Forest bathing therapy and Japan

Health and wellness are crucial components of living a happy life. A healthy diet, like fruits and vegetables and lean proteins, is essential to maintain health and well-being. Additionally, maintaining an active lifestyle is beneficial to live a healthy life. Regular exercise can aid individuals of all ages to maintain their health and well-being. Simply put, exercise and yoga can help improve stability, balance, strength, and endurance. Wellness can come in many shapes and forms, providing a range of essential benefits for the body and mind. 

Wellness treatments treat the whole person – psychological, physical, emotional, environmental, cultural, spiritual, lifestyle and creativity – instead of focusing on an area or a part of yours. Wellness is a broad term that encompasses several aspects of well-being: nutrition, mental and physical health, your unique spiritual connection, lifestyle, culture, relationships, and creativity. One of the most popular and effective wellness practices is forest bathing therapy. 

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What is forest bathing? 

Forest bathing is a two-fold exercise that combines the best practices of mindfulness and fitness therapies. One can engage in various methods and therapeutic procedures to feel better and engage in a healthy lifestyle. Forest bathing fundamentally means immersing oneself in nature to help the body and mind rejuvenate and recover. It involves getting closer to our natural surroundings and finding a purpose and joy within our hearts. 

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Relevance of forest bathing in Japan

Forest bathing, as a term, emerged in Japan in the 1980s. Around this time, the world became aware of the adverse effects of depression, distraction, and pain. These effects only worsen over time and are now well-known in metropolitan cities and urban regions worldwide. In urban areas, it’s hard to relax, with heavy traffic, high population density, and long hours in the office taking away the stimulation. The increased demand for real estate has turned many cities into ‘green’ cities, with few trees, parks, and even the illusion of nature. Here lies the importance of forest bathing. 

Being in the woods and paying attention to our surroundings stimulates the senses enough to dampen the urge to do something yet calm enough to keep us peaceful. Forest bathing has become an essential part of Japanese healthcare. Japanese research shows that forest bathing improves sleep quality, mood, and concentration and alleviates stress. Chronic stress can contribute to developing conditions such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia. It could also contribute to physiological problems such as high blood pressure, muscle tension, and decreased immune response. 

Spending time in nature, away from modern technology and big cities, can reduce the effects of stress on the body and improve physical and mental health. Forest bathing is highly popular and encouraged in Japan, leading to healthy lifestyles for people of all ages. Dr. Qing Li, MD, Ph.D., is a physician at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, president of the Forest Medicine Society, and author of the book “Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness.” According to his estimates, an average person spends around 93% of their time indoors. 

Dr. Qing Li identified a nature deficit disorder in society that contributes to negative attitudes toward life, which can be significantly improved by just a few hours of forest bathing. The actual value of forest bathing lies in its simplicity. Forest bathing has benefits similar to other Japanese practices, such as Zen meditation and mindfulness, and is less intimidating or intensive. Mindfulness requires you to be aware of your surroundings and situations and how you feel in the moment. But in the forest, when you focus your senses on the small, simple changes around you, meditation and mindfulness come naturally.

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What are the benefits of forest bathing?

Forest therapy, or the more colloquial term, forest bathing, provides several essential health benefits and advantages. Being close to nature has, for a very long time, been considered to be one of the vital aspects of well-being. Being in natural surroundings boosts the sense of comfort and improves several aspects of our body and mind. There are tons of valuable benefits that forest bathing or forest therapy provides.

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Reduces stress

Multiple studies on the benefits of forest bathing have all indicated that the therapy provides tangible benefits. Just taking a 40-minute leisurely stroll in a forest can result in improved moods and general vitality. Yoshifumi Miyazaki, a professor at Chiba University, found that just taking an idyllic walk through the forest results in an almost 12.4% decrease in stress hormones and cortisol. The people who participated in the study also reported better moods and reduced anxiety levels. 

Stress is usually the fundamental component behind several common ailments, such as migraines, hypertension, heart problems, skin disease, asthma, arthritis, and other health problems. When you engage in forest therapy, the activity in your parasympathetic nervous system picks up. Engaging in such a therapy leads to several changes within the body. The whole body feels rested, energy is conserved, heart rate slows down, and intestinal and gland activity increases.

Due to the fall in cortisol levels, the stress response mechanism within the body is also triggered less, which helps achieve a sense of peace and calmness. A study found the average concentration of salivary cortisol, which is a stress hormone, to be around 13.4% lower for people gazing at a forest scenery for 20 minutes compared to someone staring into an urban setting. Forest therapy can also result in a 7% decrease in nerve activity, a 5.8% heart rate decrease, and a 1.4% decrease in blood pressure.

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Mood improvement and enhancing creativity

A meta-study of existing research materials at Derby University has found that getting closer to nature helps us find happiness and achieve renewed mental well-being. Forest bathing generally leads to releasing of hormones within the body that gives rise to feelings of joy and calm.

David Strayer, a professor of psychology at Utah University, conducted a study to gauge the benefits of forest bathing in terms of creativity. The study participants reported an almost 50% advancement in their creative problem-solving skills in three days. All the contributors to the study had immersed themselves in nature and did not have access to any modern technology.

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Improves the immune system

One of the worst things about an overabundance of stress hormones within the body is that it can compromise the immune system. Some of the foremost soldiers of the human body, the antiviral natural killer cells, are suppressed due to the effects of stress hormones. Forest bathing helps in reducing stress levels and improving mood. These kinds of benefits also influence the strength of the immune system. 

A study conducted in 2007 found that just a two-hour stroll through the forest led to an almost 50% increase in natural killer cell levels among men. This increase in the level of those cells helps the body fight diseases better. Some preliminary research has also pointed out the possible anti-cancer benefits of forest bathing. A study in 2008 by Dr. Li found that a 3-day trip to the forest helped the human body produce anticancer proteins and other benefits that lasted over seven days following the trip.    

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Accelerating recovery

Throughout history, doctors have prescribed nature as an effective catalyst for recovery. Removing oneself from the city and retreating to forests or the countryside is relatively common when one needs to recuperate. Dr. Roger Ulrich conducted the most famous study in this area. He showed that even a peek into nature from a window could hasten the recovery process.

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Phytoncides: Natural healer

The study on phytoncides has been gaining momentum in the past decades. The term ‘phytoncide’ refers to the chemicals secreted by evergreen trees. This chemical has been associated with improving the activity of the frontline defenders of the immune system. Even throughout history, in the mid-to-late 19th century, physicians Peter Detweiler and Hermann Brehmer built sanatoriums inside German pine forests to implement a new way of healing through natural sources. 

Forest bathing is the best way to get a phytoncide dose every week. The phytoncide substance is a reason why forest bathing is so therapeutic. Evidence supports that these chemicals promote physical and psychological well-being, along with a host of other benefits. Of course, the benefits extend beyond just phytoncides. Other factors, such as visual stimuli, sunlight, grounding elements, and microbiomes, contribute to the therapeutic value of forests. However, breaking down these measurable and tangible forest components into research is excellent to understand. 

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Where to go for forest bathing?

If you’re confused about where to go for forest bathing, then Japan has you covered. It has multiple sites where you can go to relax. Centers across the country are practice-focused and offer organized tours tailored to individual needs. With the help of guides and therapists, visitors learn to enjoy and appreciate the natural world and may even end the day with a tea ceremony. And go home relaxed and satisfied. If you want to tackle forest bathing yourself, Japan has some great national parks that make it a perfect candidate for forest bathing. 

If you like hiking, the Japanese Alps are accessible from Tokyo, or if you’re interested in a more spiritual pilgrimage, the sacred forests of Yoshino-Kumano National Park in the Kii Peninsula south of Osaka can be wonderful. An adventurous person can head south to Yakushima National Park to explore a land of giant trees that the sea has nurtured for over 1,000 years. Japan is known for its big cities and neon lights, but there is no shortage of beautiful natural scenery perfect for forest bathing and which is precisely what Japanese doctors order.

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So, finally,

It is essential to be mindful of the various kinds of health benefits that forest therapy can provide. The current lifestyle can be too hectic and demanding, especially in urban areas. It is always better to take a step back and book a trip to a nearby forest therapy resort or any woods where you can immerse yourself in the greenery. Eco-tourism is gaining increasing relevance in these times. The Healience resort or the Busan forest are ideal destinations where people can go to relax, rejuvenate, and recover. In fast-paced professional and personal lives, just taking a stroll through the forest cover can be highly relaxing and reduce stress to a significant degree. Phytoncides, the chemicals released from trees, have also shown a lot of promise in providing tangible and positive health effects. So, if you are bored and overwhelmed with the busy schedule and demands, head off to a healing resort in a forest and let nature work wonders.