I found out about Shinrin-Yoku, or forest bathing, through facebook. It’s one of those things that recirculates, as more and more tree lovers discover it, but without much more than its definition. Last week I listened to a fascinating talk by Chanchal Cabrera, a horticultural therapist, who’d both researched and used this as a clinical practice.
In Japan doctors can prescribe Shinrin-Yoku and there are 44 designated forest sites. It’s a government approved form of meditation. The practice involves being in the forest; sitting and meditating or standing and staring are more beneficial than walking through it. It decreases hostility and depression, increases well-being, even lowering blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol, which can impact the immune system). Cabrera explained how trees release phytocides, volatile chemicals which move through the air sending messages to each other about pests and diseases. This is not just oak to oak, beech to beech etc, but a message to all the trees in the vicinity. Being among trees can change our own biochemistry. We share DNA with oak trees and all living things. As she eloquently put it, ‘we are tuned to resonate with Nature’. Shamanic cultures have always known this, speaking of ‘all our relations’… the stone people, the plant people, the finned, the insects, the four legged, the two legged and the winged ones.
Phytocides lower cortisol levels, which are inflammatory markers of stress (if I understood the science correctly). They are absorbed through the skin… so the less clothing you wear the better! Pine trees release more phytocides than other tree species. In her clinical practice Cabrera takes cancer patients into the forest and teaches them to meditate. She argues that Nature gives free healing… even without ingestion of herbs and remedies.
A 2008 study published in the Lancet found that people who live closest to a green space in an urban environment have better health than people with a higher income who live further away. Another study in Bradford found that people living close to trees or green spaces were less likely to be obese or inactive. Sadly, while more and more people are discovering the benefits of eco-therapy and the healing power of our tree relations, our mature urban trees are being cut down at a rate of fifty eight a day. According to an article in the i yesterday, more than 150,000 have been removed from urban highways since 2010. Sheffield Council has been one of the worst culprits, surpassed only by Birmingham.
Whenever I consider moving to the sea, the thought of London’s many beautiful and varied trees holds me here. Hampstead Heath alone has over four hundred veteran trees, including some ancient oaks and beech trees. Kensington Gardens, where the poet Mathew Arnold encountered Pan, still has a walk of plane trees planted by Queen Caroline in the 1730’s. The striking weeping beech in the south flower walk is the place where Peter Pan fell asleep after escaping from the nursery. The Royal Parks have around 1500 veteran trees and recognises their importance in providing ‘a sense of continuity … linking past, present and future’, as well as their benefits to health, the environment, wildlife and community.
For decades the woodland in Holland Park has been my sanctuary and the place I go to regenerate. Synchronistically, it also has the Kyoto Garden, which was a gift of the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce, and is still managed collaboratively with the Japanese Government. If the beautiful maple and cherry blossom trees here don’t heal you, the rocks and waterfall will.
http://www.chanchalcabrera.com
http://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/the-science.html
http://www.ancienttreeforum.co.uk/?s=london
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/press-and-media/factsheets-on-the-royal-parks/trees
In Japan doctors can prescribe Shinrin-Yoku and there are 44 designated forest sites. It’s a government approved form of meditation. The practice involves being in the forest; sitting and meditating or standing and staring are more beneficial than walking through it. It decreases hostility and depression, increases well-being, even lowering blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol, which can impact the immune system). Cabrera explained how trees release phytocides, volatile chemicals which move through the air sending messages to each other about pests and diseases. This is not just oak to oak, beech to beech etc, but a message to all the trees in the vicinity. Being among trees can change our own biochemistry. We share DNA with oak trees and all living things. As she eloquently put it, ‘we are tuned to resonate with Nature’. Shamanic cultures have always known this, speaking of ‘all our relations’… the stone people, the plant people, the finned, the insects, the four legged, the two legged and the winged ones.
Phytocides lower cortisol levels, which are inflammatory markers of stress (if I understood the science correctly). They are absorbed through the skin… so the less clothing you wear the better! Pine trees release more phytocides than other tree species. In her clinical practice Cabrera takes cancer patients into the forest and teaches them to meditate. She argues that Nature gives free healing… even without ingestion of herbs and remedies.
A 2008 study published in the Lancet found that people who live closest to a green space in an urban environment have better health than people with a higher income who live further away. Another study in Bradford found that people living close to trees or green spaces were less likely to be obese or inactive. Sadly, while more and more people are discovering the benefits of eco-therapy and the healing power of our tree relations, our mature urban trees are being cut down at a rate of fifty eight a day. According to an article in the i yesterday, more than 150,000 have been removed from urban highways since 2010. Sheffield Council has been one of the worst culprits, surpassed only by Birmingham.
Whenever I consider moving to the sea, the thought of London’s many beautiful and varied trees holds me here. Hampstead Heath alone has over four hundred veteran trees, including some ancient oaks and beech trees. Kensington Gardens, where the poet Mathew Arnold encountered Pan, still has a walk of plane trees planted by Queen Caroline in the 1730’s. The striking weeping beech in the south flower walk is the place where Peter Pan fell asleep after escaping from the nursery. The Royal Parks have around 1500 veteran trees and recognises their importance in providing ‘a sense of continuity … linking past, present and future’, as well as their benefits to health, the environment, wildlife and community.
For decades the woodland in Holland Park has been my sanctuary and the place I go to regenerate. Synchronistically, it also has the Kyoto Garden, which was a gift of the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce, and is still managed collaboratively with the Japanese Government. If the beautiful maple and cherry blossom trees here don’t heal you, the rocks and waterfall will.
http://www.chanchalcabrera.com
http://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/the-science.html
http://www.ancienttreeforum.co.uk/?s=london
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/press-and-media/factsheets-on-the-royal-parks/trees