In the early 1980’s a study examined whether patients recovering from gall bladder surgery recovered quicker if they could look out of a window with a view of nature. The results were intriguing. It was found that patients with a view outside onto nature recovered faster, had shorter hospital stays, given less medication and were more optimistic as compared with those patients who looked out of the window onto a brick wall.
Esther Sternberg,a medical doctor, in her hook Healing Spaces, The Science of Place and Well-being published in 2009, explores this question. Sternberg notes that indeed there is a strong connection between emotions, the senses and the immune system. For example she cites how a garden can influence or reduce stress and instill peace. She suggests that engaging our senses with nature can lead us to a place of healing and that health is closely connected with natural environment. Her book describes how the potential for healing can be increased by designing hospitals and community centres that promote healing and health for all by designing natural healing spaces integrating nature.
In modern times nature is quickly becoming a legitimate form of treatment and taken into consideration in the design of hospitals and public spaces. Effects of nature are powerful and are a legitimate form of healing. If trees can act as painkillers then absence of nature suggests it will have the opposite effect.
In 5th century BC Asclepius, the god of medicine. rejuvenation, healing and physicians was accredited with designing temples that were places of natural healing and situated near natural springs and reservoirs. These healing sanctuaries sprang up all over Greece, frequently near settings of awe inspiring natural beauty and scenic grandeur. Treatment was free and patients who could afford to pay were expected to contribute to the running of the temples. Asclepius represents healing aspects of medicine and his daughter Hygeia of hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation.
According to Ayurveda, one of the oldest medical healing systems in the world, the healing power of nature heals the body and mind. Of course one has to live in tune with nature for this to happen. Ayurveda has taken the approach of classifying the bodily substances in the framework of the five classical elements of Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Ether. These elemental substances combine in natural ways to form the body types, Doshas –of Vata, Pitta and Kapha and when in a balanced state equal health and when in an unbalanced state bring disease.
Ayurveda considers these five elements or Panchamahabutas to be universal matter from which our world, and our bodies are made. It is logical then to assume that if we are composed of nature but move away from nature, the result will be an imbalance in the system and the root cause of disease. Health and healing in Ayurveda means living in a balanced state with nature and our environment. Health in Ayurveda requires living in harmony with nature. This is how nature shapes us and give us life and health. So next time you are not feeling well, look out of your window and gaze into nature and the trees, and you feel so much better for having activated the natural healing powers of nature within you.
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