Summer is almost over. In-between working to pay for tuition, taking summer school courses for elective credits, and trying to keep up a social life, I have found my ever-spinning mind clamoring for a quiet retreat.
This is why I love camping. Try to tell me a better way to relax than having a nap on the beach, seeking solace beneath a shady tree, dipping your canoe paddle into a sapphire lake, participating in an impromptu Ultimate Frisbee game, or catching air during a cliff-jumping excursion. After I return from a camping trip, I am so incredibly relaxed and ready to get back to work. It's good for my mind. It's great for my soul.
As I sat next to the campfire in a sweatshirt to shut out the chilling breeze last weekend, thoughts of September drifted into my mind. With those thoughts, I realized that school loomed near. Yes, loomed. Why did the thought of going back to school in the fall make me twitch with stress?
Researchers at Cornell conducted a study on children in grades three through five to see if the amount of nature or green spaces they encountered in their daily life contributed to a reduction in stress.
They discovered that everyday life-stresses did not have as much of a negative impact on children who lived in higher nature-infused conditions, and that those children's attention spans were also lengthened when they were surrounded by greenery, whether it was fields, indoor plants, trees, or gardens. (http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April03/nature.kid.stress.ssl.html)
If children are affected by the amount of green spaces in their lives, why should university students be any different? And because we spend the majority of our time on campus, wouldn't more green spaces alleviate the high levels of stress we have to deal with throughout the school year?
We need on-campus-retreats for students. Many people seek vacations in quieter places, and there are points in a student's day where he or she would appreciate reading a textbook in the shade of a tree instead of under a flickering fluorescent lamp. On my first day of University last year, I clearly remember avoiding the indoor eating area in favor of having my lunch at an outside courtyard under the shade of trees overhead.
For students who attend schools that experience all four seasons, it would be wonderful to be able to walk into a large greenhouse on campus with benches along a path and have a snack in-between classes during the winter months, instead of fighting for a table in the packed student centre or attempting to sneak illicit food items into a crowded library.
Imagine: students who are stressed with the advent of mid-terms could seek the comfort of a grassy space or the serenity of a picnic table under an oak tree instead of resorting to drugs or alcohol. Psychology Today's article, "The Campus Crisis" noted that, "The severity of mental health problems on college campuses has been rising dramatically since 1988-one year into the Prozac era." (http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20040519-000002.html) Surely, the introduction of more green spaces that are useable for students would help to decrease these rising numbers.
And why stop at campuses? Offices could implement green spaces, such as courtyards at the centers of buildings with picnic tables and trees for employees to eat their lunches on. There could be indoor plants amongst the grey cubicles to brighten working spaces and life moods. Hospital windows could show a view of trees and grassy areas instead of cement parking lots and busy avenues. Paving these green paradises into parking lots might raise revenues, but it's making us all depressed.
Give green a chance. Your psyche will thank you.