Why ‘shinrin-yoku’ is good for us all
In the first book of my Treelogy series, the character Beth goes ‘forest bathing’. This doesn’t mean she goes swimming in a fern-lined pool amid the trees. It means, as it says in the book, that she went out into the forest to restore her sense of calm, to let the forest work its magic on her.
The Japanese have a phrase that means the same thing: shinrin-yoku.
Being the Japanese, they haven’t just come up with a Zen phrase, they’ve done the science.
The programme ought to work perfectly for us in the West. Because you don’t have to do anything. All you have to do is be among trees. That’s it. You don’t have to hike, run, do yoga or manically mess about with your Strava or Fitbit.
If that sounds too good to be true, the Japanese have been studying this since 1982 and they’ve found that what keeps trees healthy also keeps humans healthy. The trees give off phytoncides, which are essential oils, into the air around them. These protect the forest from insects and germs. And it turns out phytocides also have the same effect on us.
Just a half-hour wander through a forest has been shown to lower the pulse, blood pressure, cortisol levels and general stress. The effect lasts, sometimes for up to a month.
The science and research has been supported by the World Economic Forum, as a way — a free way — of improving citizens’ health. No special equipment, no special knowledge or skills, you just have to be able to visit a wood or forest, preferably on a regular basis.
Recent research by the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Epperndorf in Germany supported the idea of shinrin-yoku, showing that even those who lived in the city but who lived near woodland benefited in many ways, everything from less depression and obesity to better memory and mood.
There’s — inevitably — an app for that. The Urban Mind app is an interactive programme to measure the wellbeing of those who live in the urban landscape. Their research shows that city dwellers reacted positively and almost immediately to trees, the sky and birdsong. The improvements to wellbeing lasted several hours after the initial stimulus had gone.
So when you’re feeling bored or down or feeling any other negative emotion, simply head to a wood or forest. Make it your haven, and just spend some time there. Be present, don’t dwell on all your worries and concerns, let them go, and think about the trees around you, how they’re living, communicating, looking after each other.
We can learn a lot from trees, and bathing in their benevolence is just one of the many advantages they offer us. Be more Beth.
Graham Scott is the author of the children’s Treelogy series, with the first book, Banished to the Forest, available through Amazon.co.uk orAmazon.com or the publisher Phillimore Book Publishers.
Would you like to be more tree? You can follow me on Medium or Twitter or Facebook.
