I’m convinced that just about everybody would be calmer if they spent an hour or two in the woods.
You might have suspected that bias if you’ve been reading these notes.
Poets have talked about the healing powers of nature for centuries. But scientists have gotten a better idea of how that works in my lifetime.
For the last few decades, Japanese researchers have been studying whether walking through a forest really relieves stress.
Japanese culture has a popular practice called “forest bathing.” It’s what I’d call a good walk in the woods. You’re not there to power walk while listening to music. You’re there to notice things, to slip into a natural place, become a part of it.
Stress is measurable. When you’re under stress, your body releases substances, including cortisol and cytokines, that can be detected by saliva or blood tests.
My favorite research paper is stunningly simple. The researchers got a bunch of students together and walked them through a metropolis, a rural village and a forest, drawing blood after every excursion. You can read the tale in the chemistry of a person’s blood.
Human beings evolved in natural settings, rather than in big cities. Our brains trigger the release of stress hormones when we’re on the freeway. Our heart rate jumps and so does our blood pressure. We are ready for fight or flight. We are under stress — physically as well as psychologically — when we are in a big city. But not when we’re in the woods.
Regular walks in the woods allow the chemistry of your body to reset, to experience what the absence of stress is like.
• Sources: Dr. Michael Mosley in his podcast “Just One Thing” interviewed Ming Kuo, a research psychologist at the University of Illinois. Their conversation is a good introduction. The episode “Green Spaces,” with ads, is here: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/just-one-thing/green-spaces-JFbWeVNuKM-/
Here, using the citation preferred by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, are two papers that examined the practice of shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing”:
• Kobayashi H, Song C, Ikei H, Park BJ, Kagawa T, Miyazaki Y. Combined Effect of Walking and Forest Environment on Salivary Cortisol Concentration. Front Public Health. 2019 Dec 12;7:376. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00376. PMID: 31921741; PMCID: PMC6920124.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6920124/
• Im SG, Choi H, Jeon YH, Song MK, Kim W, Woo JM. Comparison of Effect of Two-Hour Exposure to Forest and Urban Environments on Cytokine, Anti-Oxidant, and Stress Levels in Young Adults. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016 Jun 23;13(7):625. doi: 10.3390/ijerph13070625. PMID: 27347982; PMCID: PMC4962166.
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