The Effects Of Isolation From Nature
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About a month ago, I noticed my cat behave in a very unusual manner for a set of few days. Usually my pet cat sleeps and eats at my place and then goes down in my building's huge playground to play or run or do whatever else a normal cat does. So it spent approximately half the day inside my home and the rest in the playground. But suddenly one day, the cat decided to spend more than usual time at my home sleeping. We were obviously happy because we felt that the cat enjoys spending time at the home and enjoys it in here so it has decided to bestow us with more of its presence. But by the next day and the day after that, this unusual habit got me worried. Firstly, the cat spent over twenty hours a day inside, which isn't normal for animals. Secondly, I noticed a sad and dragged down look on its otherwise bright and cheerful face. I couldn't figure out whether my cat looked sick because it stayed in home all day or whether it stayed home because it was not feeling well.
On the third day's evening, I happened to discuss this issue with one of my friend who too happens to have a cat since the past three years now and has had few cats before that too. Soon after I described him the situation, he told me a very similar thing that happened with one of his cats and ordered me seriously to force the cat out of the house or get it checked by a doctor. I couldn't understand why he was so serious about the whole thing so I questioned him more about it. And he finally told me that, just like myself, he too had though that his pet cat would automatically get fine again soon but what instead happened was that sadly, the cat died. I was totally freaked out and worried the moment he said that. So I talked with mom about it and we agreed that the cat needed some out-time. So we forced the cat out that night.
When the cat over to the home the next morning, it seemed that the cat gained had back the cheerfulness and bubbliness that it lost over the past three days. And although it was still reluctant to go out later that day, we forced it to go out and play again and by the next morning it looked completely back to normal. It could very well be that the cat was feeling sick and it got well the next morning but although I am no veterinary doctor, I felt that the cat was not sick nor did the cat show a single sign of any illness whatsoever. Instead it was the lack of being other in nature that caused the dip in its mood. This whole incident made me think and want to know more about what effect a similar isolation from nature would have on humans.
The first series of images that pops in my mind when I talk about such isolation are the week long solitary confinement punishments the protagonist suffers in the movie "The Shawshank Redemption". Although I have no idea what an actual prisoner goes through in such a case, in the movie it seems like the worst punishment that could be given to somebody other than physical torture. But this kind of isolation is of the most extreme and brutal kind and the subject is void of any sensory stimulation whatsoever and does not concern us, unless you are reading this from a prison cell right now. The isolation which concerns me and so does most of you is the isolation from the society and from the nature that exists right outside the door of our house.
So I tried finding out more about the topic of 'Isolation From Nature' on the Internet but sadly, even after spending days searching about it, I could hardly find any articles related to this topic. What I instead ended up finding was few articles about social isolation and that isolation from people and surrounding is a symptom of depression. I also happened to find few experiments where the experimenter themselves have undergone total sensory deprivation for certain months. I also happened to find few guys in a forum saying how isolation helped them re-discover their passions, helped them find more time for their various hobbies and activities and get back a sense of clarity in their life.
So there was nothing concrete related to this subject on the Internet. I am not a scientist who has spent years researching about this subject but these are the insights I have had about this topic from my own personal experiences over the years.
- Isolation from nature is worse than social isolation i.e. isolation from other humans.
- One can notice a dip in the mood when we are at home on weekends, compared to being out during the rest five days of the week.
- After a long period of isolation from nature, even a simple interaction with nature, like taking a walk outside, gives a high.
- Isolation from the people around us, affects our mood negatively and over a prolonged amount of time starts affecting our speech formation i.e. one starts stuttering and stammering etc.
- We get too involved talking with 'the Voice' inside our own heads.
- Interaction with other people and being out in nature is absolutely necessary every single day.
- Exposure to, light to medium strength sunlight everyday, is necessary for a positive state of mind.
- Isolation from people and different form of media helps gives a sense of clarity to the usually cluttered mind and helps one re-discover various aspects about ones self and life.
- Although, when the same isolation from people and media extends for a very long time, the sense of clarity is slowly replaced by a subconscious need for interaction with people and other pleasure seeking activities.