Nature: Naturally we know it is good for us.

Not knowing

The name of the tree

I stood in the flood

Of its sweet smell.

It was with awe

That I beheld

Fresh leaves, green leaves

Bright in the sun.

- Bashō

Do these Haiku resonate with you? Have you felt an unnameable, unspeakable sense of something – something both mystifying and just good – when smelling the fragrance a tree emits, or when seeing the first, green leaves appear on a tree in Spring? The Japanese have a word for this: yūgen. Yūgen, in a very basic sense, means to experience a profound feeling of mystery and longing that is fully felt yet not quite explicable; we just know it evokes something in us that responds warmly. Intuitively, we respond to these things in nature because they remind us we are part of nature. We cannot see the beauty of these experiences directly but we sense the beauty of them in the feeling of calm they elicit in us. The experience of Yūgen felt when we are in touch with nature could almost be considered a form of medicinal therapy – physically and psychologically.

This all sounds very airy-fairy. Stay with me because I am going to get ‘scientific’.

There are no side effects to this medicine, so take as much as you like!

There is no such thing as taking in too much nature and experiencing your own form of yūgen through Shinrin-yoku – more commonly known as forest bathing. Forest bathing, a very specific process of being in nature, asks you to engage all five senses whilst walking in natural settings, like, you guessed it, forests. However, forest bathing is not confined to walking through forests. You can experience the medicinal benefits of forest bathing in any natural green space, from your own backyard to your local park, from a local reserve to your favourite national park; there are no restrictions on where you can practice forest bathing - you just need to engage your five senses - sight, sound, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Did you know a lot of research (see here) has been conducted on the medicinal effects of forest bathing on reducing stress? It might seem obvious to you that being in nature would do this, but did you know, that besides alleviating symptoms of stress, forest bathing can also lower your blood pressure? If you are really keen you can click on the link above to read a systematic review and a meta-analysis on the efficacy of forest bathing to reduce blood pressure. If, however, you are not so keen on all the scientific jargon, and let’s be honest, most of us aren’t, you just need to know that this method of conducting research is considered the sine qua non of evidence-based research, so, in a nutshell, trustworthy.

The researchers found that, based on trials involving over 700 people, those who took their forest ‘medicine’ had a significant reduction in their blood pressure in comparison to those people who did not take their forest medicine (I feel sorry for them; they really missed out). It didn’t matter if you were 18 or 80, male or female, the results showed that everyone had a significant reduction in blood pressure*. Just practicing the art of Shinrin-yoku in a natural environment provoked this change; how amazing is that?

Does this make you want to go out and indulge in some forest medicine yourself?

If you need more convincing, this recent article in the Washington Post also discusses the varied benefits of forest bathing as an antidote to stress and high blood pressure, along with other health benefits, and includes links to some of the excellent research conducted by Qing Li, a professor and physician based in Japan, and widely considered to be the founder of Shinrin-yoku. However, if I was you, I'd stop reading now; go take your medicine, take a really BIG dose, and come back to reading later.

#shinrinyoku #forestbathing

* Ideno, Y., Hayashi, K., Abe, Y., Ueda, K., Iso, H., Noda, M., Lee, J-S. & Suzuki, S. (2017). Blood pressure-lowering effect of Shinrin-yoku (Forest bathing): A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 17, 409. https://doi.org.10.1186/s12906-017-1912-z