The Effect of Hiking on Mental Health
By Sudeep Agarwal, Spring ’17
Life in college is not easy. Trying to balance doing well in your academics while being involved in extracurriculars and having a personal life, along with trying to stay healthy — both physically and mentally, can be quite an ordeal. In fact, according to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, the number of students seeking appointments at counseling centers has risen by 30% just within a year, and the top reasons for counseling include anxiety, depression, stress, and academic performance. So, what are some ways you can address this?
A study published recently by Stanford titled Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation, found quantifiable evidence that walking in nature can in fact lead to a lower risk of depression. In the study, researchers found that participants who walked for 90 minutes in a grassland area scattered with oak trees and shrubs, as opposed to those who walked in a high-traffic urban setting, reported lower levels of rumination, an emotional state associated with distress, anxiety, and repetitive negative emotions. They also showed reduced neural activity in an area of the brain linked to risk for mental illness compared to those walking in the urban environment.
While there was little physiological change, neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, a region that is active during repetitive thoughts focused on negative emotions, was much lower in those who were walking in nature. This can explain the feeling of satisfaction and the state of languor we often find ourselves in after spending some time walking in the woods and disconnecting from the ‘real world’. The co-author, James Gross, a professor of psychology at Stanford, says that these findings are important because they are consistent with a causal link between an increase in urbanization and increase in rates of mental illness.
Personally, I’ve found that hiking allows me to disconnect from school work, personal problems, or other commitments that may be stressing me out. It’s like being transported to another world where none of that really matters, where my worries feel so insignificant in the face of the awe and beauty that nature provides. In this world, we’re driven by pure survival instinct — the only way to get out of a trail is to complete it, and the only way to complete it is to keep moving forward. It allows me to push myself physically, but also mentally, and that’s something that I bring back with me to my academics and career.
If there’s one thing that should be taken away from this blog post, it’s that it’s important to disconnect when you’re feeling too stressed. The Yerkes-Dodson Law states that performance and productivity increases with stress, but only up to a certain point, beyond which it begins to paralyze you and impair both your ability to complete the task, and your mental health as a whole.
If you’re feeling too stressed when the next AKPsi hike (i.e. AKHike) comes around, perhaps that’s more of a reason to come, not less.
Originally published at gtakpsite.com on February 24, 2018.
