Is mindfulness training in nature as effective as standard training?
Mindfulness training practiced in a supportive natural setting is just as effective at reducing stress and improving focus as conventional indoor training but requires less effort.
Source
Mindfulness-Based Restoration Skills Training (ReST) in a Natural Setting Compared to Conventional Mindfulness Training: Psychological Functioning After a Five-Week Course
What they did
Researchers investigated whether a 5-week mindfulness program in nature works as well as standard indoor training. They randomized 152 students experiencing stress or concentration problems to either a course held in a botanical garden greenhouse or a course in a plain classroom. Each course consisted of one 90-minute class per week. In the final round of the study, they also tracked 21 passive control participants who received no training.
What they found
Both training groups showed significant average improvements in mindfulness, cognitive function, and stress compared to pre-course baselines, outperforming the passive control group with moderate-to-large effect sizes ranging from 0.30 to 0.58. Nature-based training was just as effective as conventional training, with differences in their outcomes being extremely small, with an eta-squared of less than 0.01. On an individual level, 38% of the 105 completing participants experienced a reliable improvement across the measured domains, with no major differences in success or deterioration rates between the two types of courses, as the phi coefficient was less than 0.1.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Because the study design combined different physical environments with distinct meditation techniques, it cannot isolate whether the positive effects of nature-based training were due to the outdoor setting, the effortless meditation style, or their combination. Additionally, because the sample was restricted to university students with self-reported stress, the findings may not apply to clinical populations with diagnosed psychological disorders. Finally, the research relied entirely on subjective, self-reported questionnaires, meaning it does not show how these interventions affect objective, behavioral, or physiological indicators of stress and cognition.
Key terms
- Restoration Skills Training (ReST)
- A mindfulness training format that integrates natural environments to reduce the cognitive effort needed to meditate.
- Conventional Mindfulness Training (CMT)
- Standard meditation training that typically relies on effortful, focused-attention exercises in indoor settings.
- Attention Restoration Theory (ART)
- A psychological theory suggesting that natural environments can restore depleted attentional resources through effortless fascination.
- Reliable Change Index (RCI)
- A statistical method used to determine if an individual's change in score is larger than what could be expected from measurement error.
- Open-Monitoring
- A meditation practice where attention is kept open to any incoming sensations, thoughts, or feelings without focusing on a single object.
- Focused-Attention
- A meditation practice that requires actively concentrating on a specific object and redirecting attention when mind-wandering occurs.
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Quiz yourself
What is Restoration Skills Training (ReST) as examined in this study?
Common questions
Did practicing in nature make the training easier to finish?
Yes, previous evaluations of this dataset showed that ReST had a significantly higher completion rate of 90% compared to conventional training at 73%, making it highly accessible.
Does nature-based training require people to actually go outside for their homework?
No, the homework instructions did not require participants to practice in natural settings; instead, they were encouraged to explore and engage with whatever sensory environment they were currently in.
Were there any negative side effects from either course?
Only a small minority of participants experienced reliable deterioration, but this rate was not higher than the deterioration seen in the passive control group.
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