24 thoughts on “Blog Posts on Richard Louv, _The Nature Principle_, Introduction through Chapter 4”
I really like Richard Louv’s style of writing. I think he does a good job of connecting with the audience and explaining his arguments in terms that are easily understood. I also enjoyed his clever word play like “Vitamin N” and “Nature Neuron”. These words alone conveys the theme that nature is essential to humans. We need nature (Vitamin N) to survive just like we need Vitamin D and that nature is something built into our bodies which is a necessary function in order to live a healthy life. Many times our generation is criticized for technology, I think that our usage of technology is too excessive also but I liked how Louv didn’t criticize our generation. Instead he proposed that we could be the smartest generation yet if we find a balance between technology and nature creating a ‘hybrid mind’. Technology would allow us to maximize our powers and nature would allow us to ignite all of our senses and accelerate our ability to learn. It is made clear in the first four chapters that having a relationship with nature is extremely beneficial. Nature will only benefit humans and Louv argues that we need to reconnect with nature in order to reach our full potential as a person. Nature is restorative, it allows us to relax and clear our minds. I thought it was interesting how Einstein and Kurt Godel two geniuses took a walk in the forest everyday single day at Princeton. Though walking in the forest won’t make everyone think like Einstein, being in nature allows your brain to be in a relaxed positive state so that you can think clearly. I think the most relevant point Louv made was that humans lived in nature for 5 million years and that humans were made to fit into a natural environment. When in nature our bodies go back to how they should be. This is an important point because technology hasn’t always been around humans survived in nature and they survived because we were made to function in nature. It is natural for a human to be a part of nature; it is unnatural for a human to disconnect from nature. Disconnecting from nature can lead to many problems that we are experiencing today.
In Richard Louv’s The Nature Principle, he emphasizes how nature has an impact in our lives physically and mentally. He writes about how nature positively affects us and tells stories of how it can negatively affect people if it is not in their lives. For example, Louv talks about a study of a difference in military personnel in the field based off of whether or not nature was involved in their lives. The study showed that those who grew up hunting or in rural areas were better at spotting bombs than those who grew up in an urban location. The rural-grown soldiers spotted the bombs better because they knew how to look at an entire environment. The urban-grown soldiers had a more narrow focus. Louv also writes about a study involving patients in a hospital and whether or not their rooms had windows. I actually found this study to be quite interesting. The study showed that those patients that had a window in their room healed faster than those who did not. Just having a view of nature had that much of an impact. Crossing over into Chapter 5, Louv discusses the impact nature has on depression related issues. Nature, as a therapeutic technique, has shown to play a successful part in treating depression. Nature-based therapy has helped to get people out and involved with their environment as a part of treatment.
in Richard Louv’s ‘The Nature Principle”, he discusses how nature has been beneficial both physically and spiritually. One major example is how military personnel from the country were better at surviving because they had more experience being outdoors. The soldiers who grew up in the country were beter at spotting IED’s than urban soldiers. Another example is that hospital rooms with windows had yielded better results for patients healing times. This is quite true as I have experienced. When I saw the outside, I felt as if I needed to heal quicker so I can leavfe the hospital.. Even in college, the outdoors impacts us all.
As a former Air Force, I thought that this book, especially Louv’s study, was intruguing. When you are a soldier, the landscape in your operating region is extremely important. However, I personally had a hard time to understand the landscape and took more time to fully understand than those who grew up in rural areas. Louv argues that the nature is may affect in both, good and bad, ways in lives. He also says that “Vitamin N” is very important as much as other vitamiins people conider as very important. Professor Dean also talked about his personal experience about a hospital on a hill which had a room on the top floor where it had a great view in his former residing city. Apparently, the doctor had used the room to show patients the nature to heal their disorders. It is often heard in these days that going to a place where it is quite and nature-friendly may help you relieve stresses from reality. Just like Louv said that the lack of Vitamin N is a medical disorder, I think it has high possibilities that people may be suffering from this seriously. I also agree with Louv in a sense that people not only need medical treatments that are scientifically proven but also spending some time in nature to be calm and relieve their stresses from fast-moving socities in city lives.
In Louv’s essays, he tended to describe nature as one of the most beneficial elements of the human body.I went to a singing competition from CSSA this afternoon.Due to my early arrival for this event, I walked around and find a quiet place near the river.In China,even we had some green area in cities,tons of people play in those area and make a lot of noise to me.Consequently,I could use most of my energy to observe what happen in nature precisely.However,when I lying in a green area in Iowa with no people around,I can hear birds singing in the sky and feel sunlight moving around my face.We have a better circumstance to observe nature if we Don’t pay enough attention to it.The term balance happened a lot in this semester’s essay and article that we read.If we can balance urban life and nature in an efficient way,we can have different experience in a more comfortable way.If we couldn’t balance urban and nature in a healthy way,we will lose a colorful and meaningful part of our life.In conclusion,I think different characteristic and experience of a specific person would affect one’s balance and ways of observation of nature a lot.
In “The Nature Principle” by Richard Louv, he talks about how nature is and has been beneficial both physically and spiritually healing for people. Just like how in class we discussed a house, that used to be a hospital had windows in it everywhere to help the patients with their healing process. I can personally relate to this because whenever I am not feeling a hundred percent my dad would always tell me to go for a walk to clear my head and get some fresh air and most of the time when I would return from my walk I would feel refreshed and way better than I had been feeling before it. I think nowadays people are so caught up with all this technology and we need to stop and just go out and get fresh air and take in the beauty of what we have right outside our front doors.
5 points. And there’s more scientific evidence now that it’s not just the physical exercise of a walk that helps clear one’s head but the actual act of being out in nature.
Richard Louv has a unique and interesting style of writing. I found Louv’s emphasis on nature and its positive effects very true. I felt like he was trying to push people to understand the value of nature and how much it can make our lives better from all angles. It is also fascinating how nature is used as a sort of therapy that some doctors use or recommend to patients when treated. Louv talks a lot about something he calls “Vitamin N” (nature) which is just as necessary as the rest of the vitamins need for the human body. Scientific studies were actually carried out to prove that patients who are exposed to nature or even a scenery of nature tend to get better quicker than ones who aren’t. In this generation, people are so caught up on what technology is providing when it should actually be focusing on making a balance with what technology provides AND what nature provides us with. There are more benefits than we think that nature can give us if we just let it. Simply ignoring nature makes the human body lack something because humans were made to connect with nature. Disconnecting with nature does give the body harm and I feel that many people disregard that nowadays. Like Louv said in his interview, if teachers expose their students to nature, they will do better academically.
5 points. Yes, Louv emphasizes balance quite a bit. American culture tends to have trouble with the “both/and” balance as opposed to “either/or” in a lot of areas.
The notion of Nature-Deficit- Disorder really stuck with me because I always figured that nature had a lot of great psychological and physiological healing powers. I am very thankful for the fact that the Iowa City community and the surrounding towns have a lot of forestry and trails/parks for people to walk through. There are lot of areas and beautiful scenery whereas bigger places such as Chicago there are the occasional planned trees but there is a division between the natural world and the man-made world of the city. For me, nature is a way for me to escape everything that is going on in the real world. In high school, especially senior year, I was able to find myself through long walks through the woods and just being outdoors. I was able to find solace in being alone with the soft piddle paddle of the lake or the rustling of the leaves as I walked through them. Not enough people realize the true powers that nature can have on someone. Louv talked about all the ways that the natural world can help mankind but my generation is becoming increasingly disconnected from that and is thus not using the world to its greatest possible amount. It’s nice to be able to leave all the screens and social media behind and just enjoy life for being there and realize that there is more to the world than what is going on in school or your social life. Louv really helped lay out all the ways that nature is able to be used for our benefit and I hope that more people realize its benefits and utilize them.
5 points. It’s great the you have understood the healing powers of nature intuitively. Some people in modern times are so disconnected from nature that they don’t even know this natural relationship with nature implicitly.
Richard Louv’s book, The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age, was very captivating and interesting. Louv sets a similar tone about nature like Sanders does, but instead I feel like Sanders is more philosophical than Louv. In addition to that, Louv sets a good balance between his beliefs, scientific research, own experiences, and other people’s experiences/interviews. You can really see how passionate Louv is about nature not only through his writing but also outside of it. The most intriguing chapter that I found was chapter 3 and 4. I think chapter 3 really set the tone and he kind of settles down the purpose for his beliefs about why he is compelled that nature is a really important aspect in our lives. Then he carries on in with chapter 4, when he discusses about how naturalist Robby Astrove found nature to heal him even tough he is ill. Not only do those stories speak for themselves about nature being important in our lives, but a fundamental for our human health, well-being, spirit, and survival. I think between Sanders and Louv, Louv has definitely persuaded me more about nature being a part of my life, not only that but because we have also focused on taking the environment. Personally, I feel that after Louv’s first chapters of his book not only did he persuaded me into getting in touch with nature more, but also taking care of it. Maybe sometimes we need to hear more about how we need to reconnect with nature and how it is good for our well-being and human-health, and then maybe, just maybe, from there we start looking at the big picture how we also need to take care of it.
In “The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age,” so far is a very interesting read. Louv created this idea of Nature-Deficit-Disorder and how nature has a lot of psychological healing powers. He tries to get people to understand nature and the value of it, and how it can help make our lives so much better. It is a sort of therapy for some people when they are stuck inside all day. There actually have been scientific studies to show that people who spend more time in nature and healthier and happier than those who sit inside all day. We are losing that sense because of all the technology coming out nowadays. They all want the next big thing and just play on it, instead of having a happy medium of technology and being outside. Nature gives us so much benefits that we don’t even think about. We have to take a moment to just stop and smell the roses.
2 points (second posting of the week). It is ironic that our connection with nature is pretty much instinctual, but we’ve artificially dulled if not eliminated that connection in a lot of ways.
NatureDeficit Disorder I truly believe is a real thing but it should not be anything that doctors can use as a diagnosis it is just another idea that our generation and the generations behind us do not get enough outside activity. I watched a video on Facebook that connects to this idea from the reading and in the video they talked to two different ages groups. One age group was older probably early sixties and the other age group seemed to be under ten. They asked the same question to both ages groups about what they like or liked to do most in their childhood. The older age group all went on and on about silly stories of games that they had made up as kids or how they would play hide and seek. The young age group as you can probably guess talked about different games that they loved to play the most and none of them had stories about playing outside. This is a real thing going on right now and we need a push for connection to the outside for generations to come.
5 points. One other difference, aside from the indoors/outdoors difference, is that a lot of the old-time outdoors play was focused on kids making up games and scenarios to act out, whereas a lot of the technological indoor play today is playing something that has been prefabricated.
Richard Louv’s The nature principle is an important piece of writing that is reminds people about the necessity of connecting with nature. First because we are also nature. We are animals that have their roots in the earth. Louv talks about it in depth, explaining the benefits about connecting with nature. He uses the military as an example, a place where those who have had more contact with nature usually do better on missions that involve sensing the surroundings. He mentions a study that says that one benefits from the contact with nature on improving one’s senses and sensibilities (at any environment), as well as being more attentive, having the mind open and becoming more creative. I’d like to say that I know this is all true based on personal experience. Everyday I walk 15 minutes by the river to get to class, and before the weather got the way it is now, I used to go take a walk at the city park after dinner. It gives you time to think, time to reflect on your actions, and as consequence find creative solutions to problems. I believe that places like central park were created not just for social interactions or physical activities, but also certainly so that people could still interact with nature, and continues to have the same health they used to when they lived at smaller cities or even small towns.
5 points. Good observations. Our connections with nature can be incorporated into everyday life (such as a walk to class)–after all, that’s what everyday life was before we created an indoor culture! But we still do have to often specifically decide to go outdoors and interact with the natural world.
The Good Society Blog 
I really like Richard Louv’s style of writing. I think he does a good job of connecting with the audience and explaining his arguments in terms that are easily understood. I also enjoyed his clever word play like “Vitamin N” and “Nature Neuron”. These words alone conveys the theme that nature is essential to humans. We need nature (Vitamin N) to survive just like we need Vitamin D and that nature is something built into our bodies which is a necessary function in order to live a healthy life. Many times our generation is criticized for technology, I think that our usage of technology is too excessive also but I liked how Louv didn’t criticize our generation. Instead he proposed that we could be the smartest generation yet if we find a balance between technology and nature creating a ‘hybrid mind’. Technology would allow us to maximize our powers and nature would allow us to ignite all of our senses and accelerate our ability to learn. It is made clear in the first four chapters that having a relationship with nature is extremely beneficial. Nature will only benefit humans and Louv argues that we need to reconnect with nature in order to reach our full potential as a person. Nature is restorative, it allows us to relax and clear our minds. I thought it was interesting how Einstein and Kurt Godel two geniuses took a walk in the forest everyday single day at Princeton. Though walking in the forest won’t make everyone think like Einstein, being in nature allows your brain to be in a relaxed positive state so that you can think clearly. I think the most relevant point Louv made was that humans lived in nature for 5 million years and that humans were made to fit into a natural environment. When in nature our bodies go back to how they should be. This is an important point because technology hasn’t always been around humans survived in nature and they survived because we were made to function in nature. It is natural for a human to be a part of nature; it is unnatural for a human to disconnect from nature. Disconnecting from nature can lead to many problems that we are experiencing today.
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2 points (second posting of the week). Balance is indeed the key!
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In Richard Louv’s The Nature Principle, he emphasizes how nature has an impact in our lives physically and mentally. He writes about how nature positively affects us and tells stories of how it can negatively affect people if it is not in their lives. For example, Louv talks about a study of a difference in military personnel in the field based off of whether or not nature was involved in their lives. The study showed that those who grew up hunting or in rural areas were better at spotting bombs than those who grew up in an urban location. The rural-grown soldiers spotted the bombs better because they knew how to look at an entire environment. The urban-grown soldiers had a more narrow focus. Louv also writes about a study involving patients in a hospital and whether or not their rooms had windows. I actually found this study to be quite interesting. The study showed that those patients that had a window in their room healed faster than those who did not. Just having a view of nature had that much of an impact. Crossing over into Chapter 5, Louv discusses the impact nature has on depression related issues. Nature, as a therapeutic technique, has shown to play a successful part in treating depression. Nature-based therapy has helped to get people out and involved with their environment as a part of treatment.
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5 points. This fits right in with the “field focus/target focus” dichotomy discussed in the video we watched.
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in Richard Louv’s ‘The Nature Principle”, he discusses how nature has been beneficial both physically and spiritually. One major example is how military personnel from the country were better at surviving because they had more experience being outdoors. The soldiers who grew up in the country were beter at spotting IED’s than urban soldiers. Another example is that hospital rooms with windows had yielded better results for patients healing times. This is quite true as I have experienced. When I saw the outside, I felt as if I needed to heal quicker so I can leavfe the hospital.. Even in college, the outdoors impacts us all.
LikeLike
2 points (second posting of the week). Nature literally can mean the difference between life and death!
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As a former Air Force, I thought that this book, especially Louv’s study, was intruguing. When you are a soldier, the landscape in your operating region is extremely important. However, I personally had a hard time to understand the landscape and took more time to fully understand than those who grew up in rural areas. Louv argues that the nature is may affect in both, good and bad, ways in lives. He also says that “Vitamin N” is very important as much as other vitamiins people conider as very important. Professor Dean also talked about his personal experience about a hospital on a hill which had a room on the top floor where it had a great view in his former residing city. Apparently, the doctor had used the room to show patients the nature to heal their disorders. It is often heard in these days that going to a place where it is quite and nature-friendly may help you relieve stresses from reality. Just like Louv said that the lack of Vitamin N is a medical disorder, I think it has high possibilities that people may be suffering from this seriously. I also agree with Louv in a sense that people not only need medical treatments that are scientifically proven but also spending some time in nature to be calm and relieve their stresses from fast-moving socities in city lives.
LikeLike
5 points. The new UI Children’s Hospital is also deliberately including visual access to outside greenery for patients in their rooms.
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In Louv’s essays, he tended to describe nature as one of the most beneficial elements of the human body.I went to a singing competition from CSSA this afternoon.Due to my early arrival for this event, I walked around and find a quiet place near the river.In China,even we had some green area in cities,tons of people play in those area and make a lot of noise to me.Consequently,I could use most of my energy to observe what happen in nature precisely.However,when I lying in a green area in Iowa with no people around,I can hear birds singing in the sky and feel sunlight moving around my face.We have a better circumstance to observe nature if we Don’t pay enough attention to it.The term balance happened a lot in this semester’s essay and article that we read.If we can balance urban life and nature in an efficient way,we can have different experience in a more comfortable way.If we couldn’t balance urban and nature in a healthy way,we will lose a colorful and meaningful part of our life.In conclusion,I think different characteristic and experience of a specific person would affect one’s balance and ways of observation of nature a lot.
LikeLike
5 points. I’m glad you’ve had the opportunity to connect more with nature here in Iowa City. And yes, balance is a key theme among our writers!
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In “The Nature Principle” by Richard Louv, he talks about how nature is and has been beneficial both physically and spiritually healing for people. Just like how in class we discussed a house, that used to be a hospital had windows in it everywhere to help the patients with their healing process. I can personally relate to this because whenever I am not feeling a hundred percent my dad would always tell me to go for a walk to clear my head and get some fresh air and most of the time when I would return from my walk I would feel refreshed and way better than I had been feeling before it. I think nowadays people are so caught up with all this technology and we need to stop and just go out and get fresh air and take in the beauty of what we have right outside our front doors.
LikeLike
5 points. And there’s more scientific evidence now that it’s not just the physical exercise of a walk that helps clear one’s head but the actual act of being out in nature.
LikeLike
Richard Louv has a unique and interesting style of writing. I found Louv’s emphasis on nature and its positive effects very true. I felt like he was trying to push people to understand the value of nature and how much it can make our lives better from all angles. It is also fascinating how nature is used as a sort of therapy that some doctors use or recommend to patients when treated. Louv talks a lot about something he calls “Vitamin N” (nature) which is just as necessary as the rest of the vitamins need for the human body. Scientific studies were actually carried out to prove that patients who are exposed to nature or even a scenery of nature tend to get better quicker than ones who aren’t. In this generation, people are so caught up on what technology is providing when it should actually be focusing on making a balance with what technology provides AND what nature provides us with. There are more benefits than we think that nature can give us if we just let it. Simply ignoring nature makes the human body lack something because humans were made to connect with nature. Disconnecting with nature does give the body harm and I feel that many people disregard that nowadays. Like Louv said in his interview, if teachers expose their students to nature, they will do better academically.
LikeLike
5 points. Yes, Louv emphasizes balance quite a bit. American culture tends to have trouble with the “both/and” balance as opposed to “either/or” in a lot of areas.
LikeLike
The notion of Nature-Deficit- Disorder really stuck with me because I always figured that nature had a lot of great psychological and physiological healing powers. I am very thankful for the fact that the Iowa City community and the surrounding towns have a lot of forestry and trails/parks for people to walk through. There are lot of areas and beautiful scenery whereas bigger places such as Chicago there are the occasional planned trees but there is a division between the natural world and the man-made world of the city. For me, nature is a way for me to escape everything that is going on in the real world. In high school, especially senior year, I was able to find myself through long walks through the woods and just being outdoors. I was able to find solace in being alone with the soft piddle paddle of the lake or the rustling of the leaves as I walked through them. Not enough people realize the true powers that nature can have on someone. Louv talked about all the ways that the natural world can help mankind but my generation is becoming increasingly disconnected from that and is thus not using the world to its greatest possible amount. It’s nice to be able to leave all the screens and social media behind and just enjoy life for being there and realize that there is more to the world than what is going on in school or your social life. Louv really helped lay out all the ways that nature is able to be used for our benefit and I hope that more people realize its benefits and utilize them.
LikeLike
5 points. It’s great the you have understood the healing powers of nature intuitively. Some people in modern times are so disconnected from nature that they don’t even know this natural relationship with nature implicitly.
LikeLike
Richard Louv’s book, The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age, was very captivating and interesting. Louv sets a similar tone about nature like Sanders does, but instead I feel like Sanders is more philosophical than Louv. In addition to that, Louv sets a good balance between his beliefs, scientific research, own experiences, and other people’s experiences/interviews. You can really see how passionate Louv is about nature not only through his writing but also outside of it. The most intriguing chapter that I found was chapter 3 and 4. I think chapter 3 really set the tone and he kind of settles down the purpose for his beliefs about why he is compelled that nature is a really important aspect in our lives. Then he carries on in with chapter 4, when he discusses about how naturalist Robby Astrove found nature to heal him even tough he is ill. Not only do those stories speak for themselves about nature being important in our lives, but a fundamental for our human health, well-being, spirit, and survival. I think between Sanders and Louv, Louv has definitely persuaded me more about nature being a part of my life, not only that but because we have also focused on taking the environment. Personally, I feel that after Louv’s first chapters of his book not only did he persuaded me into getting in touch with nature more, but also taking care of it. Maybe sometimes we need to hear more about how we need to reconnect with nature and how it is good for our well-being and human-health, and then maybe, just maybe, from there we start looking at the big picture how we also need to take care of it.
LikeLike
5 points. Insightful comparison between Sanders and Louv. They do have similar beliefs about nature but also come at them from different directions.
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In “The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age,” so far is a very interesting read. Louv created this idea of Nature-Deficit-Disorder and how nature has a lot of psychological healing powers. He tries to get people to understand nature and the value of it, and how it can help make our lives so much better. It is a sort of therapy for some people when they are stuck inside all day. There actually have been scientific studies to show that people who spend more time in nature and healthier and happier than those who sit inside all day. We are losing that sense because of all the technology coming out nowadays. They all want the next big thing and just play on it, instead of having a happy medium of technology and being outside. Nature gives us so much benefits that we don’t even think about. We have to take a moment to just stop and smell the roses.
LikeLike
2 points (second posting of the week). It is ironic that our connection with nature is pretty much instinctual, but we’ve artificially dulled if not eliminated that connection in a lot of ways.
LikeLike
NatureDeficit Disorder I truly believe is a real thing but it should not be anything that doctors can use as a diagnosis it is just another idea that our generation and the generations behind us do not get enough outside activity. I watched a video on Facebook that connects to this idea from the reading and in the video they talked to two different ages groups. One age group was older probably early sixties and the other age group seemed to be under ten. They asked the same question to both ages groups about what they like or liked to do most in their childhood. The older age group all went on and on about silly stories of games that they had made up as kids or how they would play hide and seek. The young age group as you can probably guess talked about different games that they loved to play the most and none of them had stories about playing outside. This is a real thing going on right now and we need a push for connection to the outside for generations to come.
LikeLike
5 points. One other difference, aside from the indoors/outdoors difference, is that a lot of the old-time outdoors play was focused on kids making up games and scenarios to act out, whereas a lot of the technological indoor play today is playing something that has been prefabricated.
LikeLike
Richard Louv’s The nature principle is an important piece of writing that is reminds people about the necessity of connecting with nature. First because we are also nature. We are animals that have their roots in the earth. Louv talks about it in depth, explaining the benefits about connecting with nature. He uses the military as an example, a place where those who have had more contact with nature usually do better on missions that involve sensing the surroundings. He mentions a study that says that one benefits from the contact with nature on improving one’s senses and sensibilities (at any environment), as well as being more attentive, having the mind open and becoming more creative. I’d like to say that I know this is all true based on personal experience. Everyday I walk 15 minutes by the river to get to class, and before the weather got the way it is now, I used to go take a walk at the city park after dinner. It gives you time to think, time to reflect on your actions, and as consequence find creative solutions to problems. I believe that places like central park were created not just for social interactions or physical activities, but also certainly so that people could still interact with nature, and continues to have the same health they used to when they lived at smaller cities or even small towns.
LikeLike
5 points. Good observations. Our connections with nature can be incorporated into everyday life (such as a walk to class)–after all, that’s what everyday life was before we created an indoor culture! But we still do have to often specifically decide to go outdoors and interact with the natural world.
LikeLike