Know-Hows from Forest Therapy Guides for an Immersive Nature Experience
It’s a bright summer morning at The New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, Massachusetts. Nadine Mazzola, a certified forest therapy guide, gathers participants for a three-hour, meditative experience known as “forest bathing.”
Mazzola asks each person to introduce themselves and say what brought them to the class. Most of the participants describe how being in nature relaxes them and makes them happy, and how the pressures of life, desk jobs, and urban settings are dragging them down. One person mentions having tried forest bathing before and enjoying its positive effects long afterward. In short, they’ve all come to these woods to find even more peace and solace.
Forest Bathing (Shinrin-Yoku) Rooted in Japan
The practice of forest bathing or shinrin-yoku (see Nature Walks Improve Mental Health Outcomes, in The Earth & I) has its roots in Japan and the nature-based religion of Shinto, but the term was not coined until 1982. In its most basic form, forest bathing is being with nature and experiencing it through the five senses.
Dr. Qing Li, a medical doctor and founding member of the Japanese Society for Forest Medicine, says in his book, Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness, that forest bathing is “not exercise, or hiking, or jogging. It is simply being with nature, connecting with it through our sense of hearing, taste, smell and touch.”
According to an explanation of forest bathing at Forestry England in the United Kingdom, people are encouraged to silence their devices, move slowly through the forest, breathe deeply through the abdomen, and drink in the sights, smells, and sounds that are part of the forest.
In Massachusetts, Mazzola guides her forest bathing class through a series of “invitations” or optional prompts, such as to slow walk and to find a special “sit spot” to quietly reflect. These invitations are part of what M. Amos Clifford, founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT), calls an “optimal flow” of forest bathing. The flow includes a series of steps to build a framework for the experience. Guides like Mazzola are trained in an intensive, six-month certification process to lead forest bathing retreats and workshops.
[Masako Yotsugi] compares forest bathing to sunbathing, but instead of basking in the rays of the sun, one immerses in the presence of trees and nature.
Classes and guides are helpful to add forest bathing to one’s wellness routine, but for some people—like Masako Yotsugi, a pianist and teacher from Tokyo, Japan—it’s been a practice from childhood.
“Some people travel to do [shinrin-yoku], but mostly it’s a part of daily life,” she said. She compares forest bathing to sunbathing, but instead of basking in the rays of the sun, one immerses oneself in the presence of trees and nature. Yotsugi explains that forest bathing requires the use of all the senses.
Yotsugi has studied meditation and trained as a yoga teacher, but she likes how forest bathing is deeply intuitive. “In yoga, you have to do the pose and focus on your breathing—you have to make an effort. But if you go into nature, you naturally focus on your breathing,” she says. “You don’t really need to do anything, you don’t need to do exercise, you don’t need to try.”
Positive Effects of Time Spent in Nature
The positive effects of time spent in nature seem obvious to many who enjoy the sound of birds singing or what is called komorebi in Japanese—gazing at the patterns of sunlight that “leak” through the leaves of a tree and leave dancing shadows on the forest floor. (See also People Have the Capacity to Love and Heal the Earth, in The Earth & I.)
Jan Marry, a writer and award-winning librarian, had never heard of “forest bathing” until the COVID-19 pandemic, but felt an instant affinity with the term. “I immediately knew what it meant, even though I was unfamiliar with those two words together.”
Marry relied on nature walks to cope with the stress of lockdown and other unknowns. “I’m lucky enough to live in a lovely forest. So, I was doing [forest bathing] a lot because my options were limited, and also it reduced my stress.”
Marry has a few designated areas near her home, where she has set up Adirondak chairs and cushions among the trees. Sometimes, she’ll bring a hot drink and a book to enhance the experience, but most of the time, she comes to the forest to use her senses to enjoy the sounds, the sensations, and the colors. At Forestry England, forest bathers are encouraged to look for blues and greens, as research has shown that those colors inspire feelings of relaxation.
Marry’s affinity for nature is rooted in her childhood in New Zealand, “I used to go into the ‘bush,’ the native forest, and the pine trees where I lived.” Now she spends time among the cypress trees, poplars, and black walnuts in her home in Southeast Virginia. When asked how her forest bathing practice impacts the rest of her life, Marry replied, “It washes away my grumpies.”
The studies found that cortisol and adrenaline were lowered by forest bathing practice, and subjects also experienced a drop in blood pressure.
The positive effects of forest bathing on mental health and mood are genuine. In 2004, Dr. Li helped found the Forest Therapy Study group to compile scientific data to support what many have known since childhood: trees make people feel better. Dr. Li and his group found that forest bathing has a host of physiological benefits. The studies found that cortisol and adrenaline were lowered by forest bathing practice, and subjects also experienced a drop in blood pressure.
Li also used the POMS (Profile of Mood States) test to determine shinrin-yoku’s effect on mood and emotions. Dr. Li’s team found that walking anywhere can decrease anxiety, depression, anger, and confusion, but walking in a forest environment had the added benefit of increasing vigor and decreasing fatigue.
One of the most compelling benefits of time spent in nature is the effect of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—or phytoncides from plants and trees—on the human immune system. These VOCs have “natural antimicrobial and insecticidal qualities that protect the tree from germs and parasites,” according to Forest Bathing Center website.
Phytoncides from trees, called terpenes, are what give forest trees their familiar scents. For example, Alpha-pinene is what gives an evergreen forest its piney smell. Li found that terpenes increased the number and activity of white blood cells called NK (natural killer) cells by about 50%. These are the cells that help destroy viruses and cancer cells.
It was this immunological research that originally intrigued and inspired Mazzola to become an ANFT certified forest therapy guide. She went on to found the consultancy New England Nature and Forest Therapy, where she hosts guided events and does consulting to help incorporate nature into workplaces. She is also the multiple award-winning author of Forest Bathing with Your Dog.
“[Forest bathing] has roots in science, and it also has roots in our way of being human in relationship to being alive on this planet.”
In 2015, Mazzola was recovering from chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. Forest bathing “talked about phytoncides, and that was really relevant to me and my health at the time,” she said. But forest bathing had more than physiological benefits. “It has roots in science, and it also has roots in our way of being human in relationship to being alive on this planet. And it’s a whole lot of fun.”
Forest Bathing in Groups
Forest bathing doesn’t have to be a solitary experience. Part of the fun of forest bathing in a group is that it offers opportunities for community building with fellow participants.
Tam Willey, an ANFT certified guide, trainer, mentor, educator, and founder of Toadstool Walks in Boston, sees forest bathing with others as a truly enriching part of the practice. “At the time, I was seeking a way to weave the different interests in my life and find more community around nature and meditation,” Willey said. Forest bathing is easy in that it doesn’t require special gear or even a distant forest—one can do it locally in an urban park. Moreover, although forest bathing guides issue invitations, nothing is mandatory. “We’re non-dogmatic, non-prescriptive, non-directive,” Willey said.
As a guide and guide trainer, Willey has seen forest bathing bring people together amid diverse political and religious beliefs, and nature therapy as providing “an antidote to stress, anxiety, and the state of the world, and the fears that many of us carry about climate change, and political unrest.” This desire to experience nature in one’s community also inspired Willey to co-found International Forest Therapy Day, which invites participants to share the practice of forest bathing globally.
Mazzola’s forest therapy workshop ended with a simple tea ceremony and an offering of thanks to the land. She had led the group with admirable aplomb—and without the use of her right arm, which was covered in a green cast and held in a sling. In the final round of sharing, many participants spoke with gratitude about their dedicated guide and the now-revealed deeper beauty of the forest.
*Mal Cole is a freelance science and nature writer based in Massachusetts.
Links to Interviewees:
Masako Yotsugi
Jan Marry
Nadine Mazzola
Tam Willey
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