Hiking Research

“Listen more often. To things than to beings. The fire’s voice is heard, hear the voice of water. Hear in the wind the bush sob: It is...

I can’t say exactly when I finally realized how important wilderness is to me. I started venturing out when I was 19, and had just moved...

By Dr. Mark A Ellison The Japanese practice of Forest Medicine,or Shinrin-Yoku, has gained quite a bit of notoriety of the past few...

Plott Balsam Mountain Range (North Carolina) The new year is a fantastic time to rediscover how being in nature can help reduce stress...

By Florence Williams, Guest Writer By all accounts, the weather for most of this winter has been unusually lousy all up and down the East...

Public health issues that we currently grapple with such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases require billions...

Socrates exhorted us on the virtues of self reflection declaring “that the unexamined life is not worth living.” Unfortunately, the...

I’m teaching a new course this fall on “Nature, Environment, and Human Health at Cabarrus College of Health Sciences. The course is based...

By Dr. Mark A. Ellison Many people now experience physical and psychological health issues related to the stress, fatigue and pollution...

Acadia National Park, Maine (USA) Photo by Mark Ellison Have you found yourself seeking to escape the stress, noise and pollution of your...

The attention restoration benefits of spending time in nature have been documented in a number of studies (Berto, 2005; Berman et al.,...

Hiker Bill Boydston on the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina (USA) Photo by Mark Ellison The November/December Issue of the Appalachian...

This slideshow requires JavaScript. William Deresiewicz penned an excellent article last year in the Chronicle of Higher Education about...

This is a very interesting study that was recently published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology and reveals that spending time in...