By I think most people reading this will agree that being out in nature is usually deeply calming.
There’s a Japanese term that describes this phenomenon called Shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing”. This term was coined in the early 1980s by Japanese government official Tomohide Akiyama, who was trying to promote the value of forests to the Japanese public. In the intervening years, this has grown into a worldwide phenomenon, with park rangers in multiple countries now leading forest bathing guided meditation walks.
Many bold claims are made about the health benefits of forest bathing. A lot is made of data suggesting that a walk in the woods lowers blood pressure, improves mood, and decreases stress more effectively than the same walk in an urban environment or on a treadmill.
Sometimes the benefits of forest bathing are attributed to exposure to a soup of volatile organic compounds called phytoncides released by trees as a defence against microbes, bacteria and fungi. That distinctive smell of a pine tree? That’s a phytoncide called Alpha-pinene. That cedar smell? A mix of other phytoncides, including cedrol and alpha-cedrene.
Others claim that walking and sitting in the green world are forms of meditation, an exercise in becoming more present in the moment.
Many of the studies on this topic so far have been too small and insufficiently replicated to be scientifically reliable. As a scientist, I may not be convinced yet, but as a lifelong lover of green spaces, I want to believe that the data will keep on accumulating until the benefits of forest bathing an undeniable.
Wanting the hard science behind forest bathing to be true doesn’t make it so, but it would make sense if it were. After all, every one of our ancestors spent most of their days in the forest or out in the savannah, surrounded by forest, grass, bush and shrub. Once we strip away our reliance on civilisation and learn to cope without the constant barrage of distractions and notifications, our minds relax into a deeper state.
When we go into the green, we return home to an environment that we’re deeply wired to recognise with every cell in our bodies.
