receptive to the stimuli around me. It was so bottom-up, moving
through the environment and it was all fitting together. I usually have
trouble not being top-down, but without trying to, I was picking up
things that were beautiful and salient. I realized how natural and
comfortable and smooth it felt to do photography. I’m always
thinking about top-down versus bottom-up, and I usually present it as
conflict, basically, over cognitive control, but the insight was as it
relates to flow and it’s that maybe it happens when these parts of the
brain are in perfect balance. I hadn’t felt it in years and it felt really
good.”
There was more, because his analytical top-down mode was in full
force now. Gazzaley the neuroscientist was back. He had, essentially,
experienced Kaplan’s theory about attentional restoration. The
Queens techie was drinking the Kaplan Kool-Aid, along with the
martinis: “Nature is restorative because it frees up the top-down part
of your brain in a way that allows it to recover. I don’t think you have
to be in nature for this to happen, but I think there’s something
special about nature. It’s what makes it interesting. Nature has this
not totally unique but more powerful ability to capture your attention
in a different way. Evolutionarily, nature is a powerful bottom-up
experience for us.” He paused and then laughed. “Although a lot of
people freak in nature. I’ve seen it countless times.”
Ruth Ann Atchley piped up. “I was not restored while hiking the
fins yesterday. I do not like heights.”
Lisa Fournier apologized for the route.
Strayer: “There are always going to be individual differences.”
Here I couldn’t help thinking of Woody Allen: “I love nature, I just
don’t want to get any of it on me.”
Fournier was thinking. “Nature is pretty novel in lots of ways.
You’re immersed and enriched.”
Dyre, the skeptic: “Maybe it’s the active exploration that’s
important.”