Workers
Mindfulness has a positive impact on people, increasing their wellbeing, working memory or problem-solving capacity, and improving the relationship functioning (Creswell, 2017). Moreover, studies in the organisational setting showed that it increases job performance, citizenship, behaviours, creativity, performance in negotiations, interpersonal relatonships, and job satisfaction (e.g., Dane & Brummel, 2014; Mesmer Magnus et al., 2017; Reb et al., 2015; Sutcliffe et al., 2016).
On the other hand, natural environments protect people against the impact of environmental stressors and elicit greater calming responses and a general reduction of physiological symptoms of stress (for a review see Kondo et al., 2018). Moreover, exposure to natural scenes moderates the negative effects of stress, reducing the negative mood state and, at the same time, enhancing positive emotions (for a review see McMahan & Estes, 2015) and the recovery of cognitive performance (for a review see Ohly et al., 2016) more than urban environments do.
Nature not only has direct effects on stress recovery and mental fatigue restoration, but it may also have indirect effects by serving as a buffer against the health impacts of stressful events (Berto, 2014; Hofmann et al., 2018).
People exposed to the natural environment can feel mindfulness-like states (Lymeus et al., 2017). Experiences in nature can support meditative states through soft fascination and being away (two of the nature qualities that help people to recover from stress) (Kaplan, 2001). The approach to mindfulness training that draws on restorative qualities in natural environments could support beginners with stress or concentration problems in effortless meditation (Lymeus et al., 2018).