Forest-Bathing

How The Presence Of Trees Can Help You Find Health And Happiness

Words By Sophia Nicolov Photography By Elena Cremona & Maela Ohana

West-coast nature therapy I spent a summer forest-bathing on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, before I knew it had a name and was actively practised by people. Four days after my return from this Pacific region, I received Qing Li’s Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing as a birthday present. The timing of this gift couldn’t have been more perfect. The claustrophobia of London felt acute after my time away but this book provided me with comfort as I yearned for the towering cedars of Vancouver Island. Mixing popular science with creativity, DrQing Li reinforces the symbiosis between humans and trees, compelling us to understand that our lives depend on their very existence and proximity.

“I found myself mindful and present, hyper-conscious of my own mental wellbeing as well as that of the ecosystem I was in at that moment and the wider natural world. ”

Forest-bathing has a multitude of benefits and, according to Li, it helps alleviate the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. It can boost immune systems and ‘help us live longer, better and happier lives’. Spending day after day in the temperate rainforests of Vancouver Island, hiking trails, relaxing on forest-fringed beaches and camping beneath trees, I experienced this for myself.

What is forest-bathing?

Li has been specialising in forest medicine for two decades and is the President of the

Japanese Society of Forest Therapy. Shinrinyoku (forest-bathing) emerged as an official term in Japan in the 1980s and is a widely recognised practise in this Pacific nation. Ultimately, Li explains, the health of humans and the health of forests is inextricably intertwined and this is something people have understood for millennia. The doctor notes, ‘We know this deep in our bones. It is like an intuition, or an instinct, a feeling that is sometimes too hard to describe. In Japanese, we have a word for those feelings that are too deep for words: yūgen’. He describes yūgen as giving ‘a profound sense of the beauty and mystery of the universe. It is about this world but suggests something beyond it’. This sums up the feelings inspired by the forests of Vancouver Island – in many ways my experience is beyond description. This is why it’s so important to experience it for yourself. It’s about physical presence and appreciating the materiality and proximity of trees. Practising forest-bathing speaks to something within us. Forests are affective and I experienced for myself the intensely restorative nature of this practice that Li repeatedly emphasises.

This is not just a book about why forest-bathing is important. It is also a guide for the practice. A forest-bath involves the immersion of oneself into nature. As Li writes, it’s about ‘being in nature’ and connecting with the trees through all our senses: sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. Utilising our range of sensory perceptions,forest-bathing involves noticing the colour of the leaves or listening to the ground crunching underfoot. It’s about smelling trees, soil and fresh rain, feeling the wind and the rough bark of trees, tasting the air, and seeing the dappled sunshine and clear light. In Annie Proulx’s novel about deforestation, Barkskins (2016), she writes,‘As he cut, the wildness of the world receded, the vast invisible web of filaments that connected human life to animals, trees to flesh and bones to grass shivered as each tree fell and one by one the web strands snapped.’ When I hear the ripple of the breeze in the trees or animals in the canopy above me, I’m reminded that I’m part of a much larger, complex ecosystem.

City Life

Crucially, forest-bathing is not just about distant forests or remote wildernesses. Li emphasises the importance of urban trees and their preservation. This includes trees in parks and gardens as well as those lining our streets. The author himself doesn’t write from a privileged position of living surrounded by forests but rather he lives in the most densely populated city in the world: Tokyo. He appreciates the nature within the metropolis and encourages us to do the same. The many hours we spend every day looking at our phones, computers and televisions could also be spent outside, close to nature. This could contribute to symptoms associated with our hyper-technological modern lives and our disconnection from the natural world being alleviated. When we’re outside, the multisensory experience allows us to truly appreciate the different colours, forms and smells of the seasons and reconnects our bodies with natural rhythms.

There are more people living in cities than ever before. As the medical practitioner writes, we are ‘an urban species’. However, by recognising the vital role of forests and trees and by actively reconnecting with nature, ‘the more likely we are to preserve it for the future’. We can each individually maintain and nurture this connection through forest-bathing. I grew up in London and now split my time between there and Leeds so I know how easy it is to neglect the nature that we have in our cities. Since returning from Vancouver Island and reading Qi Ling’s book, I’ve been seeking out what’s around me here and I have a greater appreciation for it. I set time aside every day to go for a walk with my dog in local green spaces and I try to think of these walks as an opportunity to practice forest-bathing. When you start spending time outside every day, you actively experience the changing of seasons. It’s restorative and grounding. It’s also a dedicated time for reflection.

Preserving the future

The final section of this book, ‘Thinking About the Future: The Key to Preserving our Forests for the Future’, is a call to action and a guide on how we might mend our relationship with nature. Li reinforces the urgency of this, declaring, ‘Never has it been more important to maintain and strengthen our relationship with forests’. Li stresses forests’ ecological value, including the vast amount of carbon they store, the range of habitats they provide and the amount of biodiversity contained within them. Li also describes the threats facing them, presenting the reader with alarming information, including the fact that 32 million acres are cut down every year. The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing is a pressing reminder of why protecting forests is critically important and the urgent need for reforestation globally:

‘The key to preserving our forest, wherever it is, is to maintain our connection with it … We will benefit not just from the clean air and water forests provide, the carbon they store, the species they maintain, but also from the peace and quiet they offer, their beauty and vital spirit, and the myriad benefits to our well-being they hold within them.’

Qing Li’s book will undoubtedly make its reader want to go for a forest bath. The practice might help each of us to appreciate not only the great wildernesses we see on our travels, read about and witness in documentaries but also the nature that's closer to where we carry out our daily lives.

Book recommendations

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974)

W. S. Merwin, Unchopping a Tree (2014)

George Mobiot, Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding (2013)

Mary Oliver, White Pine: Poems and Prose Poems (1994)

Annie Proulx, Barkskins (2016)

Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)

Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries From a Secret World (2016)

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