Listen "Ernesto Rodriguez: Nature Images In Hospitals and Classrooms"
Episode Synopsis
Host Verla FortierVerla's website https://treesmendus.comVerla's new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: BalanceYour Mind and Body With Green Space. Verla's previous book Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic IllnessGuest Ernesto Rodriguez, Executive Director Nature In The Classroom (tree mural ceilings) and in hospitals Sereneview (nature mural hospital curtains).Shownote Timeline3:45 Ernesto grew up in Cuba, grandfather a renown muralist6:30 Visited his friend in hospital (got the creeps). Then went to assignment in the Redwood Forest. As he was waiting for the light to come through the trees (about an hour) was thinking of his friend in the hospital. Ernesto felt so good there and wondered why hospitals can't feel like this? Research on scientist Roger Ulrich in the 80s.10:11 Brain reacts so quickly to nature. 11:36 Story of Asia: emotional soothing with nature curtain.14:27 Professor Richard Taylor's definition of fractals17:17 Hôspital curtains for veterans, National Parks18:26 10 days in National Parks22:11 Attention Restoration Theory (ART): nature helps to calm, focus, and learn. Nature gives brain a break. 24:00 Pilot Project to put tree mural ceilings in school.25:18 One of the drawbacks of introducing something new: only 2% off the population is going to get it. It takes 18% before it goes mainstream. 31:07 Images of nature has to be life-like. Canopy has blue sky, see branches, see leaves, camera on a tripod combined with software. 12 by 12 foot squares or 16 foot squares. 37:07 Tip: go outside -there is no substitute for that.38:11 Tip: We don't recognize your own anxiety until we see nature or get outside40:03 Follow Ernesto's work Nature in the Classroom on Facebook and Instagramand Sereneview.comFor peer reviewed research on how your time spent in green space can change your mindset, balance your nervous system and your heart rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com and check out my books Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space
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