Get Inspired: Stories

Tony Hsieh | Zappos | Las Vegas, Nevada

Environs, too, affect mood. Settings that combine prospect and refuge, for example, seem to support a sense of well-being. People like to be on a hill, where they can see a landscape. And they like somewhere to go where they can not be seen themselves, Etcoff explains. Thats a place desirable to a predator who wants to avoid becoming prey. Other attractive features include a source of water (streams for beauty and slaking thirst), low-canopy trees (shade, protection), and animals (proof of habitability). Humans prefer this to deserts or man-made environments, Etcoff says. Building windowless, nature-less, isolated offices full of cubicles ignores what people actually want. A study of patients hospitalized for gall-bladder surgery compared those whose rooms looked out on a park with those facing a brick wall. The park-view patients used less pain medication, had shorter stays, and complained less to their nurses. We ignore our nature at our own peril.

http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-of-happiness.html