Growing up in a big family in Madison, Anne Wall spent a lot of time outside. “As one of 10 children, the pandemonium at home was enough to drive anybody outdoors,” she says. Wall decided to combine her passions — nature, sports and art — into a book, “Awaken in Nature.” We recently caught up with Wall, who divides her time between Park City, Utah and Oconomowoc.
MKE Lifestyle: During the pandemic when many of us were watching Netflix and baking bread, you wrote this book. What inspired you?
Anne Wall: I was alone at our house in Utah and I had a lot of time. I always felt so good doing sports in nature, or even just sitting and looking at incredible scenes of the lake in Wisconsin or mountains in Utah. I wanted to understand the science behind that feeling.
Your research uncovered studies about the wellness benefits you can get spending time in nature. What did you find?
I studied the Japanese concept of shinrin-yoku or forest bathing, which I call nature immersion. Exposure to natural green spaces can decrease heart rate, lower blood pressure and lead to increased feelings of relaxation. Spending time in nature increases the release of endorphins, the pleasure transmitters. You get a heightened awareness and mental alertness plus increased vigor and cardiovascular fitness because people are naturally more active when they're outdoors.
When I spent time in nature, my stress would dissipate. If I had a business decision that was festering, I would go for a trail run and boom, the solution would pop into my head. Evidence shows that even looking at scenes of nature, whether pictures or videos, has positive health effects.
Your passions include sports, art and nature. How did you excel at all of these and how does the book marry them?
All the non-motorized outdoor sports came naturally because of the change of seasons in the Midwest. I run marathons, I raced in rowing regattas and in cross-country ski races. Sports were a big part of my life and my passion. When the weather would turn bad, I would paint the amazing scenes I remembered and had photographed when I was outdoors doing sports in better climate.
My grandmother was a fabulous landscape and portrait artist so I was always outside drawing. When I was 16, I was introduced to oil painting in a high school art class and I did my first painting, “Cosmic Sky.” I went on to receive a fine art degree from UW-Madison. The book is an accumulation of some of my lifetime work. I have over 60 paintings in the book, including “Cosmic Sky.”
We tend to attach labels to people like “artist” or “athlete.” You excel at both. What similarities have you found in these two different disciplines?
I found a correlation between getting into the zone, that high flow state that some people think of it as the runner’s high. I found that I could do that through art and through sports.
Before you became an author, you had a successful professional career.
After college I joined the salesforce at Oscar Meyer and from there, went to the sales promotion department at Miller Brewing Company. I worked for a sales promotion company out of Milwaukee, and then launched my own business, which I had for about 18 years. I got my master's degree from Northwestern University in integrated marketing communications. Eventually, I was able to live a lifelong dream to work for the Olympics. I went to Savannah, Georgia, to work with the U.S. Sailing Team for the 1996 Olympic Games. I felt very blessed to do that.
How do you hope your book will inspire people? What message do you hope readers take with them?
“Awaken in Nature” was a labor of love. It combines my love of nature and art with my passion for outdoor sports and my commitment to health and well-being. I'd love for people to experience some of the benefits that I've experienced by being immersed in nature. I really hope more people discover their true meaning and purpose in life by connecting more deeply with themselves through nature. MKE