Updated 7/26/2022 by Ame Vanorio
Leave your bathing suit at home, put on some hiking boots, and head to the nearest woods. Take a deep breath, relax, and get ready for healing. This is what Forest Bathing is all about!
Forest bathing is a restorative mental health practice that leaves us feeling refreshed and invigorated. This mindful, sensory experience helps us lower stress and increase well-being.
Forest Bathing and Mental Health
For many a walk in the woods is restorative, it becomes a way to destress, a place in which to leave behind the woes and worries that have been thrust upon us by everyday living.
Many studies (1) have found that taking a walk in a park gives us a greater sense of well-being. A study in Poland (2) found a decrease in stress among young adults who spent 15 minutes taking a walk in an urban park during the winter.
Sometimes there is no better feeling than a forest path laid out in front of us; snaking its way through tall trees, the feeling of the forest floor beneath our feet, and the earthy scent of the woods rising up to meet us.
Connections
We also know how good we feel when we’ve spent time immersed in nature. Not necessarily spending days on end in the primitive woods and getting back to basics (although that does sound wonderful).
Just ten minutes sitting under the shade of a tree can do wonders for our souls and make the day so much better.
Red River Gorge Geological Area, Kentucky. Photo by Ame Vanorio
Steps To Forest Bathing?
Head outside to the woods if you can, or if you can’t then your backyard or a neighborhood park.
Turn off your phone (this is crucial!). No music
Breathe deep and tune in to the surrounding environment. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Open up your senses to what is happening around you.
Take Your Time and Experience
What can you hear if you stand still?
How does the bark of a tree feel against the palm of your hand?
How does the light change as clouds pass overhead?
What does the forest smell like?
Listen to the tree - does it speak to you?
Turn Off the Technology!
This is very important. It’s important to do it without technology and immerse yourself in nature.
Whenever I’m out in the woods I usually have my phone on me for safety purposes, but I try my hardest to turn it off or at least switch it to silent for a designated set of time. It’s so important to me that I really connect with my surroundings.
History of Forest Bathing
Japan has a highly dense urban population. In the 1980s the term shinrin-yoku was brought to light. It means “taking in the forest atmosphere” or ‘forest bathing’.
It’s more than just going into the forest and taking a hike. It also incorporates the physiological practice of mindfulness – being aware of the forest surroundings and taking time to notice them and how they affected the senses.
National Geographic’s article on forest bathing explains how Japan’s love of ecotherapy came around as a remedy to a stressful, tech-filled modern life. By turning towards nature it will inspire great love for our forests and encourage people to protect them.
However, this isn’t a new philosophy. The Celtic Calendar features sacred trees for every month. These trees were associated with healing, protection, and various deities.
Trees communicate with each other. I can't say enough good things about this book! I was riveted and gained a greater appreciation for the trees.
Pheasant Branch Conservancy. Photo by Ame Vanorio
Trees Are Good For Us
The more you think about why forests are good for us, the more it makes sense.
Forests typically have large densities of trees. Large groups of trees produce more oxygen and we as humans require oxygen to live. But it’s not just the oxygen that benefits us when we spend time in the woods.
Trees and other plants give off a large amount of phytoncides – a substance that trees and plants give off in order to protect themselves from disease, parasites, potentially threatening insects, etc. They are also beneficial to us and spending extended periods of time within their presence, combined with the soothing spectacle of nature has done wonders for alleviating many human health conditions.
Check out our article Trees - 5 Great Family Nature Activities
Bathing With Friends
You can also go Forest Bathing with a friend or group of friends but make sure that during your actual Shinrin-yoku session you’re quiet. Tell each other about your experiences after the session, not during it.
When you stop and think about it it’s actually quite surprising how much of our day is spent drowning in noise and constant interaction.
Taking a dog (on a leash of course) is also a way to take a forest bath with a friend.
Let your dog discover their inner wild self as well. You'll be amazed at the calming effect on your furry friend. The authors are leaders in Forest Bathing. This book will elevate dog walking to a whole new level.
Take It Slow
Build on your Forest Bathing, starting in short sessions first until you are more and more comfortable spending time quietly within the woods and adapting it for you.
One day you might just want to sit in a green space quietly, another you might find compelled to remove your shoes and spread your bare feet wide against the forest floor.
If you’re feeling really adventurous you might want to test your bare feet on different surfaces; how does mud feel in comparison to dry leaves.
Forestry England recommends slowing down and honestly, I couldn’t agree more.
You can’t connect to something if you’re hurtling through it at 50 mph.
This isn’t Forest Showering, this is Forest Bathing.
When we bathe it’s luxurious, we take our time. We enjoy the sensation of warm water on our skin and the scent of whichever bath oil we’ve chosen. So, Forest Bathing should be luxurious, a time in which you have carved out for yourself to reconnect with wildness, to place yourself back in a space in which you thrive.
We are not designed to be so far from nature – we have seen the effects in ourselves and in others of too long spent burning the candle at both ends in the artificial glow of technology.
The light in the woods is better for us. Sinking our bare feet into cool grass is better for us. Breathing deep lungfuls of rich, oxygenated air is better for us. Listening to the bird song is better for us.
Children do this naturally. That’s why the concept of Forest Schools has become popular in so many countries. You can read Forest Schools: Underrated Heros to learn more about them.
Famous Forest Bathers
There are plenty of people that have headed into the woods and claimed to have come out better for it.
We all know that Henry David Thoreau ‘went for a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees,’ and that John Muir went to the forest to ‘find his soul’.
Popular singer Justin Bieber has proclaimed the benefits of forest bathing.
Sustainable fashion designer Aurora James has told stories about how her mother would take her into the woods to meditate.
Take Away
Championed by so many for their beauty, their history, their sanctuary, and now for their health benefits, there are many reasons that people go to the woods.
While Forest Bathing is just one of them, perhaps it is one of the greatest reasons; to take our time, to live slowly, or as Henry David Thoreau might say; ‘to live deliberately.’
Guest Author, Jeni Bell is a travel and nature writer based in the UK. Updated by Ame Vanorio.
Resources:
Hon K. Yuen and Gavin R. Jenkins, “Factors Associated With Changes in Subjective Well-Being Immediately After Urban Park Visit,” International Journal of Environmental Health Research, February 13, 2019.
Ernest Bielinis, Norimasa Takayama, Sergii Boiko, Aneta Omelan, Lidia Bielinis,
The effect of winter forest bathing on psychological relaxation of young Polish adults, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Volume 29, 2018, Pages 276-283, ISSN 1618-8667, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2017.12.006
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