In the last decade or so in the United States, the practice of forest bathing has been gaining in popularity and notoriety.
What is forest bathing you ask?
Forest bathing is a Japanese practice also known as Shinrin-ryuko, which literally translates to “forest bathing”. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries created the term in the 1980s and defined it as “…making contact with and taking in the atmosphere of the forest (Park et al. 2010).”
So, why am I bringing up this term the Japanese government coined almost 40 years ago? Well, that’s because Forest Park is a great place to bathe in the forest and boost your physical and mental health.
The practice of forest bathing does not need to be a massive undertaking where you go “off the grid” and trek through the wilderness living off the land. The practice simply encourages you to reconnect with the natural world and was developed in part as a response to widespread societal burnout caused by the tech boom. By taking time to connect with nature, you can recenter yourself and develop a greater appreciation for the beauty of the natural spaces available to you (Fitzgerald, 2019).
Spending time outdoors has been linked with multiple mental health benefits such as lessened anxiety, somewhat diminished symptoms of depression, and overall lower levels of stress (Laguaite and Nazario, 2021). Not to mention, there are also the well-known physical health benefits that certain outdoor recreation activities like hiking or running can have.
Feeling Stressed?
While society has made great strides in this century, “modern” life in cities still comes with its own host of problems we must deal with. The fast-paced lifestyle of modern work life can cause mental health struggles as people do their best to keep up in a world where things can change quite rapidly, even in your day-to-day life.
A study by Japanese researchers investigating the potential need and applicable use cases for forest bathing pointed out that living in crowded urban areas with high noise pollution due to things like traffic can cause people to be more prone to irritability and tiredness. In addition, air pollution due to aforementioned factors like traffic not only can be causes of stress but can be related to the occurrence of cardiac diseases (Mao et al. 2012).
So, getting into nature can help you avoid these stressors like urban noise and air pollution. And by doing so, you can somewhat mitigate the effects these elements have on your health.
Potential Therapeutic Effects of Forest Bathing
The potential benefits and relief that forest bathing can allow become quite enticing as opportunities for us to do some much-needed self-care while recreating in nature.
On the mental health side of things, there are some promising potential benefits to forest bathing. A meta-analysis of other forest bathing studies found that the amount of reported depression symptoms decreased among participants who went on forest bathing excursions, as opposed to control groups who spent time typically in urban areas for their trials. Lowered anxiety was also reported with the forest bathing groups. In addition, levels of anger, correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress, were found to be overall lower for participants who went on the forest bathing trips (Kotera et al. 2020). What all of this points to is the potential for forest bathing to be used to help alleviate some symptoms of mental distress.
As for the physical side of things, one study showed that participants who engaged in forest bathing were found to have lowered measures of average blood pressure, average pulse rate, and cortisol levels (high levels of cortisol can result in a weakened immune response) (Park et al. 2010).
It should be no huge surprise that engaging in outdoor activities can be good for a person’s mind and body. For most of humanity’s existence, we have lived in and around nature, meaning many of our biological functions are well suited to being outdoors. The observed improvements in mental and physical health indicators enforce this notion that spending time outdoors taking in the natural world can be really beneficial for your health.
In addition, certain age groups can gain specific benefits from forest bathing. For example, some links have been found that show kids who are allowed to recreate and play outdoors have less anxiety and behavioral issues (Chaudhury and Banerjee, 2020). In addition, there are the obvious benefits of installing a love of nature in your child! So, consider taking your kids out for an adventure into Forest Park and helping to foster the next generation of Forest Park stewards!
Come join us in Forest Park!
With all of that said, we here at the Forest Park Conservancy (FPC) welcome you to join us in the park! If you haven’t been to the park before, our website has some handy tips about the park and guidelines for its patrons. Come visit and explore Forest Park and maybe discover something new about this amazing, massive natural space right here in Portland.
And speaking of discovery, if you’re interested in learning about the park, ways to recreate, or local history, perhaps sign up for one of the Discovery Hikes FPC puts on. In fact, FPC has some upcoming forest bathing events coming up this month if you’re looking for an opportunity to get out into the forest and relax!
Also, if you want to help us manage the park and keep it accessible for everyone, FPC really relies on volunteers to help get the job done. Check out some of our volunteer work events if you’d like to help give back to the community and the park!