Shinrin-yoku, a book by Professor Yoshifumi Miyazaki

This beautifully basic cultivation of a deep connectivity between humans and the Mother Nature is the practical way of simple living, pure thinking and harmonious being according to shinrin-yoku { "forest therapy" }. In 2003, prof Miyazaki, an author of "Shinrin-yoku" proposed this terms as a result of his research of the essence of relaxing [...]

This beautifully basic cultivation of a deep connectivity between humans and the Mother Nature is the practical way of simple living, pure thinking and harmonious being according to shinrin-yoku { “forest therapy” }. In 2003, prof Miyazaki, an author of “Shinrin-yoku” proposed this terms as a result of his research of the essence of relaxing sensations encountered while surrounded by Nature.

 

Everyday moments provide an enormous portfolio of stimuli to our senses.

Touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight are generously fed with data that oftentimes leaves us with this silent avalanche of over-processed stimulants and excessive packages of stress.

Whether it happens occasionally or frequently, the modern urban style of living impacts our overall wellbeing by decreasing concentration, increasing blood pressure, and minimising the ability to retain information. This constant exposure to high levels of stress challenges the quality of our living making harder for an immune system to protect and prevent our body, mind and future opportunities from an inability to maintain happy and fulfilled state of mind.

 

Using Nature and all Her richness of forms as a method of treatment for improving a general quality of moments that turn into hours, days and years, and share this common characteristic of wellbeing cannot sound simpler and it is.

In Nature therapy, our five senses have the chance to be engaged, challenged, and nourished in a very organic way…

 

listening to the water stream flowing from the higher grounds of a forest, smelling freshly picked branch of birch for a rustic-style composition for our kitchen table, hugging tightly a tree, enjoying the view of birds flying above the highest oaks or eating that first blackberry modestly hidden amongst the bushes’ leaves…

The art of living is organically linked to the art of nature, both constantly and oftentimes simultaneously challenge one another

A A Drzewiecka

 

The Japanese practice of forest bathing { shinrin | forest & yoku | bath } brings to light a simple recipe for a cost-effective and free of the urgent need, for the straight-of-the-launch-technology device or the latest software updates, no annual/monthly/weekly/daily subscription plans needed, neither 10£/10€ per min call centre authorisation approvals…, living. Instead, it requires ones to soak into the healing magic of a natural wonder, a FOREST |

 

Prof Miyazaki shares his scientifically-mastered passion for therapeutic marks of Nature.

This manual of facts and methods on how to transform living into the act of discovering Nature focuses on the power of human senses.

Nature therapy is founded on the total freedom of choice amongst the richness of routes we find specifically beneficial for our needs. From strolls in local parks, stargazing in a summer night, mindful walking in winter forests, spring flower arrangements or plants watching, open-air music concerts, horse riding or dog walking, tree climbing, autumn picnicking outdoors, wood oils messages or aromatherapy practising and meditating sitting on morning grass, and many more…

Nature is limitless as well as human imagination to create new MOs and styles |

 

The basic concept that shinrin-yoku is grounded on seeing relaxation as the method for preventing stress-related and other diseases as well as healing and recovery. This means that by regular practise of this nothing but a simple way of living in harmony with Nature, respecting and appreciating human senses and our own internal needs, the therapy supports our immune systems on a very individual basis.

Prof Miyazaki discovers that “forest therapy reduces blood pressure in those individuals who start with high blood pressure, while it increases blood pressure in those individuals who start with low blood pressure” |

Whichever approach to Nature therapy is chosen, the overall results are remarkable |

 

What happens to our mind and body when stress starts to rule our lives and the feeling of lack of control over anything appears to be the foci of every single moment of a day…?

 

 

The sympathetic nervous system or in other words stress activates flight or fight mode of our responses to any stimuli that we are exposed to; the results are pretty well known to the majority of us, high adrenalin levels, rise in blood pressure, sweating, heat or coldness, dizziness, inability to memorise and associate basic facts. On contrary, the parasympathetic nervous activity or the time of calmness and internal harmony, switches on the reaction of rest and digest mode, which enables us to enjoy the perspective of challenges rather than threats, in other terms, our body and mind are relaxed and ready to be engaged on the levels that work with each other rather than against, creating harmony and relaxation |

 

Experiments undertaken by the researcher and his teams show that just a short walk in a forest area, it can be a 15-min walk in a city park or in woods, minimises the stress levels { 12,7% drop of the concentration of cortisol } and decreases the feeling of relaxation, so-called parasympathetic nervous activity { 103% }, while another example of using flowers proves that they therapeutic properties significantly improve the state of the natural relaxation of body and mind { 25% decrease of PNA } |

 

 

Bonsai, flower arrangements, wood oils, ornamental plants, walks, jogging, picnicking, meditating or… the uniqueness and the simplicity of shinrinyoku is widely present, diverse and accessible for everyone |

‘Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is science’

R W Emerson