319 Best Of: Why Nearby Nature Is Just as Useful as the Great Outdoors (Dr. Kathleen Wolf)

Depending on your background of using nature and heading outside, you might think of spending time outdoors as something you go do instead of something that’s on the other side of your front door.

And if you do make a habit of going into the nature that’s close to home, you might be tempted to think that the same-old, same-old isn’t as good as shaking it up and going somewhere news and different.

Dr. Kathleen Wolf has made a career of researching human use of nature and its benefits as a research social scientist at the school of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington. She joined in Season 3 for an overview of how much time in nature is really useful (spoiler alert, it’s about 20 minutes a day!). And in this episode she talks about the benefits of nearby nature and how to get the most out of it.

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Some of the good stuff:

[3:54] What Kathy’s been doing since we last spoke

[7:54] What is nearby nature?
[10:31] What people think of as nature and why making generalizations isn’t a good idea

[15:23] What nearby nature factors appeal to people?

[19:44] The role of mindfulness in nearby nature

[22:45] Is there any benefit to doing the same thing in nature over and over?

[25:37] What it’s like to stare at the same tree for 70 minutes

[27:33] What Amy has learned by doing the same thing over and over again

[33:33] How people can create a great nearby nature experience no matter where they are

[41:40] Why nature is like nutrition