Muskoka Makes You Smarter

It's been a wonderful week.  First, the National Geographic Travel Editors agreed on something we've known for a long time. They chose Muskoka as their Top Summer Travel Destination, with the whole world to choose from.

Then, CBC Radio, on their show The Current, aired a great documentary about Nature, and why we need it.  Called Urban by Nature, the piece looks at how spending time outside, surrounded by trees, fields, lakes and wildlife not only restores the soul and nourishes the body, but improves the mind.  It's well worth pulling up a cup of coffee, and giving a little listen.

A walk through a pine forest has been proven to raise IQ and improve cognitive functions such as the ability to focus on a task.  That's because you can inhale the substance called alpha pinene, found in (who'd a thunk) Pine trees, Rosemary and eucalyptus.

Now it seems there is a full blown crisis, with a name: Nature Deficit Disorder. Studies are amassing more and more evidence that it is critical to Get Out of Town, and spend some time in the great outdoors in order to allow your lovely prefontal cortex to relax, restore, re-set.  The constant assault of city noise, smells, flashing lights and the chemical stew that passes for air on the human body does in fact take a huge toll. The lack of engagement with the real world takes a huge toll on our brains  -- much more than was previously understood.

We've been rattling on about this for a long time now. Carol wanted to put a copy of Last Child in the Woods in every cottage when it was published.

So, since it's now been proven that a walk in the piney woods can make you smarter, what could be smarter than booking a Summer Vacation in Muskoka?

We hate to say it, but we've known it all along...