Nature guided imagery: An intervention to increase connectedness to nature

Connectedness to Nature (CN) is an antecedent to various positive mental health and behavioural outcomes. Previous research has established nature exposure (NE) to be a key determinant of CN, with higher levels of NE observed to result in higher CN. Thus, the current research tested the effect of nature guided imagery (GI) on CN, to ascertain whether imagined NE may prove to be a viable substitute to real NE in increasing CN. Participants (N = 133, Mage = 38.8, SDage = 15.4) completed a measure of CN, were randomly assigned to complete 10 min of nature GI, urban GI (active control), or no GI (control), and then were reassessed on CN. The nature GI condition showed a significant increase in CN compared to the control condition, and the active control condition, indicating that nature GI increased CN significantly more than no GI or urban GI. These results suggest that nature GI has the potential to be an efficient, accessible CN intervention; however, to understand which of its features make it most effective, future research is required.