Found courtesy of Children & Nature Network.

Outside Magazine, December 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012

These days, screen-addicted Americans are more stressed out and distracted than ever. And nope, there’s no app for that. But there is a radically simple remedy: get outside. Florence Williams travels to the deep woods of Japan, where researchers are backing up the surprising theory that nature can lower your blood pressure, fight off depression, beat back stress—and even prevent cancer.

…

I was supposed to be listening to the cicadas and the sound of a flowing creek when a Mitsubishi van rumbled across a small steel bridge just downstream. It was probably depositing campers at a nearby tent village, where kids were running around with their fishing poles and pink bed pillows. This was nature, Japan style. I was in Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park, a 75-minute train ride northwest of Tokyo, with half a dozen other hikers out for a dose of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. The Japanese go crazy for this practice, which is standard preventive medicine here. It essentially involves hanging out in the woods. It’s not about wilderness; it’s about the nature-civilization hybrid the Japanese have cultivated for thousands of years. You stroll a little, maybe write a haiku, crack open a spicebush twig and inhale its woodsy, sassy scent…

Read the original article:

Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning

Huffington Post – December 16, 2012

If you’re stuck in a creative rut, the best way out may be to just unplug and recharge. A new study, to be published in the journal PLOS One, shows that spending four nature-filled days, away from electronic devices, is linked with 50 percent higher scores on a test for creativity.
The findings provide "a rationale for trying to understand what is a healthy way to interact in the world, and that burying yourself in front of a computer 24/7 may have costs that can be remediated by taking a hike in nature," says study researcher David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah.

• [>] Read the full article

From my mom:

Here’s my Daily Om Horoscope. Always good advice:

Play can be a wonderful way to initiate change in your life. It is during or after periods of playfulness that we are struck by the most creative and inventive ideas. Imaginative play offers a unique opportunity to think outside the box and try different ways of being. Your mind becomes free to experience your unlimited creative potential, and you’re likely to come across a refreshing idea that you can apply to your daily routine in a positive way. When you use play as a means of instigating change today, your daily duties will become less routine.

Photo by Stan Milkowski/Woodland Park Zoo

With all the chaos, seriousness, and unplayfulness that can go on around us, this is a nice time of year to stop and think about what we are grateful for. Giving thanks is a great way to take time and appreciate what we have around us, tangible or intangible, and what makes us happy. Here are some of the things I am thankful for this year:

My husband and brand new daughter.
My parents.
My family-in-law.
A house that keeps us warm and dry.
The ability to move, stretch, and play.
The park just down the street from our new house.
The fact that I live in such a beautiful part of the United States.
A love of cooking (if I didn’t love cooking I’d be in serious trouble).
The Internet.
My health and my family’s health.
A love of art.
Sleep.
Coffee.