How Trees Improve Mental Health: The Green Therapy Revolution

The world of today is urban, fast, noisy and demanding. Citizens live their days in screen, traffic jam, and deadline. As convenient as technology and urbanization are, there is a hidden price associated with it, and that is stress, exhaustion, and deteriorating mental health.

The World Health Organization claims that people living in cities are much more likely to experience anxiety and depression than those living in the countryside. In the middle of such a crisis, the key element is always there right before our eyes the lack of green spaces.

Here, trees come in, not only as oxygen givers, but as unofficial therapists. Research and experiences are helping to provide a clear connection between trees and mental health.

The trend of forest bathing in Japan or healing gardens in hospitals around the world is based on a single truth: the human mind needs trees to get well.

This emerging literature and science has come to be known as the green therapy revolution – a natural, available, and low cost method of treating a mental condition in an increasingly urbanized society.

Science Behind It

It is not only poetic that there is a correlation between trees and mental health, but neuroscience and psychology prove it. Research has found that the presence of trees lowers stress hormones such as cortisol, elevates dopamine and serotonin (stuff that makes people happy), and decreases blood pressure.

In a Japanese study of Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), it was shown that after 20 minutes of being in an environment that contained trees, there was a significant decrease in anxiety and an elevation in mood.

In India, where pollution and overcrowding in the urban setting aggravate urban stress, this science carries all the more weight. Studies have found that children who learn in school campuses surrounded by trees perform better in school and they become more emotionally resilient.

Patients recover faster at hospitals that have views of trees. Trees are not only beautiful, but have a biological and psychological ability to heal us.

It is a secret of the senses. The sound of the rustle of the leaves, filtered sunlight, smell of the neem or champa, cool shade, all these are signals that make the brain relax. That is why nature therapy is becoming more and more used in combination with conventional mental health interventions.

Urban Stress vs Green Relief

An average day at an Indian metro such as Bengaluru, Delhi or Lucknow is full of honking, grey concrete and poisonous air. These parameters will serve as perpetual stressors, which will cause fatigue, irritation, and even anger.

Lack of natural relief exacerbates mental problems in the urban environment like depression and anxiety.

However, the same cannot be said of neighborhoods that are rich in trees. People living in the proximity of tree-lined streets state that they sleep better, feel happier, and feel less lonely.

These botanical gardens and public parks serve as the places where individuals reconnect with themselves once they are outside the noise of the cities. Even taking a brief rest under shade trees during your time at the office will be sufficient to open the mind.

Urban trees are already beneficial to mental health in India: they decrease urban fatigue, mitigate the psychological effects of crowding, and form micro-aquatic oases of calmness.

Chandigarh and other cities that retain green belts and campuses are always ranked higher in the quality of life surveys than cities with too much congestion.

Trees That Calm You

Trees do not have an equal impact on the human mind. Some species are also known to have sedative, scented or sensorial properties. These trees are culturally and therapeutically important in Indian settings. Here are a few examples:

• Champa (Plumeria): This scented flower has a strong connection with relaxation and spiritual serenity.
  
• Ashoka Tree (Saraca asoka): Ashoka trees are said to have the power to bring emotional balance, sorrow reduction, and bring peace.
  
• Neem (Azadirachta indica): In addition to its medicinal benefit, the practice of sitting under neem trees is reported to clear the head, and relieve stress.
  
• Peepal (Ficus religiosa): As one of the great trees of the universe, its big umbrella and connection to meditation qualify it as the best choice to calm the mind down.
  
• Gulmohar (Delonix regia): It is a bright red flower and it brings color and visual excitement that immediately improves moods.
  

These peaceful trees India provide a natural set of tools to cities in need of enhancing mental health. They are durable, flexible and do well in the city. Having them planted around schools, workplaces, and homes can be a long-term investment in mental wellness.

Mental Health Benefits for Kids & Elderly

Trees, Learning & Emotional Growth

The most vulnerable to stress and isolation are children and elderly citizens. The trees provide them with special psychological advantages.

• In Kids: Playing around green areas increases focus, lowers anxiety in childhood and improves memory. Classrooms in the outdoors under the shade of trees bring a feeling of freedom to the learning process. Already schools with eco-clubs and tree plantation drives (often assisted by such organizations as Youth Talent Development Society (YTDS)) are witnessing how green settings support empathy, responsibility, and creativity in students.
  
• On behalf of the Elderly: The Trees help the Elderly to overcome loneliness and to improve their social interactions in green parks. Pacing through trees enhances movement in addition to relaxing the environment increasing emotional stability. Trees also evoke nostalgia linking seniors to scenes of countryside or childhood.
  

Both instances of green wellbeing spaces fill the environment versus psychology gap and provide non-discriminating spaces that can help people of all ages feel comfortable and healed.

Global & Indian Movements

The Global Rise of Green Therapy

The concept of trees and mental wellbeing is now shaping movements all over the globe.

• Forest Bathing: Shinrin-yoku is a book by Japan that advocates immersion of oneself in the forest as a form of therapy. It is even prescribed by doctors as part of medical treatment.
  
• Green architecture, Singapore: Singapore incorporates trees into its buildings, walking paths, and areas of transit to mitigate stress in crowded living areas, with the concept of a city in a garden.
  
• Green Schoolyards in India: Maharashtra and Punjab are leading the way with their redesign of school campuses to include tree gardens to help students well.
  

Organizations such as Youth Talent Development Society (YTDS) are keeping abreast with these international trends, conducting massive plantation drives in the slums and schools across the urban areas. Their plans demonstrate the scaling of tree therapy that can transform landscapes burdened with concrete into psychological wellness centers.

Such global and local examples prove that nature therapy is not an elite or abstract idea, it is a practical solution, adaptable to every context.

Your Role in Greener Mental Health

Let’s Grow Calm Together

The green therapy revolution is beautiful in that it is accessible. All people are able to participate. Here are steps you can take:

• Planting Trees in and around Houses: A single neem or champa tree outside your house can also create a discernible serenity in your space.
  
• Connect with Nature: Sign up for tree walks numerous times a year to be reintroduced to nature in the city.
  
• Green Balconies and Rooftops: In apartments, many of the psychological benefits of a larger green area can be simulated by the use of potted trees or vertical gardens.
  
• Support NGOs: NGOs such as YTDS are dependent on donors and volunteers. Plantation drives will contribute to their plantation drive and increase the green cover in the areas most required.
  
• Eco Parenting: Help children to plant and look after trees, which will teach them to be empathetic and patient since their childhood.
  

Any move toward more eco-friendly environment is also a move towards better mental health.

Conclusion

Mental health and trees are related not necessarily on a scientific basis, but on a very human level. Trees can be Good stress relievers, mood lifters and reminders of the natural rhythms of life.

With the increase in urbanized cities, nature therapy becomes an emergency. Green campuses, and urban parks and garden plots, or a single tree planted in our backyards, trees are the most available kind of therapy we will ever have.

The green revolution in the field of therapy is already taking shape around the world and in India, the green revolution is being facilitated by community efforts, NGOs such as the Youth Talent Development Society (YTDS) and through individual action. Now what is required is magnitude and uniformity.

When we reconnect with trees we reconnect with ourselves. We should not regard planting trees as a luxury or a one-time thing, but a daily routine of healing-ourselves, our families and our communities. Since everywhere on leaves and in everything rustling is an invitation to linger, to breathe and to mend.