The wonderful benefits of the forest bath (shinrin-yoku)
The forest bath or forest bath As it is also known, it is a therapeutic practice that comes to us from Japan, a country where it has been known and practiced for some 30 years.
In Japan this therapy is known as " shinrin-yoku ", which means forest bath, spending more time among the trees or around the trees, walk between nature with the five senses.
We have always known that walking outdoors in the open air and breathing its pure air gives us many benefits for our body and our mind.
The research and studies carried out by Qing Li and Tomoyuki Kawada demonstrate this by going a step further and since 1982 Japan has carried out a national health program, scientifically proving that forest bathing improves health.
The benefits of the forest bath go beyond breathing only fresh and pure air, to breathe we also benefit from the oils that the trees and plants emit to protect themselves from insects and germs, the name of these oils is Phytoncides which help us strengthen our immune system.
We can consider the forest bath also as aromatherapy, therapy received through the smells that we perceive.
What are the benefits of the forest bath?
The physiological effects of the forest bath detected in studies with different people before and after being exposed to nature walks are the following:
- Decrease in blood pressure.
- Reduction of the levels of stress verified by the measurement of the level of cortisol in saliva, is a biomarker that is used to measure stress.
- Reduction of blood glucose levels.
- It helps to stabilize the nervous activity.
- Strengthens the immune system, while activating it.
- It reduces the levels of anxiety and anguish.
- Decreases fatigue
- Increase energy
- It helps improve the cognitive system.
- Increases levels of intracellular anti-cancer proteins, increasing defenses against tumors and viruses.
In Eastern countries the forest bath is recommended by doctors as a complement to other therapies in patients with cancer.
Discover how you should do a forest bath
Well, and then maybe you start to ask yourself, is going to the countryside enough to give you a forest bath? Then we reveal the way you are advised to enjoy a forest bath and take advantage of all its benefits .
The forest bath is not just going on a field trip, it is not exercising in the countryside, it is a slower and meditative walk, quiet contemplation near the trees of everything that surrounds the forest, in silence, without mobiles, or music, it's about listening and enjoying what the mother and wise nature gives us.
As we described almost at the beginning of this post you have to walk among nature sharpening the five senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, in the following way:
When we walk peacefully among nature, what we see pleases us, the beauty of the landscape, the range of colors, we feel calm, relaxed, we hear the noise of the wind that moves and displaces the leaves, we smell the aroma that comes from both the plants and the wood of the trees, the textures offered by the different elements that are part of nature when touched, the wood of the trees has different textures, the leaves, a stone.
To make sense of taste participate in this activity, therapists advise to prepare an infusion or tea and enjoy it in silence, enjoying only the sounds that nature offers us.
The therapy carried out with the forest bath can be considered as a balm for everyone and for all ages, especially in the world and at the moment in which we live our daily lives surrounded and hooked on new technologies.
What are you waiting for to give you a wonderful and beneficial forest bath?
