Khodaparast

Saba Khodaparast
Miss Street
English 12
May 30, 2020

Nature and Place of Canada: “The Unconscious Inspiration of Nature’s Function”

According to “Abraham Maslow”- a social scientist, a psychologist and a theoretician-,

human needs are of five kinds: first, physiological needs, second, safety needs, third, social

needs, fourth, esteem needs and, fifth, self-actualization needs. Self-actualization means the

understanding of how a “self” and the “environment” are two parts of a greater whole and

Maslow uses this understanding as a tool to make a point. One of the ways to succeed in self-

actualization is to have a better perception of the environment, including how the environment

affects a person’s psychological and physical aspects. Different categories and elements of the

environment influence differently. One effective element in the environment is “nature” which in

this essay refers to all the plants, animals, and things that exist in the universe that are not made

by people. In her CBC article, “Nature Offers Serious Benefits to Our Physical and Mental

Health, Research Suggests”, Marcy Cuttler writes that nature has benefits to a person’s mental

health. Don Buttler from Ottawa Citizen states that new Canadians can benefit from familiarizing

themselves with our national parks in his article, “Call of the Wild: The Struggle to Connect

New Canadian to Park and Nature”. A study of these selected Canadian texts will show that

nature is one of the most effective and positive influences on a person’s psychological and

physical state.

Cuttler strongly states, “Gardish believes that learning in a natural setting promotes

warmer, more cooperative relationships, and teaches lessons that will last a lifetime.” She is

talking about how the experience of nature can create and develop our personality. Personality is
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a general word for a person’s psychological character. Humankind can get lessons of flexibility

and perseverance through their interactions with nature. She also describes how “Michelle

Gardish, who’s been running the Gradala Academy for 28 years, is a firm believer in outdoor

education. She says even an hour a day spent in nature can teach students how to cope with the

unexpected.” Gardish explains how doing the thing that you already have knowledge of inside, is

the most effective way to submit what they have learnt once they travel outdoors: “they don’t

realise [realize] that they’re learning at the point, as opposed to when they’re inside and at their

desks and they’re almost told what to do and how to do it.”Cutler asserts. She proves how people

unconsciously benefit from nature. In another explanation, mental health leads to an increase in

well-being. In this part of her article, Cutler successfully argues about the benefits of nature with

her psychological and scientific examples: “But researchers believe nature offers more than just

its beauty; it offers serious academic and mental health benefits.”(Cuttler, 2019) Cuttler relies on

research which shows the connection with nature as she references the scientist, Gardish: "There

are two different major theories as to why nature is good for your brain, and one of them is called

Stress Reduction Theory. Essentially, it speaks to how humans evolved in nature." Cutler adds,

“Because we humans have been surrounded by forests, flowers, and fauna for most of our

existence, scientists believe there may be an evolutionary reason that nature feels to us like a

comfortable, familiar place. There's also what's called the Attention Restoration Theory, first

developed in the 1980s, which proposes that exposure to nature is not only enjoyable but can

also help us improve our focus and ability to concentrate. “‘Nature’, says Lem, ‘is simpler and

less taxing than the crowds, lights, traffic, and noise of city life’”(Cutler, 2019). When an

element can cause a change in a person’s treatment, it is strong proof that shows how that

element affects a person's character--either consciously or unconsciously. Cutler also includes

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scientific examples to show how nature makes the stress hormones lower when she explains, “a

recent study backs that up. Researches at the University of Michigan say that taking at least 20

minutes out of your day to take a walk somewhere close to nature can lower your stress

hormones level”(Cuttler, 2019). In other words, looking at nature smoothly leads you to be calm

and pure.

Richard Wagemese finds his country as a unity of different cultures, languages, skin

colour. To illustrate, he states, “listen they are talking. They speak to you in Dene, Cree,

Micmac, Blackfoot, Ojibway, and Inuktitut but they also speak Hungarian, German, Gaelic,

Portuguese, French, Mandarin and English. The voices of the old ones. The ones who made this

country speak to you now because there is no colour in the spirit world, no skin.” Wagamese

shares the hope of anti-racism by emphasizing that it is the “land” which unites all cultures. It is

proven that this land is Canada and the far focus in future, this land will be “The World”.

In his article, “Call of the Wild: The Struggle to Connect New Canadian to Park and

Nature”, Don Butler explains how foreigners do not feel comfortable with visiting Canada's

parks, as he reports: “while defective situations are lacking, there’s plenty of evidence that many

immigrants to Canada aren’t taking advantage of our provincial and national parks. New

Canadians can all learn a lesson -flexibility for instance- by experiencing nature. They can

become invigorated and healthy. One can also ask, “why is nature good for your brain?” The

answer points to the theory of how nature can function to inspire our unconscious wellness. An

analysis of selected national examples demonstrates that nature’s effect on people is positive as

they trace their identity back to nature and it unites them all regardless of their culture.

Humankind is like a child of nature who consciously or unconsciously tries to reconcile and

identify with Mother Nature. Butler describes the relationship between non-Canadians with
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Canadian parks and forests. Butler states, “there is a whole bunch of people who would love to

have opportunities in nature,” (Butler, 2015) Butler goes on to describe the barriers that new

Canadians might have as they try to become closer to nature. Some new Canadians in urban

centres are scared of the wildlife inside nature or have never experienced activities in nature.

Both conscious and unconscious drives lead people to meet their needs. As Maslow

defines one of our initial needs as being self-actualization, we can see how nature can really help

inspire our positive consciousness and unconsciousness. Cutler and Buttler both explain the

benefits of nature, particularly how it can help people develop their personalities--regardless of

one’s age or level of awareness. Cutler, through sharing a combination of people's interviews

about their experiences as well as psychological evidence, shows the benefits of participating in

nature. She reveals that nature can reduce stress levels, grow attention spans, or make people

more active, whether a person is aware of this effect or not which shows that both one’s

consciousness and unconsciousness receive nature's benefits. Buttler explains how important

wilderness is to people by analyzing Canadian park visitors, especially immigrants and new

Canadians. New Canadians who come from a different culture might have a different

relationship with nature and struggle to connect to it. This wide challenge among new visitors

shows the value of this matter and how getting familiar with nature can develop a person’s

character. Both writers insist on the goodness of nature that the way in which nature influences

people is important. There is no doubt that humans can be influenced consciously by nature’s

benefits. As a human’s unconscious is also able to identify with nature, then nature can

correspondingly influence one’s unconsciousness. The significance of the positive impact of

nature on our unconsciousness cannot be underestimated. An analysis of the works of such

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writers as Cutler or Buttler should inspire a new generation of psychologists and sociologists to

further explore the powerful influence on nature on human development.