Studies show shinrin-yoku, also known as forest bathing or time spent in green spaces, can reduce the stress hormone cortisol and increase your immune defense system.

Source: www.motherearthnews.com

What does work like this suggest about digital spaces?  My mom always kicked me out of the house when I had been playing inside too much.  Do we need to strongly suggest that folks get out and play?  Is there any way to re-create the effect of nature in digital spaces?  Screensavers that engage after so many minutes with high rez pics of nature?  Or in the act of doing ‘learning walks’, of going outside and getting our dose of nature and recording that walk, that we gain even more good.  I don’t know, but maybe we should all have that voice in your head that says, "Get down. Get out and play." 

 

BTW, my mother was a whiz at going outside and playing with us:  marbles, baseball, basketball, kites, mumbledypeg (a freaking knife game and she was scary good).  The purest athlete I have ever known.