60 Before 60 Project: #49 - Go Forest Bathing (shinrin-yoku)
Have you ever heard of forest bathing before?
I first heard about the term while watching the series Virgin River. This series is filmed in the very beautiful and scenic Canadian province of British Columbia and in of the episodes, one of the characters heads out to hike. During his hike, he stops and shares with his companion that it was time to relax and enjoy shinrin-yoku (referred to in english as forest bathing).
I thought this was a fascinating concept and wanted to learn more.
I discovered that the term, forest bathing, originated in the 1980’s in Japan with the Japanese concept called shinrin-yoku. As reported by National Geographic, the idea behind this was to introduce to the population a form of eco-therapy with the purpose to;
“...offer an eco-antidote to tech-boom burnout and to inspire residents to reconnect with and protect the country’s forests.”.
It is even reported that there are health benefits of breathing in the forest air given the botanical and essential oils emitted from the forest.
The intent of forest bathing is basically to disconnect from all technological devices and completely immerse yourself in nature. The following are the instructions provided by Dr. Qing Li who wrote the book, Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help Your Find Health and Happiness with this article published in TIME as to how to go about doing this;
“First, find a spot. Make sure you have left your phone and camera behind. You are going to be walking aimlessly and slowly. You don’t need any devices. Let your body be your guide. Listen to where it wants to take you. Follow your nose. And take your time. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get anywhere. You are not going anywhere. You are savoring the sounds, smells and sights of nature and letting the forest in.”
As reported by TIME, what is also interesting is that we are all getting further away from nature. By 2050, 66% of the world’s population is projected to live in cities while the average American spends 93% of his or her time indoors.
So with all this in mind, forest bathing I went.
The first thing I had to do was leave all my tech devices at home. Off came my Apple Watch and on the counter when my iPhone. That alone was a bit unnerving. I had some of the weirdest thoughts;
What if I needed help how would I reach someone?
I won’t now get credit for this walk and the steps I’m taking
What if someone is trying to reach me and can’t get me
Then I thought, how dumb is this? We lived without technology devices for years.
Am I now that attached to technology that I can’t be without it for two hours?
As for where I was going, we are very fortunate in that we live a very short distance from a 216-hectare nature park. In preparation for this, I had already picked out my spot to walk to and spend some time. It was about a 4 km walk into the park. I also took the picture then as I knew I would be back without my camera.
The day I went, the weather was very nice and because I went in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. There were very few people in the park and I passed only 5 or 6 people the entire time I was there.
When I was alone and in amongst all the trees, the quiet all around me was strangely unnerving. I'm a frequent walker but I’m usually either listening to music or walking with someone so the act of just being completely alone in the quiet by myself was strangely unneerving.
I also discovered that deep in the forest, all I had was me, my thoughts and nature. I found myself having to slow down my racing thoughts and I just tried to absorb the sights, sounds and smells around me.
Slowly, I began to relax.
I wish I could say I had some great aha revelation or something really significant happened while doing my forest bathing but that wasn’t the case.
But what I did have was a feeling of calm.
I found there was sort of respite in distractions and busy-ness as I didn’t have my phone buzzing with messages or checking my watch for how far I had walked.
So maybe in fact that is the big aha.
We have so many distractions in our day to day lives that we need to make time to consciously decompress, and nature can help provide a refuge to do this.
