Nurtured by nature: why being in nature is good for us (in-person event)

Research has shown that spending time in natural environments has a range of benefits, including better physical health and psychological wellbeing. In this talk, Professor Viren Swami will look at the history of using nature to improve wellbeing, before describing what contemporary research has shown. But understanding why those benefits occur is more complex. Professor Swami will describe the different theories that have been proposed to explain the impacts of nature on wellbeing. He’ll also discuss what we can all do to reap the benefits of spending time in nature.

Viren Swami [https://www.aru.ac.uk/people/viren-swami] is Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University and Director of the Centre for Psychological Research at Perdana University. His research is focused on body image and the benefits of spending time in nature. He is ranked in the top 2% of the most-cited scientists in the world, and is the author of over 300 academic papers and three books, including Attraction Explained (now in its second edition) and The Psychology of Physical Attraction.