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#70: Help Balance Body and Mind With Forest Bathing
Today, when vast expanses of wilderness are being destroyed
by pollution or plundered for fuel, housing, and food for earth’s exploding
population, Forest Bathing, or Shinrin-Yoku,
as it is called in Japan, is gaining popularity in the US, Europe, Australia,
Japan, Korea, and Central America, among other places. So many
scientific studies have documented the health benefits of Forest Bathing that
doctors across the world now write prescriptions for it. Forest Bathing involves
spending time in a wooded area, relaxing and tuning into sights, sounds,
scents, tastes, and tactile sensations while relaxing in a wooded area.
Benefits include diminished stress, depression and anxiety, lowered blood
pressure, improved or even normalized blood sugar levels, and strengthened immune
response to threats such as infections and cancer.
Forest bathing involves walking at a very leisurely
pace in a wilderness or park area that is as free of pollution and distraction as
possible. Focus is on the therapeutic aspect of the experience. There are no destination or
time constraints. Instead, people walk slowly, and may sit down or lie down on the ground. They may close their eyes for a few minutes
and then open them, looking around as if for the first time. They may notice unusual leaves, the sound of
wind rustling branches, distinctive bird calls, the scent of earth, or the
sensation of a tiny ant crawling over their hand.
Increasingly, people are turning to trained guides to
lead them. There are now quite a few
schools that offer certification training as forest guides throughout the
world. Most guides work in the counseling
or health care fields. Finland launched
a government-supported taskforce on forests and human health in 2007.
Things went global with the International Society of Nature and Forest
Medicine (INFOM) in 2011. A North American chapter was established in
2013.
PubMed
returns well over 100 studies on the health benefits of forest bathing,
including studies indicating that it significantly lowers blood pressure
(-1.4 percent), heart rate (-5.8 percent), cortisol levels (-12.4
percent) and sympathetic nerve activity (-7 percent) compared with
city walks, while also alleviating stress and depression. Some studies conclude that exposure to
phytoncides, the airborne, aromatic chemicals/oils emitted by many trees,
have a long-lasting impact on people’s immune system markers,
boosting natural killer (NK) cells and anticancer proteins by 40 percent.
As the
amount and quality of wilderness areas diminishes and as more
anti-biotic-resistant bacteria develop, Forest Bathing may play an increasingly
significant role in the world healthcare system. Physicians and
therapists are increasingly prescribing time in
parks and forests, as was common before the pharmaceutical era. Studies have
found that a retreat of two to three days is optimal, and some benefits last a
month or more. In Japan and Korea, Forest Therapies are integrated into the
healthcare system and covered by insurance.
This
blog’s offer: each month, I lead a
Nature Writing Group at the North Park Village Nature Center at 5801 North
Pulaski Road, in Chicago. After sharing
our writing, we go for a leisurely walk in the nature preserve. We next meet on Sunday, January 28th from 11 am until 1 pm, by the fireplace.
Feel free to join us. If you have
any questions about this please email or call my office. Happy Holiday season and New Year to you.
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