In 2019, a survey carried out as part of the Fête de la nature revealed that 96% of French people questioned perceived nature as a “place of well-being and rejuvenation”.


Today, the avalanche of books on this subject - driven by the bestseller The Secret Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben (2017) -, sylvotherapy (recharging one's batteries in the forest) which brings together more and more followers or yet the proliferation of “nature and well-being” fairs are just as many signs that we feel a need for green in our increasingly urbanized lives.

While the hypothesis of a link between human well-being and nature has long been accepted, research carried out in fields of study as varied as medicine, psychology, or even cognitive science effectively validates this theory. . We must also take into account the social and environmental upheavals of recent decades that have an impact on nature and our relationship with it.

Recently, researchers have drawn up an overview of the different lines of research explored and the results around the theme of human well-being and nature. The notion of well-being, as understood here, does not relate only to health, as the absence of disease, but more generally refers to a physical, mental and social state of well-being .

Nature as a remedy

Being in contact with nature promotes our physical and psychological well-being.

Several studies observe a reduction in stress and depression, favored by the natural environment and, conversely, an improvement in self-esteem, the feeling of happiness or even creativity.

Nature heals our ailments and, more than that, it also improves our cognitive abilities and functions, reducing fatigue and restoring our attention span, so strained by daily life. It also participates in our physical well-being  : reduction of pain, blood pressure, obesity or even acceleration of healing and prevention of certain diseases .

In short, nature is not simply a necessary substrate in which human cultures take root, but a soil that influences our daily lives and which, perhaps, is precisely what allows these cultures to grow and develop.

What nature are we talking about?

The nature in question can take very diverse forms: it can be elements of nature (stones, water, wind), fauna, flora, landscapes (sea, mountain, forest ), which do not necessarily belong to a biodiversity which acts in a defined ecosystem.

For example, in 1984, a study already showed that patients with a window to the outside healed more quickly following operations than other patients who did not benefit from such a view.

Are a few green plants or a photograph of the sea enough to feel the benefits of nature? The question is important since it potentially has consequences in terms of choices of environmental protection and public health policy.