Tea at Trianon: Walks and Mental Health

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Walks and Mental Health

From PsyPost:

A new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry offers evidence that a simple walk through nature can lower activity in stress-related brain regions. The experiment revealed that participants who walked for an hour in a forest showed decreased amygdala activity during a stress task, while those who walked for an hour in the city did not.

Natural environments are known to provide mental health benefits. For example, being around nature can reduce negative emotions and stress. On the flip side, psychologists have long contended a connection between urban living and poor mental health. For example, city dwellers have higher rates of anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and schizophrenia than people living in rural areas.

With increasing urbanization, it is important to consider how natural versus city environments may differentially impact the brain. There is some evidence that city dwellers show greater activation of the amygdala during social stress tasks compared to rural dwellers. In light of such findings, study author Sonja Sudimac and her colleagues conducted an intervention study to investigate how a walk in nature versus the city might impact stress-related brain regions. The researchers hoped to tease apart the negative effects of urban environments and the beneficial effects of nature. (Read more.)