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- 🌳 People who visited green or blue spaces reported higher happiness throughout the day, regardless of mental health status.
- 🧠 Nature visits decreased activity in the brain area linked to rumination and negative thought cycles.
- 🌊 Blue spaces increased happiness but had mixed effects on anxiety, especially in people with mental health conditions.
- 🧍♀️ Those using antidepressants still experienced boosts in mood from nature exposure, showing benefits apply broadly.
- 🚫 Unfair access to green spaces remains a significant barrier to public mental health support.
People have long seen nature as a way to ease stress and sadness. But do these good feelings stay with you? New research shows that time spent in green or blue spaces can make you happier all day. This is true even if you have depression or anxiety. This growing proof argues for making nature part of our daily lives, for each of us and for everyone.
Nature and Happiness: A Lasting Boost
People have always praised how nature can help us feel good. But new, big studies now give clear proof for what many people just felt was true: being in nature makes you happier.
A 2025 study by Harvey, White, and colleagues published in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that people who visited natural places—green ones (like forests, parks, grasslands) or blue ones (such as rivers, lakes, or oceans)—felt much happier. What stood out was that this happiness lasted all day. It did not just happen during or right after being in nature.
This lasting effect did not come from outside things like how much money people made, if it was a weekday or weekend, or work tasks. It stayed true even when these common mood factors were taken out of the picture. This shows that nature and happiness are linked on their own, and the link is strong.
People dealing with mental health problems saw clear benefits too. If people had been told they had anxiety or depression, or if they took medicine for it, time in nature still meant higher happiness. This shows again that nature helps everyone’s mental health.
Green Spaces vs. Blue Spaces: Different Effects
Different natural places affect our brains and feelings in different ways. A key part of the 2025 study looked at how green and blue spaces differ. It also showed the special mental benefits each type seems to give.
Green Spaces
Green spaces include places with lots of plants: forests, parks, fields, community gardens, or streets with trees. People who spent time in these spaces:
- Said they felt happier overall, every time.
- Felt less anxious or no change in anxiety.
- Felt safer and more settled. Maybe this is because people feel a natural comfort in places with lots of plants, like where our ancestors lived.
The calm, order, and even shade in green spaces can be especially helpful for people who feel stressed or overly alert. And they let people be active, spend time with others, and see things that make life feel good, like birds, trees, or the changing seasons.
Blue Spaces
Blue spaces have water bodies: lakes, rivers, the sea, or even city fountains. How they affect our minds seems more complex:
- People felt happier during and after visiting blue spaces.
- But, those with anxiety or depression also said they felt a bit more anxious.
- The open or changing nature of water might make people think deeply rather than relax.
Blue spaces are not always calming like green areas. But they can make us feel wonder and think deeply. This makes them good for managing mood, especially when you go there on purpose.
Mental Health and Nature: Benefits for Everyone
One of the best findings from the study is that nature’s happiness boosts were not just for people with good mental health. Almost 14% of the people in the study took medicine for anxiety or depression. These problems often mean mood swings and not being able to feel pleasure.
Even with these issues, time in green or blue spaces led to similar gains in reported day-long happiness. That’s a big deal. It means being in nature might give mood support that does not involve drugs or surgery. This could help people with a range of mental well-being levels.
This also fits with other research. That work shows nature helps mood, short-term memory, and getting back focus. It also helps body measures like cortisol levels and heart rate changes. All these are key signs of how we handle stress and control our feelings.
Why Anxious People May Seek Out Water
Researchers say to be careful when looking at if blue spaces really make anxiety worse. A more likely explanation is the other way around: people who already feel anxious might go to blue places to help control their feelings.
In psychology, this means people pick surroundings they think will fit or better their mood. Just like some people eat comfort food or call a friend, others might go to a river’s flowing water or steady ocean waves to calm inner upset.
Because the study asked people to look back on “how they felt yesterday,” it’s hard to figure out the real order of things. Did the water make them anxious? Or did they go there because they already felt anxious?
Future studies could answer this question better. They could use tools that log feelings right away or devices worn on the body. These would track anxiety signs before and after being in nature.
The Brain on Nature: What Neuroscience Tells Us
To know how nature affects happiness, we must look at more than just feelings. We also need to see how our brains react.
Brain science research adds more to this talk. A 2015 study by Bratman and others showed that walking in nature lowered activity in a brain area called the subgenual prefrontal cortex. This area is linked to bad thoughts, dwelling on things, and worrying about yourself (Bratman et al., 2015).
In this random study, people who walked in nature for 90 minutes said they dwelled less on thoughts. They also showed less brain activity in this area, compared to those who walked through city areas.
This means the brain takes in natural sights and sounds in a way that truly breaks the pattern of bad thoughts. These changes might explain why people often feel better, focus more, or feel less tied to their problems after time in a park or forest.
Does Nature Lower Anxiety? It Depends
Green spaces have shown steady help for lowering anxiety. This is probably because they are calm places, look pleasing, and are linked to growth and life.
Blue spaces, though, give a more complex feeling. Some find calm in still water and open views. But for people who tend to overthink or do not like places without clear structure, these same sights and sounds can make them feel uneasy.
Context also matters:
- Time of day: A pond at sunrise can calm you. The same spot at night might feel lonely or scary.
- Social context: A beach trip with friends can be fun. But going alone might make you think deeply.
- Weather: Water under clear blue skies feels very different from water under gray, stormy clouds.
In the end, how nature affects anxiety seems to depend not just on the type of place. It also depends on your purpose, your thoughts, and the situation.
Nature as Accessible Mental Health Support
Nature is one of the easiest and most open ways to care for your feelings. Unlike therapy, medicine, or special treatments, you do not need a doctor’s note. It costs little or nothing. And it comes with very little shame.
What’s more, nature helps all kinds of people. This means children and older adults, students and retirees, and people from all cultures. For those waiting for professional help or dealing with symptoms every day, a walk in the park could give some relief.
Public health systems are starting to see this too. Some countries, like the UK and New Zealand, have started “green prescriptions.” Here, doctors tell patients to garden, walk in forests, or join outdoor community groups as part of their health plans.
Research Gaps and Limitations
Even with good results, it’s important to note some limits of current research.
For instance:
- The 2025 Harvey study asked about happiness over “the previous day.” This made it hard to see long-term effects.
- Surveys where people report on themselves can be skewed. People might not remember well, or they might say they felt better or worse than they did.
- How long and how good the nature time was, was not measured. Was it a 10-minute walk or a 2-hour hike?
- The role of other people was not looked at. Were people alone, with a friend, or in a group?
Future studies could use body trackers, GPS apps, or daily journals. These could give more information to find out cause and effect links between nature visits and lasting mental health gains.
Repetition Matters: Building a Nature Routine
If one trip to nature can boost happiness for a full day, what happens if you go often?
This question is key to the RESONATE project. This Europe-wide study looks at how nature-based treatments affect mental health over time. The project wants to find out if being in nature often can change emotional and thinking habits in a lasting way.
Early results show that nature acts much like other good health habits. Think about sleep, exercise, or eating right. You must do it regularly to get long-term benefits.
Simple ways to make it a regular habit include:
- Walking through a local park several times a week.
- Eating lunch in a garden area.
- Making weekend forest visits part of your routine.
Small bits of nature might not cause a big change at once. But added up, they build strength and boost your normal level of well-being.
Making Nature Visits Practical
With busy schedules, family duties, and city limits, adding nature might seem like a treat. The good news is, it does not have to be.
Here are several practical ways:
- Start small: Even a 15-minute break in a courtyard or under tree cover counts.
- Plan ahead: Save a list of green and blue spaces you can get to fast.
- Use nature as a transition: Walk home through a park instead of taking the bus all the way.
- Use all senses: Listen, touch, smell, and move through the space mindfully.
Even seeing nature indoors—houseplants, nature shows, online nature views—can help your mind. This is true especially when you cannot get outside easily.
Can Technology Copy Nature’s Effects?
Not everyone lives near a park. So, “digital nature” comes in.
VR and AR tools are now being tested for healing. Online forests, beaches, or meadows let people, like hospital patients or those in crowded city areas, see calm places from their rooms.
Digital nature cannot use all senses, especially smell and touch. But studies show that looking at pictures or videos of nature can slow heart rate, make you feel calm, and lower how stressed you feel. These tools are not replacements. But they are additions and are helpful when you cannot get outside.
Dealing with Unfairness in Nature Access
City design and unequal incomes make very different situations for getting to green spaces. Some city people have large parks they can walk to. Others live in areas without trees, surrounded by concrete.
This unfair separation of places must be dealt with through rules:
- Fair city planning: Put small parks, streets with trees, and green rooftops in all neighborhoods.
- Community gardens: These turn unused land into use. They also help with feelings, body, and food.
- Public transport: Make it easy for all people to get to natural areas on weekends or holidays.
Without system support, the mental health benefits of green spaces stay a special favor. They are not a right for everyone.
Environmental Policy Is Mental Health Policy
Making a city green is not just good for the environment. It is also an investment in happiness for everyone.
When we design cities, well-placed trees, riverside paths, clean water, and well-kept parks do more than just look good. They also help good mental health for all people. Community projects like bringing back nature and making nature paths improve life. They do this even for animals and plants. And they increase plant and animal life and human health at the same time.
It is time to rethink “green building” as key public health building.
The Quiet Power of Natural Worlds
Nature might not fix all problems. But it gives something unique: a steady, easy-to-get-to help for feelings in our busy lives.
If you live with anxiety, deal with burnout, or just want more joy, try stepping outside. Find a tree, a river, or some wildflowers. Even short times there can give calm, clear thoughts, and a different view.
It is not just about nature and happiness. It is about being able to get to nature, making it a habit, and seeing that our human mind, which changed over time, was never made to do well apart from the natural world.
Citations
Harvey, T., White, M. P., Pahl, S., & Elliott, L. (2025). Happy days are nature days: visiting nature has positive spill-over effects for the entire day among people with and without common mental health disorders. The Journal of Positive Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2025.2549296
Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., & Daily, G. C. (2015). The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(10), 641–649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.005
