Shinrin-yoku is the Japanese practice of immersing yourself in a forest to enhance your mental and physical well-being.
Imagine. An expanse of trees as far as your eyes can see. The rustle of leaves, the trill of birds, the mesmerizing sounds of a waterfall. A soft breeze touches your skin. The forest envelopes you and you take a deep breath and release it slowly.
Your body responds by taking down your blood pressure, it stops releasing the stress hormone cortisol, your heart rate slows. You are taking a forest bath.
Forest bathing, also known as shinrin-yoku, is the practice of immersing yourself in a forest environment to engage with nature with all the senses.
“It’s a sensory immersion in the ambiance of a forest,” explains Jackie Kuang, general manager at the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs in Prescott, Arizona.
Started in Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries coined the term shinrin-yoku — shinrin means forest and yoku means bath — in 1982. In response to the rapid urbanization and modernization of Japanese society that was increasing stress levels among its citizens, and in part to garner value for its many forests beyond logging, the Ministry also started studying the beneficial effects of its forests. Over the years, a plethora of studies have documented its effect on health and well-being.
Along with the decrease in blood pressure, cortisol, and heart rate, forest bathing can enhance the expression of anti-cancer proteins and reduce anxiety, anger, and fatigue, and even improve sleep quality.
Forest bathing can also affect depressive tendencies. In a recent 2019 study comparing the effect of forest bathing between people with depressive tendencies and those without, forest bathing provided a “significantly greater improvement in many of POMS [profile of mood states] items than those without depressive tendencies, and many of them no longer differed between those with and without depressive tendencies,” researchers concluded.
Specific tree species, including cedar, oak, and pine, also release volatile compounds called phytoncides, which can help boost your immune system — at least in a lab.
The physiological and psychological benefits of taking a forest bath are hard to dismiss. Anyone who’s spent time out in nature can attest to this — remember coping with COVID by heading outdoors? The practice has gained such wide acceptance around the world that forest bathing associations and trained forest bathing guides are now available around the world.
“We call it relational forest therapy,” says Kuang, who is also a trainer at the largest forest bathing guide training center outside of Japan.
But don’t confuse their trained guides as being therapists. “The forest is the therapist, the guides open the doors to the therapeutic effects people feel.”
So what does a guide do?
Much like a yoga instructor, they lead you through the practice of forest bathing. You can certainly practice yoga on your own, but it can be helpful to have someone guide you through the process. With knowledge of the forest, forest bathing guides invite you to consciously connect with what’s around you, giving you cues to do so. You can find trained guides around the world through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (many of whom are in the United States), the Global Institute of Forest Therapy and Nature Connection lists guides based mostly in Canada.
You can take a forest bath anywhere there’s a forest, but if you’d like to kick it up a notch, the Adirondack Mountains in New York provides the largest protected area in the contiguous United States where native evergreens release a high concentration of phytoncides.
The interior forests of Ontario’s Algonquin Park, Canada's oldest provincial park, can only be accessed by canoe and on foot and is a unique mix of northern coniferous forest and southern deciduous forest.
And of course, two-thirds of Japan, where it all started, is covered by forests. For a more spiritual experience, the Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka, is home to the sacred forests of the Yoshino-Kumano National Park. For the adventurous, Yakushima National Park is full of giant trees nurtured by the sea for over a thousand years.
Where there is a forest, there is a sensory forest bath awaiting you.