Winter is a compulsory time-out for all flora and fauna, including us. Following our intense summer hustles and autumn’s waning weeks of festive celebrations with family and friends, we arrive in the soft, still, reflective part of the year. During this season, everything seems to slow down, and nature gently encourages us to take an essential break.
Yet, as a certified forest therapy guide, I don’t hibernate during the winter months. Michiganders are an innately outdoorsy people, and it’s within our collective DNA to escape cabin fever and indulge in our favorite seasonal pastimes.
My go-to jam is ice fishing. Following the gradual freeze across the inland waterway of the northern Lake Huron watershed, I begin in Emmet County, targeting perch from Crooked Lake, later moving east to Cheboygan County’s Burt Lake to pursue walleye, and finally heading to the mighty Mullett Lake for some bonus, late-season trout.
During one recent winter solstice before the hard water was ready, I cozied up at home reading an article about a peculiar-sounding trend called “forest bathing.” I was immediately drawn to this somatic practice of decelerating, grounding, and recentering oneself through nature — an idyllic activity for any time of year, but one that so fully complements the serenity of winter.
The Practice
Forest bathing translates from the Japanese term shinrin-yoku and was first coined in 1982 by Tomohide Akiyama during his tenure as director of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The practice gained popularity during a national endemic of stress-related illnesses, ultimately attributed to heightened urbanization and poor work-life balance.
Akiyama’s idea was to link forest visits to health and wellness-oriented ecotourism. Forest bathing is now part of a global effort to tend to the stressful conditions of living in a modern industrialized civilization.
Of course, with every gentle walk in a park or heavy tromp through the woods, we’ve all been forest bathing this whole time without ever calling it that. What’s new is the intentional pursuit of avoiding screen time: unplugging and spending agenda-free hours outside, and momentarily getting out of our heads and focusing on our bodies.
While forest bathing, we’re not there to get our steps in and we’re not looking to expand our birding life list. The purpose is to move slowly down a trail, using all available senses to notice the surrounding nature, sounds, and smells. Forest bathing is the quintessential way to be “here now.”
The Science
I invite you to pause and inhale deeply. Exhale slowly. When outdoors, we inhale phytoncides — allelopathic, antibacterial, volatile organic compounds defused by trees and non-woody plants to kill the bacteria, fungi, or insects on them.
The mammalian body, by contrast, loves phytoncides. Contact with phytoncides through our respiratory tract has been directly correlated to improvements in our frontline immune defenders. Research shows that forest bathing lowers blood pressure, increases cerebral blood flow, significantly decreases the levels of stress hormones, and alleviates tension, anxiety, anger, and fatigue.
Why Be Guided?
Since anyone can forest bathe anywhere, anytime, what’s the purpose of hiring a professional guide? Well, not always, but often, when we aimlessly wander outside alone, our minds can begin to move in cycles of distraction. We may start to dwell on our nagging mental baggage, such as the laundry spoiling in the hamper, the overdue oil change, the banking, the shopping, the meeting next week that we haven’t prepared for — and we start psyching ourselves out and thinking, “I’ve got more important things to be doing!”
However, if we make plans to join a guided community forest bathing walk, it provides an excuse to fully engage in the practice. Professional guides hold time and space for others to let go, relax, and enjoy mindfulness in nature.
Plan It!
Head to your favorite trail and try my invitation, called “Meet a Being.” Wear comfortable clothing, bring water, a snack, a pen and paper, and something to sit on. Bring or leave behind whatever it takes to avoid excuses to cut your outing short.
Upon arrival, congratulate yourself for saving this time for you. Reflect momentarily on the area watershed or the Native American Anishinaabek — the original wildland tenders of the Great Lakes region. Next, move slowly to a place that calls to you, using all available senses as you wander, and meet a being from the more-than-human-world. Whatever it is, let it emerge naturally to your gaze like a slow reveal. Upon discovering the being, draw a picture, write a poem, or simply sit comfortably with it for a while.
My new book, “Grass Left Standing: A Park Interpreter’s Road Map to Forest Bathing” (Mission Point Press), offers lots of other ideas and ways to experience this activity. Or grab some friends for a truly unique adventure and hire a certified guide through these two sites: anft.earth or forestbathingfinder.com.
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