Does being a mindful person help feeling restored after contact with Nature? A correlational study at the Botanical Garden.

INTRODUCTION Botanical gardens are examples of urban Nature that could be taken advantage of in order to experience psychological restoration. However, the psychological benefits they offer have received scarce scientific attention. Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989) states that, in order to experience restoration, a person needs to be engaged with the environment. The present study investigates whether being aware of the “here and now” during Nature contact, that is being mindful, helps people to feel restored. METHOD A mediational model was set up in order to test the relation between mindful personality traits and reported restoration, mediated by perceived restorativeness and additional mediators such as Connectedness with Nature. A questionnaire made of self-report scales was administered before and after the visit to the Botanical garden both among adolescents and adults. RESULTS Preliminary results show that more mindful people felt more restored than less mindful people did. Connectedness with Nature also played an important role into increasing restoration. DISCUSSION Our findings suggest that experiencing more restoration after Nature contact is possible if people are aware of “here and now”. Therefore, being trained in practising mindfulness might have additional benefits, such as psychological restoration while spending time in natural areas.