Connectedness

Børge BaklienInland University of Applied Science

Norway

• Mental health problems worse in cities than in the countryside.• joy of life and harmony unlike the energy demanding urban environment (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989).

• strange because today more than half of the world's population lives in cities • the urban environment has become our new habitat (Stigsdotter et. al. 2017).

enjoy the possibilities urban life gives.

stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness affects more and more people

disconnect people from the natural environment

• trap us in our own story and thoughts, we become prisoners of our ego (Hari, 2018).

• occupied by a very small world and disconnected from everything around us (van den Berg, 1972)

• breathe, connect, time slows down, stress disappear and they started to see each other (Baklien, et al. 2016).

• drifts into their own world, preoccupied with their own doings, and their own technological devises.

• a feeling of presence and bodily awareness. The family seems to connect as a social unit (Baklien et al. 2016)

Mother: Now it’s so nice to be here. To be together. It’s good to be totally present.

Interviewer: Totally present?

Mother: Yes. It’s no more than being together, and just being, that’s so nice. Not having to do things. But it’s great to have the time together, even though we don’t absolutely have to sit and hold each other’s hands all the time, you know, but just being close to each other.

Father: And then I suppose that with regard to the children, or the family, we tend to sit doing our own thing when we’re at home. It brings us that bit more together when we’re out here in the woods.

Perhaps it’s mostly, well I don’t know if it’s mostly, but it’s us grown-ups that aren’t focused enough in our everyday lives. We’ve got too much on our minds. I feel at least when we get outdoors I can see the children properly.

Mother: There aren’t so many other things all around to take away our attention when we’re out in the woods, like there are at home.

small health and great health (van Spijk, 2015).

Small health is the medical understanding of health as absence of illness, disease, injury and impairment equal to other animals.

Great health refers to the person ability to live life to the full.

Great health or human health “is the ability to live a life that makes sense”

how natural science and urban life disconnect an nature connect and is part of great health

• Natural science, however noble enterprise, disconnect.

• inside, the world is around us and not in front of us (Merleau-Ponty, 1964).

• the world is considered from outside to be observed and explained

• make cars run, airplanes fly and medicine to prolong life, disconnect us from the world by turning our experience into scientific data (van den Berg 1980).

Andreas Vesalius

• The wonderful world of science is distinct from the changing world in which we live our everyday lives.

• constantly changes shape and colour.

• The sun is actually bigger and redder when it plunges into the horizon (van den Berg)

a young man tells van den Berg how the world is gray, how the houses lean over him and how other people seems strange for him.

young man’s world is as real as his own world

it disconnected from the peoples rich experience of their life-world

• Today, nature playground for adventure.

• in the quest for quality of life.

• experienced as a breathing space

• nature something we go out to use

• Nature has become a space for recreation and identity formation

• Nature has become public health.

• urban is fascinating and fulfills the dream of the "good life” (Staats, et al, 2016).

• a sense of alienation, and disconnection

• stress, anxiety and depression and the use of antidepressants and tranquillizer has increased dramatically.

• vegetation and interaction with animals can for many be a good alternative to use valium and antidepressants.

• Glimpses of nature may speed up the recovery processes (Ulrich, 1984).

• Dogs, cats and even aquarium fish in the living room can have a calming effect and reduce blood pressure (Hessen, 2016)

• even nature programs on television are believed to have an positive effect.

• we suffer from “inattention nature blindness” (Zylestra et al., 2014)

• as when listening to birdsong in the spring, feeling the sun and smell the flowers

Jakcson Pollock - Convergence• Jackson Pollock painting

“Convergence” the eye find no rest.

• without center and pull the gaze in all direction Kugelmann, 1992).

• Nothing emerges in the foreground all collapses into the background.

• No fixed points to orient the gaze no past, no future no near, no distance.

• noise “only a catastrophe gets our attention” (DeLillo)

• hard to find any solid connection

• Slow time become valuable when every moment becomes so overfilled that it excludes everything else.

• The world becomes “liquid” and the person constantly shifting directions (Baumann).

• the “white noise” of a meaningless world (DeLillo)

• disconnected?

Connectedness • CONECTEDNESS WITH NATURE

• positive for depression, stress, negative emotions, cognitive processes and anxiety (Marselle, Irvin & Warber, 2014; Martyn & Brymer, 2016).

• significant source of recreation (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Kaplan, 1995)

• increases positive emotion,

• a feeling akin to wonder, with the sense of being part of

something bigger than oneself.

Connect– To be connected is a form for relationship that originated in Middle English to

mean to “be united physically” from the Latin conectere (Zylstra et al. 2014).

– From mid-15c.• "to join, bind, or fasten together,"

– From 1881• Meaning "to establish a relationship" (with).

– From 1926 • Slang meaning from telephone connections "get in touch with".

– From 1942 • Meaning "awaken meaningful emotions, establish rapport"

– (Rapport - a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well.)

• “individual´s experiential sense of oneness with the natural world”

• involves ”an awesome and pious feeling towards nature”.

• a sense of involvement in something greater than one's self

• have positive effects on • wellbeing • satisfaction with life (Webber

et al. 2015), • recreation (Kaplan and Kaplan

1989) • deeper emotional experiences

that remain ineffable (Hinds 2011).

My dog

• nature minister the mind (Logan and Selhub 2012).

• potential in health promotion at low cost and without known side effects (Karjalainen, et al., 2010).

• health laboratory

• In Finland, five hours a month

• in Japan "forest bathing"

• in Norway a national goal that everyone should have opportunity for outdoor activities in nature

• Biophilia hypothesis

• The biophilia hypothesis hold that we have an inherent emotional tie with nature

• 99 percent of human history, humans lived as hunters and collectors

• Humans have always been dependent on nature for their physical existence

• longing for becoming one with nature

• People not only depend on nature to have food and shelter, but also to cover psychological, emotional and spiritual needs

• Need for connectedness

Artwork by Luis Tamani

From promoting wellbeing in natureto systematically organizing green care services

Green care – success factors:(based on Nordic projects; covering horticulture, green care

in farms, animal assisted activities, wilderness therapy and eco therapy)

A good leader

• A safe, insightful, accepting adult/worker - does not judge

Safe space

• Acknowledgment/mutual support/group processes

Experience the connection to nature

• The tranquility and challenges of nature – not demanding

Meaningful activities – dignity

• Meaningful and varied activities that provide mastering experience

Animals

• To give care - mood feeling when are among animals

Confirmed in much other research on youth, which

emphasizes holistic thinking, flexibility, individual

adaptation, mastering experience, varied work tasks,

recognition and a good leader.

What we often teach today Manualization and standardization

Productivity

Health / Care Professionalism

Short-term profitability

Methodology/treatment

Disconnectedness/something wrong with you (intrapsychic)

Small health – (natural science)

What we would like to teach Flexibility and presence

Recovery

Green Care Professionalism

Long-term sustainability

Open dialogue/talk about life

Connectedness/part of the world (interpersonal) spirituality

Great health – (human science)

Discourse analysis - what tensions in the field

The connectedness element – what could it be?

a bit black and white however, it is hard for students in mental health to change perspective form expert on small health to a dialogue partner in great health.

have learned through practice and education to disconnect themselves from the users experimental world.

want concept that explain the other or therapeutic method to threat the other as the other.

need to relearn to go from small health to great health.

need new concepts that connect us and not a language that disconnect.

café is recreational I want to have what is called a cafe dialogue to see if we can find some shared thought’s.

How do you respond to the image?

Litterature Baklien, B. Borgunn Y. & Bongaardt, R. (2016). When everyday life becomes a storm on the horizon: Families’ experiences of good mental health while hiking in nature. Anthropology & Medicine 23(1), 42-53.

Bowler, D. E., Buyung-Ali, L. M., Knight, T. M., & Pullin, A. S. (2010). A systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments. BMC Public Health, 10, 456.

Eriksen, T. H. (1993). Små steder - store spørsmål: Innføring i sosialantropologi. Oslo: Universitetsforl.

Hessen, D. O. (2008). Natur: hva skal vi med den? Oslo: Gyldendal.

Hari, J. (2018). Lost Connections : Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING.

Howell, A. J., Dopko, R. L., Passmore, H. A., & Buro, K. (2011). Nature connectedness: Associations with well-being and mindfulness. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 166–171.

Howell, A. J., Passmore, H. A., & Buro, K. (2013). Meaning in nature: Meaning in life as a mediator of the relationship between nature connectedness and well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies 14, 1681–1696.

Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S. (1989). The experience of nature: a psychological perspective Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Karjalainen, E., T. Sarjala, and H. Raitio. (2010). Promoting Human Health through Forests: Overview and Major Challenges. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine 15(1), 1-8.

Kugelmann, R. (1992). Stress: the nature and history of engineered grief Westport, Conn.: Praeger.

Maller, C., Townsend, M., Pryor, A., Brown, P. & St Leger, L. (2006). Healthy nature healthy people: 'contact with nature' as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations. Health Promot Int, 21, 45

Marselle, M. R., Irvine, K. N. & Warber, S. L. (2014). Examining group walks in nature and multiple aspects of well-being: A Large-Scale Study. Ecopsychology 6, 134-147

Martyn, P. & Brymer, E. (2016). The relationship between nature relatedness and anxiety. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(7), 1436-1445.

Mayer, & Frantz. (2004). The connectedness to nature scale: A measure of individuals’ feeling in community with nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24(4), 503-515.

Mayer, F S., C. M. Frantz, Bruehlman-Senecal, E. & Dolliver K.. 2009. Why is Nature Beneficial? The Role of Connectedness to Nature. Environment and Behavior 41(5) 607-643.

Merleau-Ponty, M., & Edie, J. M. (1964). The primacy of perception and other essays on phenomenological psychology, the philosophy of art, history and politics. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

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Rebecca, L. (2016). Connection to Nature: evidence briefing: Natural England.

Spijk, P. van. (2015). On human health. Med Health Care and Philos 18(2), 245-251.

Staats, H., Jahncke, H., Herzog, T., & Hartig, T. (2016). Urban Options for Psychological Restoration: Common Strategies in Everyday Situations. PLoS ONE, 11(1).

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Van den Berg, J. H. (1974). Divided existence and complex society: An historical approach. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

Wilson, E. O. (1984). Biophilia. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Zylstra, M. J., Knight, A. T., Esler, K. J., & Le Grange, L. L. (2014). Connectedness as a core conservation concern: An interdisciplinary review of theory and a call for practice. Springer Science Reviews, 2(1-2)