Mental Wellness & Resiliency: Nature or Forest Bathing

What is Forest Bathing?

In 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries instituted a national forest bathing program and has since designated a number of regional forest bathing reserves. Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, is simply spending time outdoors under the canopy of trees. In Japanese, “shinrin” means forest and “yoku” means bath, or immersing oneself in the forest and soaking in the atmosphere through the senses, according to Dr. Qing Li, who is the president of the Japanese Society of Forest Medicine and one of Japan’s leading forest bathing researchers. His book Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness (Viking 2018) was translated into English and published in the U.K. and North America.

Read more at REI Co-op