Remember the time ...

As we head into summer’s golden holidays, we often gravitate to nature. This could mean visiting mountains or beaches but the search is the same — to find natural beauty, enjoy new impressions and recreate earlier tranquillities. Nature with its elements, from the feel of grass to the fragrance of rain, the sensation of a cool breeze suddenly caressing your skin to the sound of leaves rustling in enigmatic trees, holds the power to evoke our deepest memories.
Many are linked to simpler times, when we experienced small joys unquestioningly. Some go further back — our environmental experiences touch our intrinsic being, highlighting the incredible fact of us sharing the only planet which sustains life. There are further ways nature’s love for us shows in the times we spend together.

Psychologists at the University of Chicago find a 50-minute walk in nature boosts our memory by 20%. In Denmark, a survey of 9,00,000 people found those lacking access to natural surroundings faced a 55% higher chance of developing mental illnesses. The World Economic Forum finds urban denizens — that’s seven out of ten people globally by 2050 — confront a 56% greater chance of mood disorders while those in natural surroundings enjoy a 12.4% decrease in stress-producing cortisol.

Experts currently posit nature’s ecosystem services — its creation of crops, its purification of water and air, etc. — amounts to $140 trillion per annum. But this does not estimate the value of getting caught in a delicious burst of rain or watching a fragile dawn gain in golden strength, like a dream itself coming true. This makes the Anthropocene, where our actions are damaging Earth indelibly, so dangerous.


Climate change, biodiversity extinction and habitat loss may seem like impersonal terms. But the truth is, with every tree and stream gone, we are cutting away at our own memories, those we’ve lived lovingly and those we could still build anew — the loss could even mean forsaking understanding why we are here at all. However, as Times Evoke’s global experts emphasise, we can still save what gives us continual life. Join Times Evoke in exploring how nature gifts us invaluable memories — and how we can protect nature from becoming simply a remembrance.