Effects of Nature on Psychological Well-Being and Perception of the Meaning of Life

Abstract

This chapter aims to contribute to building an empirical and conceptual basis for ecopsychology and environmental education by providing a picture of psyche-nature interaction. The chapter contributes to methods of environmental education by elaborating on a series of nature awareness exercises (see Appendix), which happened to be efficient and broadly applicable. It presents reports of these exercises as applied in a workshop with a group of students from the University for Humanistics (Utrecht, The Netherlands) at the Eifel National Park in Germany. The workshop lasted three days. The author intended to clarify the effects of nature awareness on the participants, especially on their subjective well-being and perception of the meaning of life. As a result, a “battery-recharging” effect of nature and its influence on young adults at four levels of awareness (external physical perception, internal (bodily) sensation, emotions, and existential meaning), were established. The chapter focuses on the episode of a night walk.