Adult Nature Deficit Disorder... and You?

Recently, I was interviewed by a writer about NDD and adults and was inspired to write about the subject a bit more deeply than I have before. Enjoy the following:

Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD), a phrase coined within the work of Richard Louv entitled "Last Child in the Woods," has caught widespread attention across the country (and is beginning to make its way further into the world). As attention is being brought to the effect that nature disconnection has on children and their lives, it's been surprising to learn that any action to reconnect adults and nature on a grander scale, while being studied, is being overlooked.

I work with adults in regard to NDD and assisting them to enrich their quality of life in many areas by reconnecting them with nature. This is very similar to NDD in children except there simply has not been as much focus in the "mainstream" about NDD and adults. Studies abound as to why time spent with nature is good for us, healthy in fact, on every level of our selves, but adults have an easier time putting other things before the act of going outside... and it's easier because we don't really have anyone else looking out for our greater well-being in the way that parents look out for their children.

That said, parents (and any adult that the child looks up to, really) need to lead by example instead of just promoting nature-time for the kids. The solidity of seeing their parents/roll-model adults out there with them is a much more significant way of assuring future excitment and participation with nature than simply sending them into an activity on their own. Not only is it reinforcing for the kids, the adults will gain so many benefits as well. We can shape the future of our culture's perspective about nature, the spectrum of health, the world we live in, and the environment by promoting time in nature for kids in the up-and-coming generation, but we can also shift our present thinking and actions by reaching out to help adults create greater balance and connection through time with nature in their own lives now.

Why is the NDD movement focused on youth? I think there are a few elements that are at play with the NDD movement being more focused on children right now. One of the biggest is nostalgia. Adults see the reflection of ourselves in the children who are in our lives. We wonder "is this young person going to have a childhood that is as good as or better than mine?" We can remember, then, what it was like when we were kids, how we spent our time, the fun things that we did - the "good ol' days" in a sense. Even with cartoons, I hear adults catch glimpses of modern cartoons and say 'what they showed when I was a kid was so much better/more wholesome/more meaningful/etc...' We begin to feel such a disconnect from the way we see today's youth living in their childhood compared to how we lived in ours, it can sometimes come as a concern.

Video games, educational programming, and higher technological learning are so important in so many ways, but we know what education and experiences about life we learned simply by riding bikes with kids in the neighborhood, catching frogs or butterflies, or laying in the grass and gazing at shape-shifting clouds. It's not so much a feeling of wanting to pull them away from the development of these skills and this important knowledge as much as it is wanting to keep them connected to the world that exists around them; the world that we, too, know exists and proves to be so beneficial to our overall balance as humans.

Is there convincing evidence that shows this might affect adults too? If we take a look at our society over the last several decades, we see some drastically changing statistics: obesity rates, daily medication prescriptions, depression, fatigue, insomnia, heart health, ADD/ADHD, even relationship success. We have shifted, understandably, from a culture that spent most of our working days outside to one in which we we are indoors, on average, for 8 to 12 hours a day, in front of computer screens, in recycled air, eating pre-packaged foods, only to come home with a wont for relaxation (because this atmosphere is physically, mentally, and spiritually draining if we don't allow ourselves time to recharge). For many this may mean coming home to the television for the rest of the night and repeating this cycle the next day. We have constant visual and auditory stimulation throughout the day, which also drains us.

Doctors, scientists, therapists, coaches, instructors, and day-to-day citizens alike are beginning to see the alignment of these health and well-being statistics and our society's lack of daily interaction with nature and the outdoors. Adults harbor fears of the great outdoors unnecessarily because they have never had the opportunity to learn otherwise or, even more, experience the feeling of awe and curiosity that nature invokes. Men and women both have even less of an understanding of the nature of their own bodies: how many women if you ask the days on which they ovulate during the month, could tell you almost precisely? That, too, is understanding nature.

Adults throughout their lives can be heard repeating statements similar to... "I feel like I'm looking for something, but don't know what it is," or "I feel as though something is missing," and even "I just don't know what I want." These are all statements and feelings which can cause unrest and even turmoil in our minds and hearts. For a very long time, humans have returned to the natural world to soothe those aches and curiousities, and even to find the answers. Poets write about it, authors put it into words, artists paint it, musician adapt it, philosophers wonder over it, yet nowadays we have not yet come so far in our lifestyles and busy-ness to not be able to take a moment out there and find our own sense of peace, wonder, and connection to something bigger.

Why should we care and what should be done to help everyone get outside? The documentary which recently aired on PBS, "National Parks: America's Best Idea," by Ken Burns, provided us with an amazing view of the spirit in which our idea about nature and wilderness has manifested and continues to pull at our existence. As seen from advertisements on TV, at bank ATMs, on the internet and social networking websites for this documentary's debut, this became more than a nice "flick" to watch: it became a phenomenon. Our intrinsic instinct is already there: we already care.

We care and should care because, even though we may seem much farther removed from the natural world than our own ancestors did (no longer sleeping under the stars or cooking over fires, for example), we are still a part of nature and its cycles. When Mother Nature's cycles hit hard, we really feel the blows from it because we haven't been as present to notice the gradual building of that natural event. But people want to know that there is some benefit to their energy expenditure. Physically, when we're outdoors, we can't help but move in some way or another. Mentally, we feel refreshed, recharged, and rejuvenated. Emotionally, we feel more even and centered. Spiritually, we can feel the greater connection to the creativity that's around us and within us. Environmentally, as we know from the environment in our homes, what we do to it both directly and indirectly affect us (cleanliness, damage, improvements, etc). The same goes for the larger environment we live in - what we do to our natural home directly and indirectly affects us (air pollution, burying hazardous waste, river clean-ups, water quality testing and improvements, etc).

As you can see, all of us are included in these natural cycles - and we depend on them for our existence. Options for adults to get outside can be as unique as the individual. Volunteering for the benefit of the nature, ourselves, and our communities is great. Hiking, biking, walking around the neighborhood, star-gazing, meaningful interaction with pets, taking kids outdoors, gardening, adding plants to our living space, listening to your own body, and on and on.  The Children and Nature Network's movement is a wonderful example of a system to promote nature connection with children that is making huge waves. Adults tend to veiw themselves as outwardly more complex within movements like this geared toward them.

To reach a larger, more diverse audience, reversing the affects of NDD in the majority of the population will take something similar to C&NNs organization, some type of televised medium, a written approach (which is already taking place), work-places becoming involved, and perhaps even government and insurance incentives of some type (similar to "green" home improvement incentives). Yes, these may be idealistic to many but even undertaking a couple of these types of ideas would be huge leaps into improved quality of life for the majority of our country's population and for our nation's wild assets.

It's Time to Go Outside!!