SHINRIN YOKU - HAVE YOU HAD YOURS LATELY?
To me there is something magical about the forest.
I love the diversity of its plant and animal life and the way it can support a huge range of species. I love the fact that many forests have been around hundreds of years, maybe thousands in some cases.
Most of all I love the mystery and wonder they create. I can lose myself, spiritually and physically, for hours in these places. Time slows down, priorities change, we see things differently. So it’s no coincidence that time spent in woodland is now widely recognised as being beneficial to mental wellbeing. Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) has long been a Japanese tradition and while it may be a fad to use the term nowadays, there is value in understanding the philosophy.
Shinrin-Yoku means taking in the forest atmosphere during a leisurely walk. It is a therapy that was developed in Japan during the 1980s, becoming a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. Researchers, primarily in Japan and South Korea, have conducted studies on the health benefits of spending time amongst the trees, demonstrating that forest bathing positively creates calming neuro-psychological effects through changes in the nervous system, reducing the stress hormone cortisol and boosting the immune system. Every study conducted so far has demonstrated reductions in stress, anger, anxiety, depression and sleeplessness amongst the participants. In fact after just 15 minutes of forest bathing blood pressure drops, stress levels are reduced and concentration and mental clarity improve.
On a personal level, I love the solitude and peace of walking in nature, taking in the ever changing surroundings, noting the seasons come and go. I’ve done this ever since I was a boy and, God willing, hope I’ll be able to do so for some time yet. A recent encounter with a dead oak tree gave me cause to reflect on the passing of time and how we should value our own time here - all things must pass……
Walking through woodland to one of the lesser-visited waterfalls here in South Wales, I came across a huge dead oak. It had died some time ago and broken branches littered the ground all around the fallen giant. The branches had lost all their bark cover and resembled bleached bones, adding to the finality of the scene. I couldn’t just walk past and so stopped for a while (always an excuse for a coffee eh?).
My immediate thought was how old the tree had been - a long life indeed - and I tried to grasp the history that this tree had witnessed. It was probably here long before the Welsh valleys became industrialised, so somewhere in its DNA we would find evidence of the atmospheric decline brought about by coal mining, and steel production. The great collieries and steel works were amongst the largest in Europe and their environmental impact was huge. They say the rivers ran black here up until the turn of the 1950s.
Going further back, the tree may have witnessed the local Baron hunting for deer. Perhaps it gave shelter to a group of travellers. It’s certainly been home to wildlife over the years. Of course, there may be a more sinister chapter to its history. Many oak tree were used for hangings in medieval times …..
What stories it could tell of the many events it had witnessed and been involved in. All of it is stored somewhere within it’s carcass. If we only we could extract it. I hope it would tell of a life lived peacefully in beautiful surroundings and of its many offspring that scattered and grew elsewhere in the forest. I hope it died peacefully too, lying down to rest when it became too tired to stand any longer. It’s contribution won’t end here though. As it crumbles away it will provide food for insects and fungi and will enrich the forest soil.
Perhaps its not really dead - after all, forest bathing isn’t a new thing……
SHINRIN YOKU
DEATH OF A GIANT