Forest bathing has also experienced a real boom in Germany in recent years and has also arrived as a trend in Germany. Spending time in nature is in, and experiencing nature is becoming more and more an integral part of health care.
In this article you will learn what forest bathing is, where the origin of forest bathing lies, why it is so healthy and good for us, what science says about forest bathing and how you can practice forest bathing on your next walk through the forest or the city park - alone in nature or together with family and friends.
What I can already promise you: Forest bathing is a great way to get more composure into your life and reconnect with yourself in a very natural way (literally).
What exactly is this forest bathing?
Forest bathing originates from Japan. As early as the early 1980s, the importance of nature for our health and well-being was officially recognized and an advertising campaign was launched in 1982 with the aim of bringing people more into nature.
For this campaign, the term Shinrin-yoku (sometimes you can also find the spelling without a hyphen: Shinrin yoku ), translates as "bathing in the forest" or forest bathing.
The aim of the campaign was not only to encourage people to spend more time in nature – especially in the forest – but also to do so very consciously and mindfully.
And that's exactly what forest bathing is in the end: the conscious, mindful stay in the forest. The "enjoyment with all the senses". To consciously perceive the sounds and smells of the forest. To rediscover the colors of the forest or to feel how the bark of a tree feels.
There is a very beautiful forest on my doorstep with a landscaped path, which is also often used by joggers. They usually walk very quickly and with headphones through the forest without looking left and right.
This is not forest bathing.
Forest bathing is about mindfulness. This distinguishes this natural healing method from Japan from simple walks in nature.
Forest bathing means deceleration. Deliberately to roam slowly and with time through the forest. To perceive intensively and to spend the time in the forest "meaningfully".
And this has many health benefits:
More or less parallel to the Shinrin-yoku campaign, the first scientific studies on the health effects of staying in the forest took place, which led to a completely new discipline, the so-called forest medicine.
Forest medicine deals intensively with the effects of the forest and especially forest bathing on people's health and has come to astonishing results.
Why forest bathing is so good for us
Forest bathing has many positive effects on health, many of which have now been well studied. Since Shinrin-yoku originates from Japan, it is not surprising that the effects of forest bathing have been intensively researched, especially in Japan.
First and foremost by Prof. Qing Li from the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, who has published the first research results on the positive effects of the forest on body and soul since the early 2000s.
There are now hundreds of studies, all of which prove one thing, namely that the forest has a variety of positive effects on body, mind and soul. No wonder that Shinrin-yoku has become an integral part of health care in Japan and that there are now even a large number of medicinal forests in Japan that have been designated especially for forest bathing.
Forest bathing lowers the cortisol content in the blood
For example, a Study from 2010 that spending time in the forest significantly reduces the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol.
A high cortisol content in the blood is a typical side effect of permanent stress and excessive demands and can lead to sleep disorders, obesity, type 2 diabetes, vascular diseases, heart attacks and many other diseases in the long term.
Conversely, a low cortisol content helps to reduce stress and even contributes to the normalization of blood pressure. Regular forest bathing is therefore an active health precaution, so that forest bathing should 😀 almost be prescribed on prescription.
Interesting:
One of the British National Trust commissioned Study with 600 participants was able to show that this effect can be achieved – at least in part – even by simply hearing forest sounds!
Forest bathing can strengthen the immune system
As early as 2008, Japanese scientists were able to Study show that spending time in the forest and forest bathing not only helps to strengthen the immune system in general, but that it also specifically increases the number of natural killer cells in the body, which play an important role in the body's own cancer defense.
Even though forest bathing is of course not a substitute for conventional cancer therapies, it can help fight tumors due to its effects on the immune system.
Terpenes and phytoncides play an important role in this.
Both – terpenes and phytoncides – have a positive effect on the immune system, thus contributing to the fact that the forest air has such a positive effect on our health. Terpenes are an important component of the essential oils released by trees, the so-called phytoncides are chemical molecules that trees release into the air to defend themselves against fungal and bacterial infections.
Here I have a short video clip for you, in which the now unfortunately deceased Dipl.-Ing. and Biology Clemens G. Arvay from the Heidelberg University Verein Biologische Krebsabwehr e.V. explains these connections vividly.
"Forest air is medicine to breathe," says forest bathing expert Jörg Meier. This has now been confirmed by numerous studies, so that the many positive effects of forest bathing on body and mind can be considered scientifically proven.
From a scientific point of view, it is therefore clear that forest bathing and absorbing the forest atmosphere, as Clemens G. Arvay aptly describes it in the video, have a variety of effects on our health.
But actually, of course, we know that even without science.
The healing powers of nature have been known for a long time
For example, the famous abbess, poet and mystic Hildegart von Bingen around the year 1000 said about the forest and the plants: "There is a power from eternity and this is green."
We intuitively feel that spending time in the forest is good for us. It is not for nothing that many families take a trip to the countryside on Sunday to take a walk in the forest together. With "our forest" here on the doorstep, which I mentioned earlier, the parking lot is always full on weekends and everyone wants to spend one or two nice hours in the forest.
And it is not only forest chemistry – i.e. the chemical molecules released into the air by trees and plants in general – that has a positive effect on our health.
It is the entire atmosphere of the forest that has a positive effect on our psyche and spirit. Exactly the "immersion in the atmosphere of the forest".
But how can you put this "immersion in the atmosphere of the forest" into practice? How do you fully engage with the forest?
I have a few ideas and suggestions for you in the next section.
Forest bathing in practice
So that the whole thing does not remain pure theory and you can experience the many advantages of forest bathing yourself and use it for yourself, I have put together some practical exercises from forest bathing for you in this section.
Just do the exercises on your next walk in the woods. And if you don't have a forest near you, then just go out to the nearest city park, because you can also practice forest bathing there - albeit to a somewhat limited extent.
And if the weather is bad, you know that there is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing 🙂
However, you should never go into the forest during thunderstorms, storms or ice.
But now to the practical exercises.
Walk slowly
The first exercise is very simple: walk slowly for a few minutes. Often we are so hectic that we don't even notice how fast and hurried we are actually rushing through the world.
The reason is usually the permanent stress in which we find ourselves. We are in "fight or flight" mode and move accordingly. Conscious, slow walking activates the parasympathetic nervous system – the autonomic nervous system that takes control of relaxation and rest – and thus makes us forget about stress.
Forest bathing counters stress with a conscious slowness. If there is one rule in forest bathing, it is probably this: Deliberately do everything a little slower.
Forest bathing is not about hiking through the forest as purposefully as possible. It's more of a stroll. Immerse yourself in the forest, where you consciously want to experience nature.
In this way, we can be very close to nature and experience nature with all our senses. This is exactly how forest bathing works: it is like bathing in the atmosphere of the forest.
Just forest bathing 😀.
Conscious breathing
You can support slow walking by breathing consciously, deeply and a little more slowly. In stress, our breathing quickly "slides" upwards and we only breathe shallowly into the chest. Conscious, deep breathing brings us back to abdominal breathing and also activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
At the same time, you absorb more oxygen through deep breathing - of which there is plenty in the forest - and thus activate the cell metabolism. We have more energy again and feel more alert and clear.
Did you know that a single medium-sized tree produces as much oxygen per day as 5-10 people need to live per day? Imagine how much oxygen such a forest produces!
Targeted breathing exercises
Of course, you can also use your forest bath to do very specific breathing exercises. An almost classic exercise for this is boxing breathing.
You simply breathe in at equal intervals, then hold your breath, exhale again and then take a break again until the next inhale.
For example:
- Inhale, counting to 4
- Hold your breath, count to 4 again
- Exhale, count to 4 again
- Breathing space, count to 4 again
If counting to 4 is too long for you, you can of course shorten the intervals. Very important: If you get dizzy during the exercise, stop breathing and sit on the floor if necessary so that you don't fall.
Of course, you don't necessarily have to count in your mind. For me, for example, this exercise works much better if I don't count, but simply hold the sections of the same length according to my feeling.
Whether you count or go by feeling: As a rule, you will notice that you become much calmer during the exercise. This is because box breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system like hardly any other breathing exercise, which also affects the Science confirmed .
In the meantime, there is also a whole range of apps with a wide variety of breathing exercises.
If you don't want to bring your mobile phone into the forest, then simply choose an exercise from such an app at home and then do this exercise during your walk in the forest.
Take a look around!
Forest bathing is the conscious perception of the forest with all the senses. And our most important sense is sight. Look around you as you walk. What do you see? What trees are there in the forest? How big or small are they? What do they look like, what does the bark of the trees look like?
What other plants are there? What does the forest floor look like? Are there herbs, flowers or mushrooms in "your" forest?
Can you spot animals? You may see a few birds feeding somewhere in the branches. If you're very lucky, you might even spot a deer.
Or you can take a closer look around the forest floor. There are lots of small animals there. They are not for everyone, but beetles, spiders and other creepy-crawlies can also have their fascination and make you forget the stress of the day.
"Nightingale, I hear you trap"
And of course, hearing as an important sense should not be missing. Hearing a nightingale, as in the phrase from the headline, has unfortunately become a rare experience in this day and age.
But you can hear many other birds in the forest. And maybe you'll even be lucky and a nightingale will be there after all.
Even science confirms that listening to birdsong has a positive effect on our perception of stress.
"If you can hear the birds singing, you're in the right place," says the musician and author Benny Bellamacina . In German: If you can hear the birds singing, you've come to the right place.
My assumption as a biologist:
Stress is ultimately nothing more than our body's survival reaction to a real or imagined threat.
However, birds only sing when there is no danger from predators. They signal to us on a subconscious level that we are safe. And that brings us to rest.
Smell
Another important sense for us is smelling. In addition to the many other things, it is also the abundant oxygen and the many substances released by the trees, which we absorb through the nose, that make the forest so special.
So when strolling through the forest, consciously pay attention to the smells you perceive. In summer, these may be the essential oils with their many positive effects on our health, which are released in large numbers by the trees.
Or you discover a flower by the side of the path and consciously smell it (please do not pluck the flower!).
But even in autumn and winter you can consciously perceive the smell of the forest. For example, when the moisture of the fog is in the air and the forest smells of earth and moss.
Feel
Of course, feeling should not be missing in the series of practical exercises.
For me, feeling is even one of the most important exercises in forest bathing. Because when we feel, we establish a direct connection to what we are feeling at the moment.
And that is particularly powerful.
So the next time you're in the forest or park, feel what a tree feels like. Touch the bark or leaves of the tree once and feel inside yourself what it does to you.
Take a pine or spruce cone in your hand and consciously feel its shape and surface.
Or – one of my favorite exercises – place your hand on the forest floor or in the damp moss on the forest floor. Take some forest soil in your hand and feel the coolness and moisture that is in it (but you should leave the moss where it grows - respect the plants and animals of the forest as creatures in their own right).
Connect the different senses with each other and consciously smell what smell the forest floor has (or the forest as a whole!). Also take a closer look at the forest floor.
What colors are available? What forms are there?
Walk through the forest in this way and take in the entire atmosphere of the forest - because that's exactly what forest bathing is!
Tastes delicious!
And tasting also plays an important role for us. It is not for nothing that "love goes through the stomach" - and before that past the taste buds of our tongue. Maybe that also applies to the love of the forest?
However, tasting in the forest is one of those things.
Because for that, of course, we have to put things in our mouths and chew on them. And of course, that can be problematic under certain circumstances.
Therefore: Only try those things that you know 100% are harmless. So stay away from all mushrooms, unless you are a proven mushroom expert.
And you should also be careful with fruits near the ground. Keyword: Fox tapeworm .
There are quite different opinions on this, but I am of the opinion that it is better not to try something once too many than once too little.
Now I've said a lot about all the things you shouldn't do when tasting. But now to what you can do on your walk in the woods.
As children, for example, we liked to "eat" the leaves of the trees. In fact, we just chewed on it and that's exactly what you can do when forest bathing.
Why not just taste how a beech leaf "tastes" (instead of "feels"). Or an oak leaf. Are there differences in taste?
Maybe this exercise will bring back memories of your childhood that will also relax you and reconnect you with yourself.
And if not, you know: "It's never too late for a happy childhood." (Erich Kästner).
Other exercises
We have now covered the most important senses – sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. But there are other exercises that you can do in your own personal forest bath.
Here are some ideas.
Photograph
On Instagram alone, 80 million photos are shared every day! If you walk through the city in summer, you will see people on every corner who are just about to take a selfie.
Almost everyone has a mobile phone with a good camera today. And we almost always have the mobile phone – and thus the camera – with us.
So why not take advantage of this on your next walk in the forest and go in search of great motifs in the forest?
Photography in the forest is a great way to roam through nature consciously and with a watchful eye. If you walk through the forest in search of a beautiful motif, you are automatically more in the here and now and sharpen all your senses.
Photography thus becomes a real mindfulness practice.
For me, nature and landscape photography has become my favorite hobby. And I notice every time I feel how relaxed and calm I get when I've been out and about in the forest to take pictures (you can check out some of the pictures Watch here ).
Walking barefoot
Actually, walking barefoot belongs in the section about feeling. But it has been given its own headline here, because there is a lot more to walking barefoot than just feeling the forest floor while walking.
In the USA, there has been a movement for some time that is enjoying increasing popularity – the so-called " Earthing “.
The theory behind it:
The Earth contains a lot of free electrons, so it is negatively charged at the surface. By wearing shoes permanently, we interrupt contact with this negative charge, so that the body has a positive charge towards the earth.
So we are literally not grounded.
However, the electrons from the earth have a whole range of positive effects on the body, as they render free radicals in the body harmless.
The consequences range from chronic fatigue to vascular diseases.
When walking barefoot, the electrons of the earth can now flow into our body via the feet, which helps us to regain our balance.
Sounds a little lofty, but is now being used by Scientific research supported.
There is a barefoot path very close to where I live. And I really have to say that I actually feel somehow different when I've used this barefoot path.
Of course, you don't need a specially created barefoot path. On your next walk in the woods, just walk barefoot through the forest (of course, you should watch out for sharp stones, branches and shards of discarded bottles – unfortunately, there are also such things in the forest).
Grounding
Grounding is very similar to earthing. Only that grounding is less about physical grounding, but more about an energetic, spiritual Connection with the Earth .
Of course, this is not for everyone, but maybe you just give it a try and find that it is a very beneficial exercise.
How does it work?
Actually quite simple. Imagine how from your root chakra (the area of the perineum/perineum between the genitals and the coccyx) a connection reaches deep into the earth.
You can think of this connection as a pillar of light or a fountain. Or as a waterfall.
Or a completely different image comes to mind.
What matters is how it feels to you. Feel into this connection with the depth of the earth.
Feel what it feels like to be connected to the earth in this way.
Let all your worries and stress flow into the earth via this connection and watch the associated energy dissolve in the earth.
If you feel like it's good, thank the earth and come back to the here and now.
Get in touch with the spirit of the forest
If you have acquired a taste for grounding, then maybe this exercise is also something for you.
All shamanic cultures of this earth consider all life to be animated. Everything that exists has something like a soul or spirit in some form.
From a systemic point of view, one could say: The whole is more than the sum of its parts. And this "more" could be described as spirit.
And you can get in touch with this spirit.
Sounds interesting? Then just give it a try!
Maybe just choose a tree that appeals to you in particular. Then try to become neutral inside, close your eyes and make yourself aware of your intention to get in touch with the spirit of this tree.
The decisive factor here is actually the intention and the focus on establishing contact with this spirit.
Then just pay attention to what inner images or thoughts come up in you.
These inner images and thoughts represent your subconscious's interpretation of the information of the spirit with which you have made contact – at least if you want to 😉 follow the "spirit" of this little exercise.
If you want, you can ask the spirit you are connected to a question and see what answer you get. Use the answers as inspiration to find your own answers to your questions.
The important thing is to approach the whole thing as playfully as possible, then you are more relaxed and the information (which is ultimately just energy) can flow better.
This includes understanding the answers you receive as suggestions and not as instructions. In the end, you're always the one who decides what you want to accept and what you don't.
Or maybe you just want to thank the tree for providing you with oxygen and being a part of the forest that you can use so wonderfully for your recovery.
Such a connection with the spirits of the forest is a great opportunity to express one's gratitude in a very concrete way.
Result
Forest bathing is a fantastic way to leave the stress of everyday life behind and calm down again.
The forest and forest bathing have a positive effect on us and our health on many levels.
Purely materially via the oxygen, essential oils and other substances that the trees release into the air. Mentally, when we combine forest bathing with mindfulness exercises and the conscious use of our senses. And spiritually, when we connect with the trees and plants of the forest on an energetic level and thus perceive ourselves again as part of a larger whole.
This makes forest bathing suitable for everyone, no matter how materially or spiritually minded they are.
Therefore, we should become aware again of the valuable treasure we have with our forests right on our doorstep and do everything we can to protect this treasure and preserve it for future generations.