"Not knowing the name of the tree,
I stood in the flood
of its sweet scent."
- Matsuo Bashõ

Shinrin - forest 
yoku - bathing.
 

As my bio attests, I first became interested in Shinrin-yoku, or forest-bathing, as a result of encountering a group of forest-bathers and their guide in a local reserve. I wanted to know what they were doing, why they were doing it, why they were walking so slowly, and why they did not speak to each other; clearly there was a reason behind this process of walking and remaining silent. What I didn’t realise, until I reflected upon it much later, was that I had been practicing my own form of Shinrin-yoku for years without understanding, at my customary ‘academic level’, that I was reaping deeper benefits than just feeling ‘good’, particularly mentally, after a long walk amongst trees, or even just taking a slow meander through my own backyard. Afterall, if it feels good why bother finding out why? I already knew I liked to be on my own – no chit chat with anyone, thank you – consciously took deep inhalations just to ‘smell’ the trees and other flora; slowed my pace and took time to really look at bark, leaves, seed pods, termite trails; stood still so that the Blue fairywrens wouldn’t fly away and I could say hello; stroked leaves, patted trees (gave them a hug when no one was around!) and quietly said ‘hello tree’; loved to listen to my shoes crunching on the gravel paths and crispy leaves, and on it goes; this is forest bathing in (slow) action. However, it was the encounter with the forest-bathing group at Woorabinda that was the proverbial spark that ignited my interest in ‘discovering’ Shinrin-yoku. Of course, I wasn’t aware my own method of walking in nature was known as Shinrin-yoku until I did some preliminary searching on the internet; I was curious, as I often am, and I wanted to know more. As a result of this early search, and after years of being entrenched in academia and study, together with my predisposition towards evidence-based research, my academic exploration of Shinrin-yoku began!

A name that kept popping up during my research was Dr Qing Li from the Nippon Medical School, Japan. Li has conducted exhaustive research on the health and medicinal benefits of Shinrin-yoku and officially established the concept of ‘Forest Medicine’ as early as 2012. However, there are now many scholars investigating the medicinal and health benefits of Shinrin yoku and they continue to discover the many health and medicinal benefits of forest bathing. Through my blog, I hope to convince you of the many benefits of Shinrin-yoku. Hopefully, it inspires you to engage in your own form of forest bathing, wherever that may be.