Dawn Picken: Outdoors good for your mental health

Taking a mental health day in a PVC raft. Photo/http://www.trr.co.nz

I'm shooting backwards over rocks while clutching a thin rope in a PVC raft. A white water symphony fills my ears as our guide's voice chimes in. "Hold on. Okay, left side, back paddle - right side, forward paddle."

Twenty-three-year-old Kirsten Tisdall ("Tiz") knows the river well enough to lead seven novice river rats between boulders - once, while turning consecutive circles. After a short drop and another soaking, we're "woo-hooing," laughing, ready to do it again. We navigated 60 rapids on the Tongariro River last Saturday and even jumped off a short cliff during a break.

A different kind of water rush is happening as I write from Papamoa - a torrent of autumn rain, a precursor of what MetService says will be a wet week. The downpour reminds me to make foul-weather plans. Not to haul out board games or sit before the telly with a bowl of popcorn and a beer (the latter, an easy mission that will be deployed). No, the rainy day scheme involves forcing myself outdoors even when it's wet. Especially when it's wet. Because the Bay in autumn tends to be wet.

A treadmill sits in the garage for days like this. It's my coward's retreat when I'm too precious to get soggy. Despite the endorphin rush of any exercise, the rubber running belt is a sad substitute for the outdoors. It's not just the fact I go nowhere on a treadmill; It's the notion pounding dirt and sand may help top up my happiness reserve.

Scientists in an article in the National Academy of Sciences of the US wrote urbanisation is associated with increased levels of mental illness. They suggested decreased nature experience may help explain the link between city living and mental illness. In New Zealand, census records show 86 per cent of us live in urban areas.

I'm not suggesting any Bay dweller is depressed by inhabiting a 300sq m section; sitting in traffic at regular intervals; or listening to the steady buzz of new home construction or the neighbour's renovations. Maybe urban irritations colour me a tad blue on occasion. We still have the beach, Mauao and the Kaimais. We're still not Auckland.

The author jumps off a short cliff into the Tongariro River. Photo/http://www.trr.co.nz

Back to the experiment: scientists wanted to learn whether a nature experience would influence rumination (repetitive thought focused on negative aspects of the self), a known risk factor for mental illness.

Participants who went on a 90-minute walk through a natural environment reported lower levels of brooding and showed reduced activity in an area of the brain linked to risk for mental illness compared with those who walked through an urban environment. This means window shopping in Tauranga, Auckland or Paris may not be as good for mental health as walking or running the Mount.

Other studies have found similar effects - volunteers strolling green spaces were more attentive and happier than volunteers who walked for the same amount of time near heavy traffic. "No duh - I can't believe someone spent money on those studies", I hear you say. I'll take any available ammunition to get myself and my screen-loving children and husband outside more often. Grandma knew the outdoors was good for our bodies and brains. Or she wanted noisy children out of her hair. Likely both.

Researchers found brooding strongly associated with activity in a part of the brain known as the subgenual prefrontal cortex. Walking in nature quieted that area, meaning getting out into the green could be an immediate mood boost. Here in the Bay, getting into the blue can be equally fulfilling - sometimes, even more so.

I swapped running shoes for a neoprene shirt Tuesday morning and stood atop a glassy sea between Leisure Island (Moturiki) and Rabbit Island (Motuotau). My paddle board and I had zero agenda - no time trial, no heart rate monitor, no distance goal. Just a desire to stay upright and explore. I saw schools of silver fish and two diving shags within an hour of wander and wonder. The ocean and I parted ways with a salty goodbye tussle, as she deposited me on the shores of Shark Alley. I walked away sopping, sandy and soul-satisfied.

White water rafting is pricier and less accessible to tap as my regular dose of bliss. But it was a thrilling reminder of the joy Mother Nature can bring. Be still my subgenual prefrontal cortex. My happy place is outside.
Where's yours?

Dawn Picken also writes for the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend. She's a former TV journalist and marketing director who lives in Papamoa with her husband, two school-aged children and a dog named Ally.

Photos: Courtesy www.trr.co.nz