When I think about comfort at the end of life, I picture difficult moments buffered by a sense of softness. Small moments that remind us that we’re part of something bigger. One of the most profound sources of comfort is nature. The feeling of sunlight warming our skin, the sound of birds outside a window, or that first breath of fresh air. In hospice and palliative care, every moment is important, and these connections to the world around us offer something no medicine or machine can.
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Ever wonder how city planners know where to build parks, hospitals, and schools? Or how they decide which areas need more green space? They do it by analyzing data, and one of the ways they analyze that data is through something called the natural vegetation density index (NVDI).
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The Sahara desert, once the largest desert in the world, is slowly being transformed into a lush forest. The Sahara covers 9.4 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles), which is about the size of the entire United States of America.[1] But through a mix of efforts and projects meant to hold back the encroaching sands, the deserts are being held back.
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When it comes to fighting cancer, we have incredibly effective interventions including chemotherapy and radiation therapy. While these treatments can be effective, they also come with a number of side effects. For some people, these side effects, including nausea, weakness, hair loss and fatigue, are too difficult to tolerate. Spending time walking through a forest or listening to the sounds of waves crashing can ease the body and mind without side effects.
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