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    We flock to the places that bring us joy: parks, forests, lakes, hills, moors, wild locations where we can connect, unwind, and unmake the worries of the day. 

    It’s no coincidence that those places we choose for their restorative elements are also places that allow us to get closer to, and become subsumed by, nature.

    It’s not magic (mostly). It’s science (mostly). 

    Nature nurtures us, and it has since the dawn of time.

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    When cities marshalled their way to the fore, and countries developed the potential for industry, green spaces were purposefully selected and grown to act as a balm against the sacrifices made towards progress.

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    Frederick Law Olmsted, an urban landscape designer famously tied to the design and development of many urban parks in the United States, wrote in 1870 that parks were vital as ‘ventilating spaces’, a restorative element for ‘giving the lungs a bath of pure sunny air [and] giving the mind a suggestion of rest from the devouring eagerness and intellectual strife of town life’.

    Since then, the science behind thirty minutes spent on a park bench has deepened our understanding, and the ties between a moment of rest and a moment spent outside have become indefatigably united. 

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    A scientific timeline of green health 

    In 2009, Taylor & Kuo found a connection between nature and children who struggle to focus on their tasks; a brief walk saw their ability to concentrate grow by bounds. 

    In 2012, a similar study on adults by Berman et al., saw that adults who had regular interactions with nature had fewer depressive episodes. A study run and concluded in the same year by Thompson et al., added lowering stress levels the list of benefits that had already made it into the science books.

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    In 2014, Alcock et al., discovered that adults who had moved to greener urban areas showed improved mental health immediately after moving out of their more urban environments. Conversely, people who moved to areas with less greenery showed a sharp decrease in mental health, especially for the first year of their move. 

    In 2019, one year before the COVID-19 health crisis, Bratman et al., propose a conceptual model for growing access to green infrastructure and city greening, and its influence on mental health and psychological well-being. This is based on the decades of literature mentioned previously, highlighting a significant correlation between the benefits of green spaces on people who live in urban environments.

    From 2020 to 2022, studies published focused on the value of green spaces in regard to social distancing: Brooks et al., who found that urban green areas reduced the effects of long-term isolation, such as post-traumatic stress disorder; Rousseau and Deschacht, who discovered that public access to local green and blue areas went up, and therefore the public support for environmental measures also rose; and finally, Slater et al., who found that exposure to nature and green spaces mitigated most of the negative shelter-in-place effects of quarantine.

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    The COVID-19 pandemic was our first real reckoning of the importance of having green space access in urban centres. As companies shut their doors and all other forms of entertainment moved online, mental health challenges rose – people exhibited symptoms most closely associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, severe anxiety disorders, and depression.

    People with gardens fared slightly better, showing less prominent stress symptoms, but it was the enabling of public park access, and the opportunity to take a little walk around the neighbourhood, that really made a difference to the severity of what COVID-19 had wrought. Park usage rose rapidly as people made their way towards the great outdoors, but alongside the increase of park usage, there was an equal rise in the use of other outdoor social spaces. 

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    Thirty minutes on a park bench

    As Olmstead once wrote, “the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air, and change of habits, is favorable to the health and vigor of men and specially to the health and vigor of their intellect beyond any other conditions which can be offered them, that it not only gives pleasure for the time being but increases the subsequent capacity for happiness and the means of securing happiness.”

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    This was in 1865, in a preliminary report on Yosemite and Mariposa Grove, before cities were so grand and industry was so well-established. Since then, much has changed, and much of it has been for the better, but the value of thirty minutes spent on a park bench has maintained the same critical importance to our health and happiness. 

    To spend thirty minutes on a park bench is to rest: mind, spirit, and body.