Disconnected

Disconnected is an ongoing exploration on how modern society and city life affects our connection to nature and to ourselves.

I recently saw a feature in the Danish national news, about a nursing home that had experimented with giving dementia patients less medicine, and instead more contact with the staff, more care, and more time outside in nature. The result was very positive, as the patients felt significantly more comfortable and happier. I remember thinking "How can this be a novelty? When has this become a subject to be studied and experimented with? Is it no longer natural logic and where did intuition suddenly go?".

It makes me think, that the way we have organized ourselves as a society, with the technological development constantly leading us forward in a high pace, makes us forget that we ourselves are part of nature. And that being closely connected to nature, as well as having close relations to other people, is what makes us thrive.

I live in the big city, which has its positive sides and benefits. But loneliness, stress, and anxiety seem to be a mandatory companion here, that we hear and talk about all the time. But now that we are aware of it, why do we continue to treat symptoms instead of doing something about the cause? And why do we willingly remove ourselves more and more from nature, which so clearly is unhealthy for us, and in the end also for our planet?