northern Europe. They surveyed the hikers who use them, and found
that 79 percent said their moods had improved, with greater boosts in
those who walked the longer loop (6.6 kilometers) than the shorter
loop (4.4 km). Gender, age and, interestingly, weather had no effect
on the results. But they also found that about 15 to 20 percent of
people just don’t dig it. These people may hate bugs, or the sky, or
whatever, and no matter how biophilic their brains are supposed to be,
they simply can’t relax in nature.
To test it out for myself, I headed out to spa-ville with Korpela in
his silver Peugeot. To be honest, it was sort of relaxing from the get-
go. I was also experiencing what social scientists call the novelty
effect, in which things that are new and fresh can make us feel good.
This is why we like to travel, peruse the photos in National
Geographic and even fall in love serially. I was in love with the lack
of midweek traffic in rural Finland. It was May, and so we passed
rolling fields of canola flowers, young corn and wheat. We stopped
for lunch at a café in a log house that was painted baby blue. We
grazed from a buffet featuring slabs of moose with lingonberries. The
novelty effect was in full swing.
Once settled into the spa’s parking lot, Korpela pulled out a
blood-pressure machine. I sat silently for two minutes and then
measured my levels, which were already in the mellow zone. Leaving
Korpela to his own personal Power Trail moment, I set out on the
path, which meandered past the spa’s wood-burning saunas, around a
lake, and literally over hill and dale. It was a walk in the country,
pleasant but not spectacular. There were birds and blossoms and trees
along with a few houses and tractors and woodpiles. Being alone, said
Korpela, is a good way to maximize certain benefits, especially the
ones having to do with self-reflection. Of course, the Finns would say
being alone in nature is best; they are notoriously introverted. But
thirty years ago, the psychologist Joachim Wohlwill agreed, writing
that natural environments experienced in solitude seemed especially