By Ricardo Correia.
Time plays a central role in human health and well-being. Lifestyles become increasingly disconnected from nature and nature’s changing dynamics. In place, the steady clock regulates lifestyles. As a result, the perceived value of time in contemporary societies has changed, leading to major changes in how humans structure and use time. One consequence of this shift is the growing and increasingly widespread sense of ‘time scarcity’ across many human societies and its associated health and well-being consequences. Could reconnecting with nature hold the key to restoring a healthier relationship with time?
In this perspective piece, I propose that nature plays a key role in regulating human time perception – our sense of time. Human time perception is highly subjective, depending on both internal and external factors, and there is a growing body of scientific literature suggesting nature experiences may play an important role in shaping our time perception. Indeed, multiple studies have shown that various dimensions of time perception change between urban and natural environments. Based on this literature, I propose that nature experiences can help regulate our perception of time by enhancing our perspectives of time associated with the past, present and future, and by expanding our perception of the duration of time.
While further research is needed to validate the relationship between nature experiences and our subjective time perception, such knowledge can prove invaluable in maximizing the potentially restorative effects of nature on human well-being as it can inform urban design, transportation planning and other areas that define the quality of contemporary urban lives.
Relational Thinking 