Forest Bathing
…or Shinrin-yoku is a form of nature or ecotherapy designed to improve a person’s mental and/or physical health specifically by spending time in wild nature settings. Developed in Japan in the 1980’s, it has become a model for helping to establish forest therapy throughout the world.
‘Why?’ you might ask, ‘is this movement growing in popularity.’ A compelling explanation can be found in “The Human Relation With Nature and Technological Nature” by Peter H. Kahn Jr., Rachel L. Severson and Jolina H Ruckert’s article which appeared in the Association for Psychological Science, 2009 Vol 18-Number 1. The authors discuss the pros and cons of the increasing reliance on technology as alternatives to physically being in nature’s wild places…which are becoming harder to access.
Watching Planet Earth, streaming nature videos, creating nature window screens, staring up at nature vignettes in a medical treatment or surgery prep room, reduce anxiety, create happier more productive work environments, and are soothing and restorative. But they are incomplete substitutes for the real thing.
When we sit quietly for 20-25 minutes in wild nature, our internal chatter shuts off allowing us to become part of the environment, not just observers. The natural world around us accepts our presence, and the interplay between the full cast and characters resumes. There is an energetic shift that is palpable; a kind of meditation that is immersed in awareness, mindfulness and wellness. We become an intrinsic part of the whole.
John Muir wrote, “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home. Wilderness is a necessity.”
This week I invite you to bathe in the forest.
Blessings!
