Our Nature
Intentional time spent in nature is a practice that supports health and wellness through guided immersion in forests and other environments to promote the well-being of both people and the land. It is inspired by Shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of “Forest Bathing.”
In Forest Bathing, people spend time in forested areas to enhance health, wellness, and happiness. In Forest Therapy, people are guided through a clearly defined sequence of invitations to slow down, allow the senses to open, and experience the environment to deepen the reciprocal relationship between participants and the forest. This supports the wholeness and well-being of both.
These gentle walks in the forest are typically one- to two kilometers long and fit for all ages and physical conditions. Invitations are open-ended. There is no expectation for what participants should experience or receive. Rather, participants spend time in silence, listening and feeling with a quiet and accepting presence. They become reconnected with their senses and their innate creative potential is tapped, which allows the imagination to awaken.
Useful Resources
1. Immerse Yourself in a Forest for Better Health, New York Department of Conservation
2. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams
3. Shinrin-yoku (Forest bathing) and Nature Therapy: A State-of-the-Art Review, Margaret M.
Hansen,* Reo Jones and Kirsten Tocchini. Academic Editors Yoshifumi Miyazaki, Hiromitsu
Kobayashi, Sin-Ae Park, and Chorong Song
4. “Getting Back to the Great Outdoors” bu Amy Novotney, American Psychological Association, (2008)
5. Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness, by Dr. Qing Li, (2018)
6. “Terpenes from Forests and Human Health,” by Kyoung Sang Cho et al., Toxicology Research, (2017)
7. “Experiences in Nature and Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors: Setting the Ground for Future Research,” by Claudio D. Rosa & Silvia Collado, Frontiers in Psychology (2019)
8. “Why You Should Tell Your Team to Take a Break and Go Outside” by Emma Seppälä and Johann Berlin, Harvard Review, (2017)
9. An, M. et al. (2016) ‘Why we need more nature at work: effects of natural
elements and sunlight on employee mental health and work attitudes’, Plos
one. doi: 10.5061/dryad.9rj26.
10. Smith, C. A. et al. (2018) ‘Disruptive silence: deepening experiential learning
in the absence of technology’, Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor
Learning, 18(1), pp. 1–14. doi: 10.1080/14729679.2016.1244646.
11. Ohly, H. et al. (2016) ‘Attention Restoration Theory: A systematic review of
the attention restoration potential of exposure to natural environments’,
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 19(7), pp. 305–343.
doi: 10.1080/10937404.2016.1196155.
12. Atchley, R. A., Strayer, D. L. and Atchley, P. (2012) ‘Creativity in the Wild:
Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings’, PLoS
ONE. Edited by J. de Fockert, 7(12), p. e51474. doi: 10.1371/
journal.pone.0051474.