If you’ve picked up a copy of The Meaning of Your Life, you’re aware that one of the fastest ways to find meaning is to get out into nature. That’s my topic today. But before I get to that, let me put in a quick plug for my column this week at The Free Press, where I weighed in on the recent social media volley between President Trump and Pope Leo. What’s a serious Catholic supposed to think and do? My view is here. (Free Press subscribers get immediate access; if you’re not subscribed yet, please do consider it.)

One of the weird things about professor life is that, while I stay the same in age every year, my students seem to get younger and younger. Early in my career, I was pretty close in age to my graduate students. Now, well…let’s just say that if I dug up my old fake ID—which said I was 21 when I was actually 17, so I could buy beer—I could get Medicare instead.

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Staying in close contact with a lot of young adults doesn’t tempt me to try to fit in. (“Good morning, fellow youths!”) But I do learn their lingo. For example, lately they use the following expression: “Touch grass.” (No, you degenerates, that has nothing to do with the demon weed you and your ne’er-do-well friends were smoking back in the 70s.) It means to get in touch with reality by going outside in nature without your phone.

For a lot of them—and us—natural beauty has become quite rare, and not an ordinary part of life. Today, 85 percent of adults say they spent more time outside when they were kids than today’s children.¹ The trend away from nature has some straightforward explanations. First, the world is more urbanized, so nature is less at hand. Second, technology is displacing the outdoors as a primary source of recreation and activity; this is especially true for young people. No surprises there.

If this predicament describes you—an urbanite with an indoor job, who spends their leisure time on devices—then you might be suffering from elevated stress, anxiety, even depression. Nature is a cure for that. The evidence that time spent in nature raises happiness is abundantly clear, but the reasons why are less intuitive.²

For example, those who spend more time in nature tend to be less concerned about the opinions of others, and nature time even works to increase our creativity and problem-solving abilities. Put differently, nature helps to break the monotony of everyday life; best of all, it helps us transcend ourselves.

Want more of these benefits? Try these three ideas.

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1. Take a vacation outdoors.

Perhaps you’re currently planning your summer vacation. If so, resist the urge to visit another urban area. Try somewhere with trees, mountains, water, or all three.

2. Use nature to recalibrate your body and mind.

Countless experiments show that natural light synchronizes our circadian rhythms. Ditch your devices and go outside first thing to walk and watch the sun rise. Your well-being will improve almost immediately.

3. Make nature contact a daily habit.

Years ago, I also started walking after lunch and dinner. I quickly found that this practice calmed me down and helped me focus on what truly matters: my faith, family, friendships, and the meaning in my work. I live in an urban area in Virginia, but I have routes near my home that maximize my contact with nature, including parks and even a small forest. Not everyone has a forest handy; as a general rule, just get the most green where you can walk.

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If you’re interested in a deeper dive on the benefits of nature and how to get more of it in your life, I covered this topic on my podcast, Office Hours, this week. I hope it will inspire you to go touch grass.

See you next week, fellow youths,

Arthur,

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