We Are Wired To Be Outside
Science is demonstrating what we intuitively know: Nature makes us happy.
When we first see Elizabeth Bennett, in the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice, she is walking through a field, surrounded by birdsong and trees. Nature, for Jane Austen’s heroines, is always a source of solace and inspiration. And as Florence Williams shows in her new book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, modern technology is now revealing what goes on in our brains when we step outdoors—and why nature is so good for us. [Read Williams's National Geographic story "This Is Your Brain on Nature."]
When National Geographic caught up with Williams by phone in Washington, D.C., she explained why even a house plant can make us feel good, why the
