UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology SUMMER 2024 - Flipbook - Page 9
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
昀氀ourished when working together with others in
the garden. Inspired by that experience, I am now
working with UCLA’s Project ReConnect (more
information at https://reconnect.ucla.edu) to create
gardens on two large, outdoor decks within the
Semel Building that will allow for careful study of
their therapeutic mechanisms of action.” One deck
will house a community garden accessible from the
street for patients and their families as well as sta昀昀,
while the other, she tells me, is “on the 8th 昀氀oor
rooftop, less accessible and therefore a controlled
environment—a Living Laboratory—that will
lend itself to careful study of the mental health and
cognitive e昀昀ects of interaction with plants, birds, and
pollinators.” Could her research and the forthcoming
clinical outcomes encourage other urban institutions
(including medical facilities) to enrich lives by
providing access to nature?
an aesthetic mindset needs to be present. They
believe that as little as 20 minutes each day of four
components will lead to fuller, richer lives: curiosity,
playful exploration, being open to large and small
sensory experiences, and engaging in making or
beholding experiences or art.
These components can be brought into the
workplace, home life, and the communities we
are members of, and are integral to the art-braincommunity-nature connections that are at the core
of Neuroaesthetics. Ross tells me, “[Evolutionary
biologist Edward O.] Wilson reminded Susan and I
that for 99.9% of the time humans have been on this
planet, we lived in nature; it’s only 0.1% that we’ve
lived in the built environment. And nature is the most
Neuroaesthetic place because it enlivens all of our
senses and forces us to be in the present moment.”
So if we begin by thinking about Mother Nature,
the greatest artist of all time, we can begin to explore
the ways in which lack of time in nature a昀昀ects us.
Ross continues, “There’s this idea that we think we
are thinking beings that feel but we are really feeling
beings that think, and our senses are what makes us
feel alive. I think we’ve gone numb a bit because we’ve
been optimizing e昀케ciency and productivity.”
Hansen’s work in Ecological Medicine certainly
promotes Magsamen and Ross’s four components of
the aesthetic mindset and, too, places her patients in
a space where they might learn to be more present.
To Magsamen and Ross, being present is more than
just being aware of your surroundings and current
state; being present means being open to awe and
wonder, being curious and truly experiencing your
surroundings in an interactive way—in other words,
having saliency, or having experiences that stick
with you. While they state in their book that bad
memories are made quicker and last longer, training
our synapses to unglue negative pathways and glue
positive ones is possible. Magsamen says, “I think
we have to dive into the science of neuroplasticity
here. We all have the ability to change our brains by
putting ourselves in di昀昀erent experiences. I think
there is a bit of muscle building or synaptic change
that happens. And sometimes it’s not going to
They bring up the work of Dr. Helena Hansen,
UCLA’s David Ge昀昀en School of Medicine Professor
and Interim Chair of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral
Sciences and Interim Director of the Semel Institute
for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Hansen
came to UCLA from almost two decades with
Bellevue Hospital in New York, practicing and
doing research in its large Sobriety Garden. When
I reached out to Hansen, she spoke of the bene昀椀ts.
“I saw 昀椀rsthand the ways that patients who did not
respond to talk therapy behind closed clinic doors
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