NATURE’S REMEDY
BETTER LIVING THROUGH SCIENCE
Is forest bathing a prescription for good health?
ILLUSTRATION: JOE WALDRON
by IAN TAYLOR
Ian is a freelance science writer and the former deputy editor of BBC Science Focus.
It’s a technique that comes from ancient Japan – the 1980s to be exact – and is a therapeutic way to connect with nature. Shinrinyoku, or forest bathing, is a form of sensory relaxation where you spend restorative time in a forest or another natural environment. It’s mindful, it’s meditative, it sounds like absolute hokum. And yet… maybe the trees hold secrets that science is only just beginning to understand.
To be fair, forest bathing isn’t quite as hippie as it sounds. For a start, you don’t get naked and you don’t submerge yourself in water or fallen leaves. You simply head to the woods, engage your senses, disengage your phone and spend a couple of hours as mindfully as you can, getting light exercise and a little time away from the wildly overstimulating 21st century.