Nature Rx in the Liberal Education: Five Ways Colleges Can Enhance Well-being Through Nature
Throughout history and across cultures, connecting with nature has been an important way to support mental health and healing. From ancestral wisdom to modern therapeutic practices, our connection to the natural world has played an essential role in human life. As we face today’s escalating mental health crisis, we have an opportunity to revisit this age-old wisdom, further informed by renewed research and practical campus-based application.
Modern research and application of nature-based practices reinforce what traditional wisdom long shared. Modern practices like the Japanese concept of “shinrin-yoku" or “forest bathing” involves spending time in nature to practice mindfulness. The Biophilia Hypothesis further supports our innate need to connect with the natural world to enhance psychological well-being. Kaplan and Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory and Ulrich’s Stress Reduction Theory provide evidence-based support for nature-based interventions that highlight how time in nature improves mood, focus, and emotional regulation.
More recently, authors like Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods (2008) and The Nature Principle (2011) have made compelling cases for addressing the “nature-deficit disorder” in children and adults, particularly in the context of our digital lives and the academic demands that increasingly separate students from the natural world. These effects are felt acutely in college campuses and grade schools, where screen time and social media is often dominant, and counseling centers are often overwhelmed.
Nature Rx, a movement first launched by Dan Rakow at Cornell University, offers practical and evidence-based frameworks to integrate nature into campus life. At Warren Wilson College and College of the Atlantic, we’ve adapted this approach with promising results, as part of the Endeavor Lab Colleges’ collaborative initiatives to support mental health and wellness among students at ten of the nations’ smallest liberal arts institutions.
Educators are uniquely positioned to help students benefit from engaging with the natural world, not as therapists, but as facilitators of whole person education that promotes holistic wellness, bringing different approaches to bring wellness into the lives of our students, in and out of the classroom. Below are five actionable strategies faculty and peer educators can use to embed Nature Rx principles into teaching and campus life.
1. Model Mindfulness and Intentional Pedagogy
Educators can model mindfulness and intentional practice by embedding it in the classroom and co-curricular programming. Begin classes with a check-in that asks students how they are feeling, not just academically, but mentally and emotionally. Mindful moments and opportunities to reflect on their state of being, slowing the pace at stressful moments in the semester, and outdoor class days signal to students that wellness matters, and that slowing down and reflecting are a part of learning. These methods often have positive impacts, not only on the individual students, but also on the overall classroom dynamic inviting future opportunities for wellness support.
2. Start Small: Incorporate Micro-Doses of Nature Into Class or Co-curricular Time
When the class “vibe check” seems to be particularly stressful, I remember that just five minutes outside can have a measurable effect on mood and focus. Consider beginning or ending classes, meetings, or programs with a short nature-based activity: a brief walk, a breathing exercise on the lawn or on the quad, or a silent moment of meditation or observation under a tree. These small interventions can reset attention, reduce stress and foster a sense of grounding.
3. Encourage Nature-Base Alignment and Reflections
Integrate nature into your course design through reflective prompts, observation journals, or experiential assignments that require students to spend time outside. Whether in outdoor leadership, environmental science, entrepreneurship, psychology, literature or creative arts, nearly every liberal arts discipline can use nature as a lens for inquiry, reflection or creative practice. By inviting students to have multiple opportunities out in natural environments, we can support positive mental health while reaching our curricular goals. For more ideas about how to do this, many different types of materials can be found on the Endeavor Collaboratives Knowledge Base, open exclusively to Endeavor Lab College faculty and staff!
4. Support Student-Led and Cross Campus Nature Programming
As educators you play a key role in supporting student initiatives and cross-campus collaborations that prioritize nature and wellness. Some ways to support these initiatives is through the development of a Nature Rx club, participating in outdoor recreation opportunities, and advising interdisciplinary projects that extend into the natural world. At Warren Wilson College, Nature Rx programming includes facilitated walks, hikes or water sports, encourages open “forest bathing”, and expands peer-led outdoor activities. These activities are supported by faculty, staff and students working together to advance connection with the natural world on campus.
5. Embed Nature Into Wellness-Oriented Curriculum Design
Some colleges are integrating wellness practices directly in the curriculum. The new Contemplative Studies Minor at Randolph College or courses like “Fire and Ice” at College of the Atlantic, which combines sauna and cold-water swimming, demonstrate how nature-based practices can become part of academic exploration. Faculty can work with wellness offices to co-create similar experiences that include outdoor labs or observation, fieldwork, or nature-based wellness in ways that align course outcomes and student wellbeing.
Time in nature is not a cure-all for the mental health challenges facing today’s students, but it is a dynamic and accessible tool to enhance student skill-building and wellness. Rakow, reminds us it can be particularly powerful in combination with traditional clinical approaches to talk therapy, stress reduction, and processing trauma. At Warren Wilson and across the Endeavor Lab Colleges, we’re learning that even small shifts toward nature-based learning and living can ripple and impact student well-being.
As higher education grapples with how to best support students in a time of unprecedented social and environmental change, from post-pandemic life to climate change, we must cast a wide net in support of our students. By equipping students with accessible, evidence-based strategies rooted in the natural environment, we can offer them (and ourselves) a lifelong connection to the world outside their screens and social pressures.
Matt Vosler, Ph.D is a Professor of Outdoor Leadership at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina