectivity,18 according to cognitive therapy, further adds to their appeal.

After every wave caught, Small tells me, participants are encouraged to pause, soak in their accomplishment, and celebrate it with the group. From there, they can carry the lessons learned on the water back into their everyday lives. “It helps build new neurological pathways in the brain that build increased emotional regulation and stronger sense of self,” Small says, adding that many Groundswell therapists have seen their participants make breakthroughs on the board.
Michelle Shiota, a prominent awe researcher, has said that in this way, many positive emotions tend to leave us cognitively sloppy. When we have them, we are quick to jump to conclusions about what caused them, without questioning the validity of our assumptions. Awe, however, seems to do something different. Since it so closely connects us to the present and challenges our immediate understanding, it causes us to make fewer assumptions about our surroundings and adopt a more curious attitude.

[Heather White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully designed and written book inspires me daily. I keep coming back to it and love to carry it my backpack for inspiration when I'm walking around town. Emma's crisp, entertaining writing and new research underscore the importance of downtime outside for overall well-being. Highly recommend.

[Dan Altman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving this book so far. Well-written, well-researched and a visually stunning book about the health benefits of different landscapes in nature. Motivated me to make a ritual of spending each morning outside.

[John Winkelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing and editing in this well-researched and documented book about the benefits of the outdoors for humans physically, mentally and emotionally with simple and significant plans for implementing its suggestions. I was particularly impressed with the range of sources and research findings from throughout the world.

[Heather Alderman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book, basically a field guide to enjoying the outdoors. I liked how the author laid out the benefits of different environments and how she included studies to support their benefits. I also liked her suggestions on ways to enjoy each environment and add it into your life. As an environmental scientist and an outdoor enthusiast, there was not really any new information for me in this book, but enjoyable.

[Haley Staffon · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really wanted to like this book, & it’s a lovely idea, but i found it tough to stay engaged & didn’t gain a whole
lot of new information from it. it was validating of a lot of knowledge & beliefs i already held, and i appreciate the practical and actionable recommendations at the end of each chapter, but overall it felt a little “fluffy” and less science-based than i’d hoped

[Candy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this...made me want to get outdoors and explore!

[Kit Corcoran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and I wanted to savor every page, but since I got it from the library I had to rush to read it all in order to return it on time. This is the kind of book that I want to have access to whenever I’m feeling down and disconnected from the world. I can see myself in the middle of winter looking through the chapter on Ice and Snow and getting ideas for how I can connect and interact with nature at a time when I feel cut off from it. I both love and disliked the last chapter on cities and built environments because I used to live in a city and I found myself always trying to soak up as much nature as I could find. I understand why cities are necessary, even though they are everything I dislike in one place.
I wish everyone would read and understand this book and make some real progress on reversing the devastation caused by climate change.

[Jaimee Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book & the way the author uses various natural landscapes (oceans, deserts, forests, etc) and the science of human psychology within those spaces to advocate for people to go out and seek experiences with those landscapes. This book was well balanced with research and anecdotal evidence, plus practical, actionable application of the info. However, what would have brought this book to 5 stars for me would be more discussion on how our current society limits or has pushed people away from nature. I wanted more discussion on reconnecting to nature in the context of our extremely online world. Overall, this was a refreshing way to start the new year & I look forward to doing the action steps listed in here

[Tabitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explained in very digestible, easy, engaging read. Does not overstate on points.

Love how the ideas or concepts put forth are supported by actual scientific studies - explain how various landscape create certain effect on humans, or how people interact, engage or journey with nature.

At the same time, beyond a theoretical understanding, it gives very useful, feasible, concrete practices for readers to then apply for themselves, own lives. & even nearly categorised to different needs such as time spent in nature.

At the same time, it is very encouraging to readers, providing much flexibility on where / how one identifies nature

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

FASCINATING READ! fav book I read in 2023. This book changed The way I connect with nature on a daily basis, providing scientific research about how humans experience awe, wonder, mindfulness with different environments (mountains, bodies of water, forests, etc). I highly recommend this for anyone who is going through it as the author facilitates developing a greater appreciation for nature and it's healing affect for mental and physical health.

[Seb Swann · Rating 5 out of 5]

“All nature, both nearby and far away, is essential and must be protected with all our might.“

If you like books about nature; Loewe explores 8 unique landscapes and shares some of the science behind nature’s restorative power. She inspires greater appreciation for each landscapes and calls on greater efforts to protect and sustain them.

[Erin Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me a bit to get through, mostly because it was beautifully designed and was absorbing all the information. I loved how it was split up by different landscapes (mountains, forests, desert, city, snow, ect.)and reviewed the research of the benefits of each environment with practical tips. The outdoors are truly healing.

[Yanna Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the way this was written and the composition of it made my brain very happy. This was a great read, I loved it and had many great moments reading this in nature and feeling all the feels. So many great quotes, nuggets of information, quoted studies, realization moments, and ideas of how to bring that into everyday life.

[Jordan Duran · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book full of really helpful and guiding information. It can take a while to read because it has so much information.
Loved all the chapters and found new appreciation for landscapes that I didn’t have interest in before.
I even have used some strategies already ( looking at leaves more intently on my walks)
Read if you want to slow down and learn to live more presently

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting science

Its great when science confirms what you've known all along- that nature is truly good for you. The books is written in an engaging way and it makes me want to get outside stat.

[Kendi Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't love this. I usually enjoy books on nature and the healing benefits, but this dragged on. To sum the entire book up ... go outside, regardless of the environment available to you, even just 5 - 10 minutes, will provide you with mental clarity and stress relief.

[Jeffrey Ning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emma Loewe approaches biophilia by how natural landscapes restore us. Each chapter comes with The Practice ranging from 10 minutes to extended duration to engage each setting. It keeps you engaged and coherent to the nature.

[Abby Crow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading.

“…humans are increasingly indoor creatures….the average American spent 87 percent of the day indoors (and an additional 6 percent in enclosed vehicles like cars or public transit.)”

I found this quote shocking, yet believable. Lovely and inspiring book.

[Chandler Ichikawa · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Corky · Rating 3 out of 5]

What does being a good ancestor mean to you?

[Ripley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very pretty book. Great activities and background information. However, I felt like I knew most of these things.

[Cait R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyed this book. It is lovely to look at and makes so many wonderful connections.

I want to buy this book!

[Stephanie Faupel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read that really helped me reflect and think about how nature affects me. It showed me new ways to think of my surroundings and how to enhance even the smallest nature experience.

[Denise Sudbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found just one place in the chapter on ocean I thought was really over-written. Otherwise, lots of notes.