April 26, 2026 -- How To Stop Stewing Over The Small Infractions in Life

Another article on my Google News feed. I thought I would share it even though it has absolutely no relevance to moi. (Smiley face).

Key points

• We are genetically predisposed to all things living, just as the Buddha had a penchant for the lotus.

• Embracing the awe of nature can remedy and lower the heat of the stew brewing inside our heads.

• Even tending an indoor garden can boost our mental health.

There is always a lotus flower in stories about the Buddha. This flower, the lian hua 莲花, surfaces through muddy waters, and its waxy petals deflect the dirty muck. It is pure and resilient. This is supposed to be a metaphor, as the Buddha has no desires and is transcendent and peaceful, even in the muck. Spending time in nature is a way to get out of our heads.

My paternal grandfather knew something about embracing nature. He thrived in the mountain air, spending more time in the hills than at the hearth. He walked miles and miles, trading his goods. He was a prosperous salesman and even bought a second home in the hills, where he shared well water with one of his neighbors, who turned out to be the family of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Grandpa was endlessly amused. At one point, our family worried that he needed a helper. The teenage boy they hired, however, couldn’t keep up with Grandpa, so the old man set the boy on the donkey while he walked. Grandpa remained in robust health for most of his life by walking and surrounding himself with trees, mountains, and fresh air.

The German social psychologist Erich Fromm first used the term “biophilia” for our attraction to living things. American biologist Edward O. Wilson popularized this idea in his book of the same name, Biophilia. In effect, we are genetically and evolutionarily predisposed to all things living, just as the Buddha had a penchant for the lotus.

By just sitting in nature and looking at the trees, we can get out of our minds and feel the flow of life. Communing with nature and taking in its awe-filled splendor is good for your qi 氣. The Hui-Chinese refer to qi as the vital life that keeps you balanced and moving forward. Nature even changes your brain for the better.

Research that was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry shows that the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes fear and stress, is less activated in people who live in rural areas. In this study, participants walked for an hour either in a forest or a traffic-filled shopping street in Berlin, Germany. Activity in the amygdala decreased after the walk in the forest. Another paper, the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment Survey, included self-reports on health and well-being by nearly 20,000 subjects. It found that a person can feel the benefits of nature in just 120 minutes a week.

And according to social psychologist Gregory Bratman, the director of the Environment and Well-Being Lab at the University of Washington, blood flow in the subgenual prefrontal cortex is high when we sit and stew over the small infractions of life, but embracing the awe of nature can remedy and lower the heat of that stew. Nature reminds us that the world is magnificent, and our problems are insignificant.

If you are fretting over one anxiety or another, the awe of something as grand as a chiseled mountain peak or a ring of redwoods can give you perspective—one that you need. This is a way to banish self-absorption, the negativity inside your head, and fixed beliefs of what you think ought to be.

Nature reminds us that the world is magnificent, and our problems are insignificant.

Researchers have studied the effects of spending time in nature. They wanted to know what forest bathing does to people. Forest bathing is called shinrin-yoku in Japanese, 森林浴, meaning to take in a forest environment, a term coined by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in 1982. In a study published in the journal Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, researchers conducted field experiments in forest settings as well as urban ones in Japan. Half the participants walked in a forest, the other half walked in an urban area. Afterward, participants swapped environments. The researchers found that walking in a forest setting lowered cortisol, pulse rate, blood pressure, and sympathetic nerve activity.

In another study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, subjects climbed the University of California at Berkeley clock tower and peered out over the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the city of San Francisco. Meanwhile, the control subjects of the study looked around the inside of the tower. The subjects who took in the view of the bay felt less stress than the control group. When we look out toward the trees and the sky, and not in, our day-to-day grievances and petty annoyances fade, and we live better lives, ones with meaning, ones without the noise inside our heads.

Tending to the Garden

We don’t have to trek in the Tibetan plateaus, like Grandpa, to welcome the advantages of nature. Even tending an indoor garden can boost our mental health. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, having potted plants or even fresh flowers can offer health gains as well. In one study, plants were added to a set of work offices and not others, and the subjects who worked in an office with a plant performed better in tasks that called for attention and concentration.

The joy of horticulture is practiced worldwide. And my mother may have had the greenest thumb out of everyone I knew. Her specialty was the rose bush. When I was growing up, she had every color imaginable, red, white, orange, and violet that was close to black. Neighbors stopped by when she was in the front garden clipping and weeding. They asked, “How do you do it?”

“Flower need food,” she would reply, and she wasn’t being flippant. She pointed at literal food scrapings, like eggshells and spent tea leaves, at the foot of each bush. Even into her 90s, Mom coaxed her plants to bloom. Those plants had done their work by keeping her alive for as long as they did.

We know that nature and its trees, plants, and animals are good for us, but some of us are hard-pressed to find green trees when the concrete city is where we must be. You can get that benefit by swimming in a mountain lake over a weekend jaunt, hiking in nearby hills, or visiting a local nature preserve or an urban wildlife sanctuary. You can also get that benefit by sitting under a tree in a city park in short stints throughout the week or potting plants for your windowsill.