SHINRIN YOKU - Forest bathing in Mas Campassol
What is forest bathing?
There are many definitions, from a slow, silent and conscious walk, to a physical, psychic and spiritual therapy. An approach to nature with intuition, emotion and instinct.
Intention is what determines the difference between a forest bathing and a walk in the woods.
The term shinrin youku literally means ‘absorbing the atmosphere of the forest’ and was first coined by technicians at the Forestry Agency in Japan, where it is a common practice that became part of a public health program in 1982. The idea is to take ‘guided walks’ in the forest for a couple of hours as part of the treatment for different pathologies. This time is enough to notice its beneficial effects: it reduces blood pressure and heart rate, relaxes and restores sight, lowers glucose levels, cortisol (reducing stress), adrenaline, and increases the activity and number of NK lymphocytes (“natural killer”) and intracellular anticancer proteins. This provides preventive effects against cancer. Moreover, the effect is maintained even one week after the ‘bath’. It has been tested, for example, in women, in whom the forest bathing increases the number and activity of these NK cells and intracellular anticancer proteins.
