What is forest bathing? Why it may help your health

Live on your health tonight, the benefits of forest bathing. Have you heard about this? Supporters say it’s an effective and natural way to reduce stress. Joining us now is one of them, Doctor Susan Abukayer from Mass General Brigham. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you. I’m excited to talk with you about this because some people hear the phrase or the term forest bathing and think. Are they bathing outside? What exactly is this term? What does it mean? Is *** practice that started in Japan in the 1980s. The practice was called shinriyoku in Japanese, which translates to bathing in the atmosphere of the forest, and this practice started in the mid-1980s by the Health Ministry of Japan. In response to an increase in chronic diseases and what they consider to be stress related diseases as well as depression and even suicide, and so in response to that they created hundreds of miles of trails throughout the country and invited people. In the workforce to regularly bathe in the atmosphere of the forest, which is to say just go outside and just be slow down and when we’re bathing in the atmosphere of the forest we’re breathing in all these beautiful. Aromatic compounds that are very good for our health. You know what, it makes so much sense to do this and the benefits of this. You’ve seen the research. Talk about some more of those benefits that you found in forest bathing. Yes, there’s *** wide range of health benefits. For one thing, when we’re out in the breathing in the atmosphere of the forest, we, uh, our stress hormones go down. Cortisol and adrenaline both are reduced. Our nervous systems come into balance, and, and we enter much more into *** relaxation mode. Our mood is boosted and our immune systems are boosted. And even things such as increased creativity. I think folks are listening to this and saying this makes so much sense. I mean, I go for *** hike, you feel better with that, but this is an even bigger way to immerse yourself and get these health benefits. Yes, it is, and it’s really different from going for *** hike. When we go for *** hike, we’re usually kind of charging along and we maybe have *** destination, maybe we’re listening to *** podcast or. Talking to *** friend and we have *** goal. This is very different in that it really is an invitation to slow down, listening to the sounds around us and noticing things and through our senses really allowing ourselves to become very present. And we all need to slow down. Is there anything special we need to do to get started? Maybe the first thing is to intend to slow down. So there’s *** wide range of ways to participate in this kind of activity. Everything from simply going outside with no phone, no intention, or other than to slow down, and it doesn’t have to be *** forest, we call it forest bathing. It can be your balcony with *** plant on your balcony. It can be *** park, it can be anywhere with trees and some natural life. I like what you said. Just be Doctor Abukayer, thank you so much for your insight on this. Thank you so much for having me.