Finding Peace - The Forest as Sanctuary in a Frantic World
Written by Faye Peterson
Photography by Mathilde Magne
Sometimes in order to find ourselves we need to be willing to become a little lost. Abandon agendas, cast aside goals, lose expectations and just allow ourselves to ‘be’.
The practice of forest bathing is not about long hikes, orienteering or taking to the water. Instead, it focuses on ‘just being’, more specifically being at one in a woodland setting. The term comes from the Japanese shinrin-yoku - which literally translated means ‘forest bath.’ The practice offers us time to rest, recuperate and rediscover ourselves among the trees. A trained practitioner or guide will accompany you on the journey, acting as a bridge between you and the forest environment to ensure a tailored experience.
Karen Decker of Besch Coaching during a forest bathing session
“Nothing is forced,” says Didier Trinquet, owner and practitioner at Shinrin Yoku Shanga. ‘‘You are invited to participate in suggested activities, all you have to do is accept the invitation… Mother Nature does the rest.’’ From just touching a tree to being fully blindfolded, the options are open to use all your senses. Didier explains that in its essence, forest bathing is a mindfulness experience. “The most important thing is the 'letting go,’” he emphasises. This sounds simple, but, he adds: ‘‘It’s not so easy nowadays, when we want to manage and organise everything!’’ So, does this mean our plans are to be abandoned? ‘‘Plan for tomorrow by living for today, in the present moment,’’ he suggests. ‘’Only the present is real. That is why it is called ‘present’ – a gift.’’
Karen Decker, practitioner and owner at Besch Coaching, echoes his sentiment. ‘‘We take the pressure away,’’ she tells me. ‘‘There are no challenges here. The only challenge is that of quieting the mind and opening ourselves up to new possibilities.’’
“Not all those who wander are lost ”
Shinrin-yoku requires you to open up and experience the forest anew, with ‘fresh eyes’. ‘‘You are allowed to be yourself without judgement in the forest - to experience things differently as it is. We are all unique,’’ says Didier. The very act of being given permission to think and feel things differently is in itself a freeing concept.
A small pause to soak in the surroundings and enjoy some hot tea
During my own forest bathing session with Karen at Besch Coaching I am invited to view the woods through a child’s eyes. It’s a fun and playful experience and soon the whole process becomes a voyage of discovery. Deviating from the path, we stop to look around. Karen points out a rare phenomenon in the undergrowth known as ‘hair ice’, also poetically named ‘angel hair’, ‘old man’s beard,’ or ‘mushroom breath’. She tells me it is the presence of a fungus in the decaying wood that produces the effect.
We walk deeper into the forest and gazing upwards I see ‘witch's broom’. Another of nature’s phenomena, it is created by a disease that attacks the tree and forces the branches to grow in proliferation outwards to form a shape that strongly resembles - you guessed it - a witch’s broom.
We observe rich repetitive patterns throughout the forest that Karen tells me are called fractals. These structures can be found within all of nature. In the forest they include the trees’ bare winter branches and the thin veins still visible on the carpet of frozen leaves - patterns that I recognise reflections of our own interior landscape: the inside of our lungs and the folds of our brain. ‘‘Exactly!’’ says agrees Karen. ‘‘It is like our cells recognise themselves when we see these patterns. They reflect what we truly are,’’ she says.
We stop for tea. The unspoken ritual and rules of such a simple ceremony are as welcome as the warmth of the drink. It’s a natural pause in the proceedings and an opportunity to process what has passed. I sense our time in the forest is coming to a close. I have learnt so much and yet still know so little. Before we separate, we chat on the edge of the forest’s opening and Karen sketches a childlike drawing for me - it’s the forest with its bare branches arched overhead but then, to my surprise, she draws in the roots beneath the earth like a mirror image of the patterns above. I am reminded again that what we can’t see is just as important as all that we can.
I leave the experience with fresh insight and sharpened senses but, more importantly, I leave feeling good, very good! Is it possible to prolong such a feeling? Karen believes it is. We can evoke the feeling of the forest just by thinking of that environment. It's what she calls the ‘chocolate effect’. Sometimes just thinking of chocolate can induce the feel-good factor and it's the same with the forest. But, ‘why,’ I wonder, do I feel so good after a short amount of time in the forest? Karen smiles, ‘’Why do we need validate a good feeling?’’ Why indeed. But I couldn’t help but wonder about the science behind it.
Spending time in nature helps lower stress hormones, blood pressure and pulse rate
The premise of forest bathing is to forge a connection, or perhaps more accurately, a reconnection with ourselves and nature. The practice began in conjunction with Japan’s Forest Protection Campaign during the 1980s. The campaign sought to save and protect Japan’s native forests which had suffered from a loss of biodiversity and poor management in the postwar period. The initiative triggered a movement that renewed and repaired the fractured relationships between the Japanese people and their indigenous woodlands through practises like shinrin-yoku. Didier advocates for a deeper relationship between humanity and nature.
“Our health and the health of the forest go hand in hand. You can’t have a healthy population without healthy forests. When we feel connected to nature, we want to look after it,”
Nature is good for us; countless studies have been done that attest to this fact. But what makes forest environments in particular so beneficial? Over the years, Japan has spent millions of dollars studying the physiological and psychological effects of shinrin-yoku. A 2010 review of field experiments across 24 forests in Japan found that forest environments helped lower stress hormones, blood pressure and pulse rate. In stark contrast to the city, woodland settings encourage greater parasympathetic nerve activity that in turn helps aid digestion, improve sleep and alleviate symptoms of depression. Forest 1: City 0.
Further supporting these findings is the discovery by Professor Qing Li, a renowned expert in forest medicine, regarding natural killer (NK) cells in the immune system of forest bathing practitioners. These cells significantly increased in participants the week following their forest experience. Natural killer cells are vital for providing rapid responses to viral-infections and tumour formation, being associated with a healthy immune system and the prevention of cancers and other chronic diseases.
Didier Trinquet of Shinrin Yoku Shanga enjoying a break for tea
So, forest air is not just fresh, it is actually better for us. Woodlands, like the ocean, release negative ions. These ions help clear the air of allergens, bacteria and viruses and are credited with raising serotonin levels, the feel-good hormone that increases happiness and boosts energy levels. Furthermore, inhaling the phytoncide emitted by trees to protect themselves from infection and disease improves our own immune response too. Today shinrin-yoku is recognised outside of Japan as an effective preventative medicine for a range of diseases, even if we can’t get treatment on prescription just yet.
If the science seems compelling, then so too is the spirituality. There’s a sanctity and sanctuary in the woods that the practice of shinrin-yoku brings to the fore. Japan’s deep-seated beliefs in Shinto and Buddhist practises encourages a reverence for all things in nature under the conviction that the universe is ‘one’.
‘‘Here, in the West,’’ says Karen, ‘‘we struggle to see the sacredness of nature, the oneness of life. In Shinto, everything has a soul, a spiritual essence called kami.’’ Ideologies like these stand in stark contrast to many Western counterparts where, for too long, humans have existed as separate from and superior to nature and the natural world.
Shinrin-yoku invites you to use all your senses to experience the forest anew
Yet, circumstances are conspiring to change this. The ecological crisis and ongoing pandemic are changing our systems and challenging long held beliefs. During this period most of us have gained a newfound respect for nature and a deeper appreciation of our role in its future.
Spirituality can bring benefits regardless of your religious beliefs. Often it takes a life changing experience to put people onto the forest path. For Kate, it was a family bereavement that acted as the trigger to try forest bathing for the first time. ‘‘A period of time had elapsed and there was this expectation that I should have moved on and stopped grieving,’’ she says. ‘‘Forest Bathing offered a safe space for me. Somewhere I could just allow myself to experience what was happening without judgement.’’ For her, and many others, it is a cathartic release. At the end of the sessions she says, ‘‘I found peace with my sadness.’
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LEARN MORE
visit-eislek.lu – forest bathing path in Ettelbruck
Recommended reading
Shinrin Yoku – The Japanese Way of Forest
Bathing for Health and Relaxation – Prof. Yoshifumi Miyazaki
Shinrin Yoku – The Art and Science of Forest
Bathing – Dr. Qing Li
The Hidden Life of Trees and The Secret Wisdom of Nature – Peter Wohlleben
