• 5 Ways Walking Can Boost Your Brain Health
Research suggests you should lace up your shoes and hit the road

• Want To Reduce Your Meds? Take a Walk in the Woods
New study reaffirms the value of getting back into nature for your well-being

• The nature cure: how time outdoors transforms our memory, imagination and logic
Without engaging with natural environments, our brains cease to work well. As the new field of environmental neuroscience proves, exposure to nature isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity

• Cells of people living in greener areas age more slowly, research finds
Greener neighborhoods can slow aging process of human cells but effects of environmental racism can erase any benefits

• Why an East Harlem Street Is 31 Degrees Hotter Than Central Park West
If you want to map inequality in New York, you can just count trees (NYT Gift Link)

• Since When Have Trees Existed Only for Rich Americans?
Across the nation, the wealthier and whiter your neighborhood is, the greener the view from your window is likely to be (NYT Gift Link)

• Very cool: trees stalling effects of global heating in eastern US, study finds
Vast reforestation a major reason for ‘warming hole’ across parts of US where temperatures have flatlined or cooled

Friedrich Nietzsche is said to have said “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking,” and I’m sure some have been conceived while stationery. (Not all truly great thinkers have had the use of their legs, for starters.) But one thing I’ve known about myself for years is that I do my best thinking (writing, problem-solving …) when I’m walking, and also that my mental health suffers when I’m not. Also, while walking around a city block is helpful, it’s no match for a walk in the trees.

The connection, for me, is clear as a bell, so it comes as no surprise that study after study after study in the past few years has proven it to be a general truth that walking literally improves brain function (even growing new neurons), as well as that spending time in nature, and living among plants and trees, not only lowers our exposure to extreme heat but improves our physical health in numerous ways — impacting our risk of everything from asthma to hypertension to dementia and beyond — right down to the cellular level.

Our ancestors didn’t need studies to tell them that nature is vital to human well-being, but understanding this fact — and how uneven access to it is — has never been more critical, as even just the headlines above make clear. But I hope you’ll dig in. Each story is a world of jaw-dropping intel unto itself (if you only click one, make it the 3rd in the list), but what they add up to is vitally important.

There’s one more observation I want to add that I haven’t seen written about anywhere. As you may know, we recently spent two years in Florida, and while I had certainly witnessed tree canopy cover disparities like those detailed in the links above, being a participant in Florida’s very broken home insurance market, where so many people are underinsured, at best, gave me a new perspective. Where we were, you can’t help noticing that the wealthier neighborhoods are jungle lush, while the poorer ones are comparably barren — even the palm trees are scarce. That lack of trees’ cooling properties is not only perilous in the increasing Florida heat, but what I came to understand is that it’s not only a question of civic investment in trees and parks, or who has the money for a yard full of plants, or even who can afford the time or landscapers for tending to them — although all are no doubt factors. It’s also a question of who can afford to have a tree fall on their house in a hurricane. Who could rebuild and replant, and who would do without trees, just to be safe — forgoing not just the beauty but the health benefits as a result. I feel like more attention needs to be paid to that part of the story.

So with all of that said, happy Spring! Get out there and walk, if you’re blessed with mobility, as often as you possibly can. Reap the benefits of whatever green space you have access to, in whatever ways you are able. And heed the old saying: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the next best time is today.

p.s. For a look at how magical trees are, in and of themselves, see last week’s post, Tree Fever.

[ IMAGE: Photo of the forest around Kaaterskill Falls, Catskills Mountains, New York © Karen Templer. Do you feel calmness and clarity just looking at it? ]