The start of a new year: a time for optimism, ambitious plans to improve the world, and the grim suspicion that the first couple of months may well be a miserable slog through the deepest of winter’s gloom.
But for those who fear the cold and dark ahead, help is on the horizon. Researchers in Canada are investigating a simple trick they hope will boost flagging spirits even when the days are short and frost is in the air.
“People really need something to help them get through the winter, especially after Christmas,” said Dr Holli-Anne Passmore, the psychologist leading the study at Concordia University of Edmonton in Alberta. “If people don’t like winter in the first place, they really don’t see anything good in it.”
Between January and March, the plan is for at least 100 volunteers in Edmonton – a city where winter days can mean seven hours of daylight and temperatures as low as -35C – to spend two weeks going about their normal routines, but with one small change.
The participants will be instructed, while they are out and about, to pay attention to the natural amid the human-made – the frosty tree beside the tower block, the animal footprints on the snowy pavement, the icicles dangling from the warehouse roof – and make notes on how it makes them feel.
Before and after the trial, named the Noticing Nature Intervention, participants will complete questionnaires so researchers can assess their levels of anxiety, stress, happiness, life satisfaction and sense of connection to the world. They will then work out whether noticing nature in a built-up environment provides something of a boost.
The volunteers’ scores, along with measurements of a salivary enzyme linked to stress, will be compared with those from a control group who will go about their business without instructions to change their behaviour.
The trial will run for two weeks to help people build a habit for noticing nature, but can such a simple trick really hope to have an impact? The simplicity of the intervention should not put people off, Passmore argues. “People tend to discount how good they’re going to feel when they notice nature,” she said. “Part of it is our whole western society. We want a pill, we want something new and improved, we always want the latest.”
Besides its parks, trees and other plants, Edmonton is home to squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, beavers and hundreds of wild bird species. In the bustle of daily life, they easily go unnoticed. “We know that people are becoming more and more disconnected from nature,” said Passmore. “One reason is the built environment we live in, but we’re also stuck on our cell phones. Honestly, we just need to look around us.”
Passmore believes winter brings its own delights: the trees sparkle with hoarfrost, animal tracks are visible in the snow, the colour palette and soundscape change. The cold is invigorating, the night sky more visible. “You are more likely to see the stars and the northern lights, because you don’t have to wait up until frickin’ two in the morning,” she said. “It’s much more invigorating being outside in the winter. I always think of it as a bit of an adventure. Every time you go out it’s exhilarating.”
Gary Evans, director of the Forest Bathing Institute, which runs sessions in nature with Forestry England and conducts research with universities, urged people to wrap up warm and get out to see the nature around them.
“Often people think they haven’t got the time, but it doesn’t have to take long,” he added. “Just find a manageable starting point. On your walk to work, give yourself a few extra minutes. If there are two routes from the tube, walk down the street that’s got trees. If people enjoy it, they will expand the time they spend doing it.”
