Overview

Loving nature in a genuine way means understanding the interconnectedness of all living beings. Particularly in the West, city dwellers spend a lot of time in closed environments in front of screens performing brainy tasks... Signs of distress are linked to disconnection from their own bodies (working like machines) and from the natural world that hosts us. This can cause poor personal mental health, poor connections with others and, ultimately, exploitation of nature itself.

"You can't truly reconnect with nature if you aren't reconnected to yourself and others. I'm deeply grateful to be involved in Project Love because it aligns with my personal interests and journey in rooting in the world outside my brain."

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Bringing design to life

What I find the most impressive is that most people who define themselves as "nature lovers" have a physical connection to it. Some of their reconnection rituals may be common activities but the sense of reverence and presence that nature lovers have makes a big difference. It's not about the satisfaction of getting to the top of a mountain, it's not about enjoying a landscape because it's beautiful: it's about reconnecting with one's body, it's about feeling part of something bigger that fascinates their soul. This brings them serenity, calmness, joy and brings them out of their rationality.

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To understand what love for nature means to people, I created and shared it with a selection of friends and on my social media a survey.

The aim of the qualitative survey was to understand the experience of those who define themselves as "nature lovers". I collected 35 answers, mainly from Italy, and the UK. The main objectives of the survey have been:

• Understanding nature-lover's emotions towards it.
• Current practices of reconnection.
• How reconnecting with nature has improved their lives, if at all.
• Exploring their opinions about how to engage others.

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Key Insights

•   People understand that humans are part of nature mainly via: their sixth sense, knowl-edge aquisition, and physical experiences.
•   People appreciate the most of nature: its majesty, witnessing in natural events, experi-encing nature with immersive experiences.
•   People reconnect to nature via: acts of care (gardening, clean ups), contemplation, immersive experiences (walking barefoot, forest bathing) or celebrative rituals (lunar cycle).
•   Top emotions/feelings linked to rituals of reconnection are: calmness, joy, serenity, energised, unity with the wholeness, less brainy.
•   People confirm that reconnecting with nature improved their lives via: making them fell emotionally better, making them able to express their best parts, teaching them import-ant lessons (patience, humbleness).
•   For people, non nature lovers would need just the right amount of exposure to it and some facilitation in order to start a path of reconnection.

Prototype

Based on the main research insights I created 10 ideas that I sketched as it follows. The theory of change that guided me in ideation has been: that having a step-to-step approach, by providing people with appropriate nudges instead of "shockingly distant" experiences is the most effective way to support them in starting their own reconnection to nature journey.

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Next Steps

In agreement with Fetzer and Clive, our Project Lead, I decided to bring forward 3 ideas:- Frames in nature which I aim to prototype further by leaving actual frames in parks in Milan, where I live now, and recording people's reactions!- Reconnection Deck which I aim to prototype by creating 10-15 mock cards to then show people.- Biometrics Analysis which I aim to prototype by organising a day with friends and friends of friends. For this MVP, the biometric analysis will be substituted by a green-amber-red system to describe emotions right after the route but I envision diving into the relationship biometrics - nature-based solutions by interviewing experts and reading academic research!