In wildness is the preservation of the world.
-- Henry David Thoreau
I said to a friend the other day, “I feel like I just want to squeeze the juice out of every single summer day!” And that implies, for me at least, being under the wide open, blue sky. I like a high ceiling. When I’m inside and the sun is shining, it feels like I am squandering a perfectly good summer day, especially when the mid August school countdown begins.
Summer is healing; life slows down and moves outside. And in that moment we have an Rx for wellness. A lake lapping at the shoreline; a canoe drifting downstream; a path flanked in wild flowers; the sweet, soft, earthy scent of a forest. Our senses brim and spill over.
This is spirit food, my friends, “the kind of music that soothes ma’ soul”. And in case you have not heard, the Japanese have a name for it: Shinrin-yoku, which translates to “forest bathing”, which translates to “a visit to the forest for relaxation and to improve one’s health”.
It was advanced back in the ‘80s in Japan and South Korea when researchers developed a body of scientific data proving the benefits of time spent in the trees – a general feeling of well being, lower stress levels, improved memory.
But think about the word ‘bathing’. It implies a quiet, relaxed but intentional approach. In other words ‘forest bathing’ is different from hiking, and has very different benefits. This is not about physical fitness, or trying to get in those daily 10,000 steps. This is spiritual fitness – slowing down and opening up. It is being present and alive to everything around you. Noticing every butterfly and bird call, the sharp scent of pine, the soft feathery needles. Let your hand trail through the overhanging leaves, and listen to the wind whisper through the treetops.
Forest bathing is an exercise in mindfulness. I walk or bike the Caledon Trailway almost everyday. It’s not quite the same as experiencing a deep forest, but it’s the next best thing for me. If I find my mind wandering or ‘planning’ (the curse of my monkey mind), and then I’m surprised by a bird or bee or something squirmy, it brings me back to Presence in a flash. I silently thank the intruder, because that’s when I notice the difference in the quality of my beingness. I can only describe it as bliss. I return to bliss.
Studies have been done to show how forest ‘medicine’ reduces cortisol levels and lowers resting pulse rates and blood pressure. Japan is in the vanguard with this science, evidenced in a 2010 paper evaluating the physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku in 24 forests across Japan. Subjects were measured after being sent to forest and/or urban environments, and then switched. In every case the forest walks returned the bodies to optimal health measurements.
That’s in case you need science to tell you that a walk in the woods is good for you.
But at a time when we are anguishing about ‘nature deficit disorder’ in children (read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods) who spend too much screen time and too little of their precious childhood exploring nature, this could be a convincing argument. And by the way, if the young’uns are on their screens – umm – what are their adult role models doing? I have to ask this because our kids model us from toddlers. If we introduce them to nature early enough (rather than giving them our phones to play on) THAT will be their go-to.
This is nothing new really. Thoreau figured out all this, along with John Muir and Aldo Leopold, more than 100 years ago. “Keep close to nature’s heart”, advised Muir, and “wash your spirit clean”. Good advice.
The woods wait, dear ones, for us to walk, inhaling their gift of oxygen, in exchange for our carbon dioxide, in gratitude, celebrating our symbiotic relationship. What could be more heavenly?
Walk in wonder.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
-- John Muir
-- Henry David Thoreau
I said to a friend the other day, “I feel like I just want to squeeze the juice out of every single summer day!” And that implies, for me at least, being under the wide open, blue sky. I like a high ceiling. When I’m inside and the sun is shining, it feels like I am squandering a perfectly good summer day, especially when the mid August school countdown begins.
Summer is healing; life slows down and moves outside. And in that moment we have an Rx for wellness. A lake lapping at the shoreline; a canoe drifting downstream; a path flanked in wild flowers; the sweet, soft, earthy scent of a forest. Our senses brim and spill over.
This is spirit food, my friends, “the kind of music that soothes ma’ soul”. And in case you have not heard, the Japanese have a name for it: Shinrin-yoku, which translates to “forest bathing”, which translates to “a visit to the forest for relaxation and to improve one’s health”.
It was advanced back in the ‘80s in Japan and South Korea when researchers developed a body of scientific data proving the benefits of time spent in the trees – a general feeling of well being, lower stress levels, improved memory.
But think about the word ‘bathing’. It implies a quiet, relaxed but intentional approach. In other words ‘forest bathing’ is different from hiking, and has very different benefits. This is not about physical fitness, or trying to get in those daily 10,000 steps. This is spiritual fitness – slowing down and opening up. It is being present and alive to everything around you. Noticing every butterfly and bird call, the sharp scent of pine, the soft feathery needles. Let your hand trail through the overhanging leaves, and listen to the wind whisper through the treetops.
Forest bathing is an exercise in mindfulness. I walk or bike the Caledon Trailway almost everyday. It’s not quite the same as experiencing a deep forest, but it’s the next best thing for me. If I find my mind wandering or ‘planning’ (the curse of my monkey mind), and then I’m surprised by a bird or bee or something squirmy, it brings me back to Presence in a flash. I silently thank the intruder, because that’s when I notice the difference in the quality of my beingness. I can only describe it as bliss. I return to bliss.
Studies have been done to show how forest ‘medicine’ reduces cortisol levels and lowers resting pulse rates and blood pressure. Japan is in the vanguard with this science, evidenced in a 2010 paper evaluating the physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku in 24 forests across Japan. Subjects were measured after being sent to forest and/or urban environments, and then switched. In every case the forest walks returned the bodies to optimal health measurements.
That’s in case you need science to tell you that a walk in the woods is good for you.
But at a time when we are anguishing about ‘nature deficit disorder’ in children (read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods) who spend too much screen time and too little of their precious childhood exploring nature, this could be a convincing argument. And by the way, if the young’uns are on their screens – umm – what are their adult role models doing? I have to ask this because our kids model us from toddlers. If we introduce them to nature early enough (rather than giving them our phones to play on) THAT will be their go-to.
This is nothing new really. Thoreau figured out all this, along with John Muir and Aldo Leopold, more than 100 years ago. “Keep close to nature’s heart”, advised Muir, and “wash your spirit clean”. Good advice.
The woods wait, dear ones, for us to walk, inhaling their gift of oxygen, in exchange for our carbon dioxide, in gratitude, celebrating our symbiotic relationship. What could be more heavenly?
Walk in wonder.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
-- John Muir
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