Forest Therapy

by Sarah Ivens

  Inger, 55

  “In Norway, nature is omnipresent and needs to be constantly engaged with. Any Norwegian worth their salt will say, ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. Put on an anorak and get outside.’ Nature is revered and shapes every aspect of Norwegian life, all year round. The word friluftsliv embodies this Norwegian philosophy and our connectedness to the outdoors. Freedom. Fresh air. A good life. I feel grateful to have grown up in this culture, and I am passing it down to my children in everything we do.”

  Governmental and educational agendas all over the world show just how valuable new facts and figures on reconnecting with nature are and how they are being used to help all sectors of society. This is a global need—and it’s growing. Here are a few key examples:

  The Natural Resources Institute Finland has set up a government-endorsed, suggested program of spending five hours in nature per month, to help with the country’s struggles with depression and alcoholism, after a government-funded study found psychological improvements in those who spent time outside.

  In South Korea, the country’s Forest Service offers events such as woodcrafts for cancer patients, prenatal forest meditation and camping adventures for bullied children, all in their official healing forests, designed to help their citizens feel better and to lower state medical costs. Prevention is key, and nature is key to prevention, the Korean government has discovered. There are dozens of these healing forests around the country, with the inhabitants of most major towns having easy access to them.

  In Switzerland, teachers are setting up Waldkindergärtens—forest playschools—to set their youngsters off on the right track by encouraging learning through meaningful interactions with the living world rather than focusing on strict academic criteria. They are seeing excellent results.

  The state of New York, a place synonymous with skyscrapers and stress, has a guide for residents on its official government website called “Immerse Yourself in a Forest for Better Health.” Those in the Big Apple know their lifestyle is taking a big, bad bite out of their life and that things need to change.

  Into the woods

  The benefits of forest therapy in part, it is suggested, are due to various essential oils that are derived from plants; when grouped together these are called phytoncides. These are airborne chemicals with antibacterial and antifungal qualities that plants and trees emit to protect themselves from germs and insects. But phytoncides aren’t merely selfish lifesavers looking after only themselves. Forest air doesn’t just feel fresher and better for us, scientists now know that it actually is better for us. Inhaling forest air, fortified with these phytoncides, appears to improve the function of the immune systems of humans too. These tree-produced chemicals are so powerful that our bodies increase the number and activity of natural killer white blood cells—the cells we need to kill tumors and viruses in the body—when we breathe them in. And that’s just the beginning of this forest fairy tale.

  A name is just a name

  Shakespeare knew that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and forest therapy by any other name is just as effective!

  Italy: al fresco

  Japan: shinrin-yoku

  Norway: friluftsliv

  South Korea: sanlimyok

  Spain: baños de bosque

  UK: forest therapy

  US: forest therapy, forest bathing and tree bathing

  Top ten woodland winners

  Walking in a forest feels good and smells good, and we know we should be doing it. Here’s an evergreen list of reasons why trees are terrific. Even if you can’t get to a forest, studies show that just taking a walk in a city park or along a tree-lined street produces many of the same benefits.

  1 Reduced mental fatigue We all seem to be obsessed with the mental overload of modern living but we don’t know how to reduce it. We’re saying yes too often, taking on too much, then thinking about everything too deeply. We are sweating the small stuff and it’s exhausting. The good news is that research published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology shows that being exposed to restorative environments, such as a forest, lake or beach, restores mental energy and that natural beauty inspires feelings of awe, which give a secondary brain boost. Studies even prove how simply looking at pictures of nature increases our positive thinking, so consider switching the lock-screen photo on your phone to a favorite nature photo from a recent vacation. And more good news on the forest front: spending time looking at plants, birds or any of the small details in the magical living world enables our brain to switch off and change gears, which allows it to step up and focus better with improved patience when we return to work or study.

  Short-term memory also improves after a break in the great outdoors. In a study set up by the University of Michigan, participants were given a memory test, then split into two groups and sent for a walk. On returning to retake the exam, the group who were sent for a walk around an arboretum did 20 percent better the second time round, whereas the participants who walked in a city street showed no improvement. Nature for the win!

  2 Increased creativity I used to love those spring days when I was at school, when a teacher would take advantage of good weather and take our class out onto the fields next to the playground. I’ve often felt that taking my writing or research into a green space with fresh air—even to the bustling, sun-dappled patio of a coffee shop or to a quiet park bench—gives my tired mind a new lease of life. Fresh ideas and new perspectives come quicker to me in the open air, it seems, and now I have a few clues as to why. Environmental psychologists at the University of Michigan investigated how the visual elements of nature—looking at a stream, a sunrise, a butterfly, an ancient tree—affected a person’s mental fatigue. They discovered that looking at these soft, natural wonders allowed the brain to recuperate, recover and rest after coping with the human-made assaults of modern living, and then enable it to adopt a fresh approach to problems.

  The brain in nature is more open to reflect, daydream and wander, which boosts creativity. The psychologists noted that the benefits of spending time in nature even lasted for a while after heading back indoors, so a stroll in a park before an important brainstorming meeting could be something to think about. Another study, published in the Public Library of Science journal, discovered that people immersed in nature for four days boosted their results in a creative problem-solving test by 50 percent, suggesting a positive correlation between the great outdoors and creativity. What is more, they also cited a decrease in exposure to technology over those four days as a possible contributory factor in the test result. But that’s another thing I’m advocating for in this book—plus, being obsessed with your television and laptop is harder when you’re taking a forest path to a swimming hole!

  3 Upgraded happiness I remember the release I felt as an angst-ridden teen when I blew away the cobwebs of my self-obsessed brain and stepped into something greater than my own worries and insecurities: nature. A chat with a friend during a walk in the forest behind my childhood home, or a solo stroll along the briny sand dunes of Norfolk on our annual family vacation, allowed me time to process problems, sending my doldrums up to the sky and out to the North Sea. And this is a practice we should continue throughout our lives, research shows. A study in Environmental Science and Technology found a link between decreased anxiety and bad moods with walks in the woods, while another reported that taking a walk outdoors should be prescribed by doctors as a supplement to existing treatments for depressive disorders.

  The Journal of Affective Disorders released analysis that declared how every green, natural environment (not just forests!) improved mood and self-esteem, a crucial element for personal happiness, and that the presence of water—a lake, a river, the ocean—made the positive effects on happiness even more noticeable.

  Researchers at the University of Essex studied people exercising outside and found that just five minutes of physicality in a green space lifted spirits and self-confidence. Researc
hers from the University of Exeter Medical School studied the health data of 10,000 people who lived in cities and found, after adjusting for income, education and employment, that those living near a green space reported less mental distress.

  4 Boosted immunity Can green living really make you feel better? According to science and statistics, yes. Dutch researchers found noticeably lower numbers of cases of fifteen diseases and health complaints, including heart disease, asthma and diabetes, in people who lived within half a mile of green space. An international conglomerate of scientists asked 31,000 Toronto residents to fill out a questionnaire about their health and found that those living on tree-lined city blocks had a boost in heart and metabolic health compared with those who lived on a more bare and brutal block. Being in a whirl of phytoncides, with the cellular activity they promote, can also provide a general boost to the immune system, helping to fight off flu, coughs and colds, claims a paper in the Journal of Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine, although more research is needed into the relationship between the trees and us.

  A study has also revealed how patients heal faster after surgery if they’re given a green, natural view from their hospital bed. University of Pittsburgh researchers reported that spinal surgery patients exposed to natural light felt less stress and pain, and took fewer pain medications than those patients who weren’t, feeding into an earlier study that showed faster recovery times for those in a hospital room with a view of trees rather than a brick wall. Having spent three days recovering from the birth of a child in each hospital environment, I can verify this. Trees lift the spirits, bricks not so much, especially when you’re in discomfort.

  5 Expanded exercise and heart health When I had my first child, my mother gave me one piece of advice: “Get outside every day! Even if you’re just taking a walk around your neighborhood, get out in fresh air and move your body.” It was the best piece of advice she ever gave me, and something I share with other new mums. You may feel like hiding in pajamas, but getting your limbs moving in the fresh air, seeing other adults, feeling your heart beat a little faster and feeling sunshine on your face is invaluable. Studies show that although you don’t need to be outside to be active (walking on a treadmill for three miles will burn the same number of calories as walking a forest trail for three miles), your body and brain report extra boosts from moving your workout from a human-made gym to a natural one. British researchers studied 1,000 British children using accelerators and positioning devices and found that children were twice as active outdoors than indoors, highlighting how nature puts an extra spring in our step. The best thing about exercising outdoors is, of course, that it often doesn’t feel like exercise, which makes it more sustainable as a way of life rather than just a passing fad in a bid to lose weight. A power walk around a local park with a friend, checking out the changing seasons as you march under canopies of trees, fresh air plumping up your tired skin, is more invigorating, social and interesting than solo gym time, watching the clock obsessively as icy air conditioning blasts in your face.

  6 Diminished stress And breathe… nature is a wondrous soother. Many studies show that exercising in forests—or even just sitting in one—reduces blood pressure and decreases the stress-related hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which helps us to calm down. Even looking at photos or drawings of trees has a similar effect—and that’s why the screensaver on my work computer is an image of California’s Muir Woods.

  One study published in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences journal showed that a view of nature outside the window lowered stress and increased job satisfaction among workers. Another study from the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research found that students who were sent into a forest to camp for two days returned with significantly lower levels of cortisol in their system than those who had stayed in the city, and researchers at Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine had similar results, noting that both cortisol levels and heart rate decreased for people spending time away from a city environment and in a place of forest therapy.

  7 Sharper vision Carrots aren’t the only natural thing to help your vision, studies show. Common sense tells us it’s good to get away from the glare of a computer screen, but there could be more to it than that. An Australian study looked at 2,000 children over a period of two years and found that those who spent more time outdoors had a reduced risk of developing near-sightedness (myopia). In Taiwan, researchers looked at two neighboring schools with comparable levels of myopia. Over the period of a year, one school was encouraged to play outside more. The results? Testing the children after twelve months, the data revealed the outdoor kids had a rate of myopia of 8.41 percent, compared to 17.65 percent in the indoor kids. Both of these studies were published in the Ophthalmology journal and, although focusing on children, they do show a link between the protective effect of outdoor activity on eyesight, and how important it is to exercise your eyesight by looking at things that are far away. Without a horizon, when focused on television screens and trapped within closed walls, children’s eyes become lazy. And as adults we get that. Whose eyes haven’t felt rested when they’re taken off a blinking computer screen for a few minutes?

  8 Increased ability to cope with pain I suffer from hormonal migraines, and about 72 hours of each month are wiped out in excruciating pain. During this time, I want to lie silent and still, gripping my way through it alone; however, with two young, rambunctious children, this isn’t an option. Instead, I’m forced out on school runs and park visits. And however hard it is to pull my bones outdoors, my spirits are always lifted. A lungful of fresh air and soothing scenery has a noticeable effect on my headaches. A report by the King’s Fund, commissioned by the National Gardens Scheme in the UK, has revealed that being outdoors, and gardening specifically, offers the ill and unwell a myriad of physical and psychological benefits as well as natural pain relief.

  Horticultural therapy is really a thing, with evidence from clinical trials showing how it can help those with arthritis: the rhythmic turning and twisting of weeding, for example, alleviating discomfort and stiffness. Thrive, a British charity that encourages gardening to help people living with illness or disabilities, offers programs of horticultural therapy to people dealing with a variety of health issues, including activities for people with dementia designed to help with positive reminiscence, reconnecting with others and gentle exercise. Having recently lost my grandmother to dementia, I saw first-hand how her life in a memory care home was improved by the effort the wonderful staff there made to bring nature into the building—flowers, plants, even baby goats and rabbits—and to encourage the residents to sit outside in the well-tended garden every day.

  9 A longer life? It would make sense, knowing what we now know from the studies outlined above, that getting outdoors and embracing all that is green and glorious in nature would reduce the risk of an early death. How could a happier, less stressed, more active life not mean that? Well, luckily, scientists have been working to prove the correlation and have come up with the goods: not only will going outdoors more give you a better life in the here and now but it will also make it a longer one. Dutch researchers, publishing their findings in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, wrote that fatal diseases were less prevalent in those who lived in close proximity to green space. Their findings were backed up by a study in Environmental Health Perspectives, which uncovered a reduced risk of cancer, kidney disease and lung disease in the people they followed. Both studies show that not only does a positive relationship with the natural world encourage exercise, relaxation and social interaction but it also has a significant effect on mental health, which, the researchers believe, leads to an uptick in overall good health and longevity.

  10 And embracing nature makes you a nicer person! I know this first hand. Taking an argument, a grumble or an attitude problem—mine, my husband’s or one of my children’s—out into the sunlight always brightens and then reduces it. There’s no quicker way to ditch those itchy
-scratchy irks that have made you mad, angry and not very pleasant to be around than taking a breather, appreciating how beautiful the world is, and becoming aware of how very small this moment in time and our place in it is. And anyway, seriously, how can you be miserable and mean when faced with a glorious sunset or a mother bird making a nest for her chirping offspring? You’re not Cruella de Vil—a woman who, by the way, probably never spent any time in a forest!

  In a paper called “Vitalizing effects of being outdoors and in nature,” published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, a group of international psychologists explain how we feel a boost in kindness when we spend time in nature as a result of the happy expression our brains and bodies feel when being in touch with who we really are and what we want to do. Nature, their work explains, makes us feel energized and generous toward others, encouraging us to look outwards instead of inwards. Digging your toes into soil, stroking the flaking bark of an oak tree, looking for a blaze of sunlight through a verdant canopy of leaves—even hanging out your washing on a blustery blue-sky day—reminds us that we are alive and full of possibility. How can we be mean to others when Mother Nature is so generous to us?