Place, green exercise and stress: An exploration of lived experience and restorative effects

Physical, psychological and emotional effects of nature-based affordances of green physical activity

“…In the video-sound condition, participants were physically and mentally fond of the visual and audio contents of the video and received positive benefits. This finding was in line with a previous study which suggested the improved enjoyment and reduced stress when participants viewed nature video without PA involved (Olafsdottir, Cloke, & Vögele, 2017). In particular, participants negated their physical tiredness via visualising themselves in the similar environments when viewing preferred clips or creating links to past memories.…”

“…More negative feelings and opinions were expressed in these two environments compared to the video-sound environment (Brick et al, 2014). The above findings were in line with previous research supporting the relevant use of nature information during PA (Akers et al, 2012;Franco, Shanahan, & Fuller, 2017;Jahncke et al, 2015;Olafsdottir et al, 2017;Pretty et al, 2005). The findings offered advanced information by advocating a greater diversity of information in the PA environment for satisfying a wider population when designing PA environments.…”

Identifying and resisting the technological drift: green space, blue space and ecotherapy

“…Exposure to nature has been demonstrated to improve mental health in numerous ways, including through the reduction of stress (Olafsdottir, Cloke and Vögele, 2017), attention restoration (Berto, 2005), improved mood (Joye and Bolderdijk, 2015), slowing of cognitive ageing (Cherrie et al, 2017), frequency of exercise (Gladwell et al, 2013), increased life satisfaction (Korpela et al, 2008), social connection (Chen, Tu and Ho, 2013) and better sleep hygiene (Stothard et al, 2017). Bloomfield (2017) notes that the evidence for mental health benefits of nature is 'substantial' and although 'findings are of variable reliability' 'there is a consistent positive trend' (p. 82).…”

“…The health and nature research is presented with a heterogeneous selection of terminology, including 'green space' (Conniff andCraig, 2016, Bell et al, 2014) and 'blue space' (White et al, 2010, Bell et al, 2015 referring respectively to land and water areas identified as 'natural' to varying extents and distinct from 'grey' urban and industrial spaces. A wider array of terms is applied in the research to describe the particular wellbeing focused activities that go on in these 'natural' spaces including 'eco-therapy' (Wilson et al, 2008), 'social and therapeutic horticulture (STH)' (Diamant and Waterhouse, 2010), 'care farming' (Leck, Upton and Evans, 2015), 'forest bathing' (Ochiai et al, 2015), 'adventure therapy' (Willis, 2011), and 'green exercise' (Olafsdottir, Cloke and Vögele, 2017). Terms are sometimes combined, such as green exercise referring to fitness activities occurring in green spaces, or are treated separately with green space and blue space as more abstract population-level constructs and adventure therapy (for example) taking place in more vaguely defined spaces.…”

Enable, Reconnect and Augment: A New ERA of Virtual Nature Research and Application

“…Emerging research on technological nature tentatively confirms that these interactions are more beneficial for health and well-being than an absence of human-nature interactions, but not as beneficial as genuine nature exposure [42][43][44] (see Figure 1). Findings from a range of studies suggest that virtual nature interactions produce some positive effects, but also show that virtual nature is unable to fully reproduce the effects of real nature [44][45][46][47].…”