Natural environments abound with "soft fascinations" which a person can reflect upon in "effortless attention", such as clouds moving across the sky, leaves rustling in a breeze or water bubbling over rocks in a stream.
The theory was developed by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in the 1980s in their book The experience of nature: A psychological perspective,[2][3][4] and has since been found by others to hold true in medical outcomes as well as intellectual task attention, as described below.
[9] This world-wide, everyday phenomenon is known as mental fatigue, which increases the difficulty of discriminating environmental stimuli and prioritizing relevant information.
There are six main areas that are affected during mental fatigue: input, thinking, behavior, executive functioning, emotions and social interactions.
Mental fatigue is also part of occupational burnout, where cognitively, we distance ourselves or check out from our work because goal-directed attention capacity has decreased.
[11] The mind-wandering provided in the default mode network will allow for the mind to restore its directed attention capacities of an individual.
[12] People must expend effort to achieve focus, to delay expression of inappropriate emotions or actions, and to inhibit distractions.
"Soft fascinations" such as clouds in the sky or leaves rustling in a breeze, gain our attention relatively effortlessly and are compatible with our wants and needs.
After spending some time of effortless attention with soft fascinations and removed from their day-to-day tasks, people may have a chance to reflect.
[19] Women with breast cancer who walked in a park, watched birds, or tended flowers, achieved better attention after surgery.
Taking breaks outside in settings that contained some nature has been shown to reduce stress,[23] leaving nurses feeling refreshed, relaxed, and energized upon return to work.