Today, for most of us, life has become trapped within the four walls. Cubicle life together with other errands has compelled us to stay indoors most of the time. We usually step outside for regular work commute or to meet other responsibilities. A 2001 survey funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed that on an average, Americans spend a whopping 87 percent of their time indoors and an additional 6 percent in their vehicles.
However, according to several scientific studies, soaking up nature promotes human wellbeing to a great extent. Spending time in the great outdoors has been associated with significant health benefits such as improved working memory, feeling revitalizing and energized, and reduced stress levels, among others.
The term Shinrin-yoku, which literally means “forest bathing”, was coined in 1982 by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Today, an increasing numbers of Americans are adapting this practice to ward off the indoor epidemic while improving physiological and psychological health. This practice of “taking in the forest atmosphere” is all about soaking up the sights, sounds and smells of the outdoors to reap the health benefits.
Shinrin-yoku’s rising popularity, especially in California, mirrors the adoption of other health trends like yoga and meditation that traveled from the east to the west. And similar to these activities, forest therapy could be freely performed solo or as part of a guided experience that’s paid for.
According to Ben Page, founder of Shinrin Yoku Los Angeles and a certified forest therapy guide, this Japanese practice is starting its journey much like how yoga started 30 years ago toward cultural definition and will go mainstream over time. He recently returned to Southern California, his homeland, after training a unit of forest therapy guides aiming for certification in Sonoma County. It’s a popular one week-long program that has a waiting list, proving how people are eager to take it.
It’s quite normal to confuse Shinrin-yoku with informative nature excursions or hiking as both are done harmoniously with nature. But the key difference lies in the objective, which are therapeutic benefits when it comes to forest bathing. Page explained that the objective of a Shinrin-yoku walk is to offer participants an opportunity to slow down and appreciate things that can only be heard or seen when moving slowly while taking a break from the stress of daily lives. On the other hand, objectives of a hike or nature walk are to reach a certain destination and to provide informational content.
And there’re some proofs to back up the health benefits. For example, a 2010 study, published in the Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine used data obtained from field experiments conducted in 24 forests throughout Japan and revealed that people who participated in Shinrin-yoku had lower heart rate, blood pressure and accumulations of salivary cortisol – a stress hormone, when compared with people who walked through a city landscape. Studies conducted in other countries such as the United States and Finland revealed similar reductions in anxiety and tension as well.
According to David Yaden, a research fellow at Positive Psychology Center of the University of Pennsylvania, there have been studies to compare walking in an urban setting with walking in the nature and testing participants on different aspects of depression, their mood etc and brain scans in some cases. People, who went through the natural environment, were less stressed and more relaxed. They were also tending to engage less in negative self-referential overthinking or rumination, which have been associated with depression to a good extent.
Other studies have identified an associated between sun bathing and a rise in immune function. In Japan, participants took a 3-day/2-night trip to the outdoors with researchers collecting their blood and urine samples before and after the walk. The numbers of white blood cells that combat tumor or infected cells together with other immune system pointers were substantially higher after Shinrin-yoku walk than before. Natural killer cell activity of the subjects rose approximately 50 percent throughout the excursion, while their urinary adrenaline accumulation experienced a decrease.
Page explained further that in Japan, sun bathing trails are verified by a blood-sampling study to identify whether the count of the natural killer cells is elevated enough because of the trail to get under consideration. Because of their proven effectiveness, forest therapy modalities in Japan and Korea are not only integrated into their medical systems but are covered by insurance as well.
Some scientists attribute health benefits of sun bathing to substances namely phytoncides that are antimicrobial compounds given off by the forest. According to the researchers, taking in these volatile organic substances released by plants help people attain relaxation. However, these compounds – colloquially considered as “the aroma of the forest” in the Shinrin-yoku circles – only exist in small quantities in the outdoors as compared with the amounts offered to participants during olfactory studies at laboratories.
Another possible reason behind the soothing effects of sun bathing focuses on the human sense of amazement when experiencing natural beauty. A recent study, published by Yaden on the awe and self-transcendent experienced in a space flight when watching Earth from space, reveals that both conceptual (for instance, trying to wrap the mind around the Big Bang) and perceptual vastness (for instance, viewing the Grand Canyon or a tall copse of trees) can promote amazement in humans. The team of Yaden mentioned in the paper that this particular sight of Earth triggers both kinds of vastness – conceptual vastness of everything that human beings perceive about this planet and perceptual vastness of the sweeping view of the Earth. Taking in the sights, smells and sounds of the great outdoors can significantly generate similar feelings of amazement that have been associated with improvements in specific pointers of good health.
While the accurate mechanisms of sun bathing is yet to be discovered, the practice has already gained a significant number of followers – probably as a backlash against modern world’s obsession with indoor office culture and use of technology. The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, founded by Amos Clifford – a renowned wilderness guide operating from the San Francisco Bay Area, offers certification programs for forest therapy guides at a reasonable cost. Apart from its U.S.-based training activities, the organization also offers training programs in South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland and Canada.
Page likes to consider the growth of Shinrin-yoku much similar to that of a tree. The relatively young practice is slowly becoming a complete tree as new branches are getting formed over time.
