Background:A body of evidence shows that both physical activity and exposure to nature are connected to improved general and mental health. Experimental studies have consistently found short term positive effects of physical activity in nature compared with built environments. This study explores whether these benefits are also evident in everyday life, perceived over repeated contact with nature. The topic is important from the perspectives of city planning, individual well-being, and public health.Methods:National survey data (n = 2,070) from Finland was analysed using structural regression analyses. Perceived general health, emotional well-being, and sleep quality were regressed on the weekly frequency of physical activity indoors, outdoors in built environments, and in nature. Socioeconomic factors and other plausible confounders were controlled for.Results:Emotional well-being showed the most consistent positive connection to physical activity in nature, whereas general health was positively associated with physical activity in both built and natural outdoor settings. Better sleep quality was weakly connected to frequent physical activity in nature, but the connection was outweighed by other factors.Conclusion:The results indicate that nature provides an added value to the known benefits of physical activity. Repeated exercise in nature is, in particular, connected to better emotional well-being.

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The evidence for restorative effects of contact with nature is vast. Drawing from two well-known theories in Environmental Psychology, Stress reduction theory and Attention restoration theory, restoration can be seen as a sequential, interactive process that begins with physiological relaxation and results in affective and attention restoration and broader life reflection. This interaction between a person and their environment may be facilitated by actively engaging with the environment but this has been understudied. We examined engagement with the environment by asking participants to complete psychological, restoration theory-driven tasks designed to enhance physiological, affective and attention restoration, while walking on nature trails. We conducted two experimental field studies (conceptual replications) in Finland in a coniferous forest (Study 1; n = 128) and an urban park (Study 2; n = 121). The participants walked at their own pace for 4-6 km with or without psychological tasks. Those in the task conditions completed either theory-based restoration-enhancement tasks or alternative tasks that we expected to be less restorative (Study 1: the same tasks in the reverse order; Study 2: awareness-enhancement tasks). The participants completed self-reports on valence, activation, and restoration, and the Sustained Attention to Response Task, before, and after, the walk. We compared the change between measurements using regression models grouped by study conditions, with age, recent stress, difficulties with wayfinding, start time, and navigation method (Study 2 only) as covariates. Valence and self-reported restoration improved after the walk, but there was no additional benefit from the psychological tasks. In both studies, sustained attention consistently improved following different versions of the restoration-enhancement tasks and, to some extent, after a walk without the tasks. Participants who were more stressed experienced greater improvements in valence and self-reported restoration (Study 1) and sustained attention (Study 2). The results support both Stress reduction theory and Attention restoration theory, and imply that some forms of active engagement with the environment can aid sustained attention but not affective restoration. Future research efforts are needed to replicate these findings and to assess any potential long-term or multiplicative effects of engagement-based tasks, or other strategies that could enhance positive engagement with the environment.

Environmental strategies of affect regulation refer to the use of natural and urban socio-physical settings in the service of regulation. We investigated the perceived use and efficacy of environmental strategies for regulation of general affect and sadness, considering them in relation to other affect regulation strategies and to subjective well-being. Participants from Australia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, India, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden (N = 507) evaluated the frequency of use and perceived efficacy of affect regulation strategies using a modified version of the Measure of Affect Regulation Styles (MARS). The internet survey also included the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), emotional well-being items from the RAND 36-Item Health Survey, and a single-item measure of perceived general health. Environmental regulation formed a separate factor of affect regulation in the exploratory structural equation models (ESEM). Although no relations of environmental strategies with emotional well-being were found, both the perceived frequency of use and efficacy of environmental strategies were positively related to perceived health. Moreover, the perceived efficacy of environmental strategies was positively related to life satisfaction in regulating sadness. The results encourage more explicit treatment of environmental strategies in research on affect regulation.