The importance of mental health has become an increasingly significant part of daily life, reflecting the high prevalence of mental distress and the lack of accessible treatment options. The natural environment is a source of psychological and physical well-being, with one of the most accessible forms of nature-based therapy being forest bathing, which involves 'immersing' oneself in nature and experiencing its elements through all senses. In our study, we explored the impact of the natural environment on psychological well-being, conducting the research in two parts. In the first part, which involved 145 participants, we examined the relationship between nature exposure, psychological well-being (measured using the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form; MHC-SF; Keyes, 2002), and nature connectedness (measured using the Nature Relatedness Scale - NR-21; Nisbet et al., 2009). The results indicated that nature exposure was positively associated with nature connectedness, which was moderately associated with psychological well-being. We hypothesize that the subjective sense of nature connectedness may mediate the relationship between objective indicators of nature exposure and psychological well-being. The second, experimental part, involved 41 participants. Their task was to complete four walks, two in a natural and two in an urban environment, with the second walk in each setting including mindfulness exercises. During the walks, we monitored temperature, heart rate, and skin conductance, while before and after the walks, we assessed stress levels and emotional experience. We also measured participants' dispositional nature connectedness and mindfulness. The results showed that the natural environment had significantly stronger effects on increasing pleasant emotions compared to the urban environment. The mindfulness walks led to a reduction in unpleasant emotions and stress. Nature connectedness and mindfulness as dispositions contributed to certain aspects of the beneficial effects of the walks, but further research on a larger sample is needed. From the analysis of participants' reports, it was evident that the factors of the natural environment were more restorative than those of the urban environment, and their specific impact warrants further research. We observed that nature strengthens pleasant emotions, while exposure through mindfulness regulates the experience of stress and unpleasant emotions. The findings support the potential use of forest bathing as a therapeutic approach that holistically addresses individual health and well-being, highlighting the need for targeted research into its application for this purpose.
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