MINDFULNESS MATTERS: Using “Forest Bathing” to Manage Stress

by Cynthia Runge

How nature and the practice of forest bathing can help you deal with stress during a divorce.

According to the World Health Organization, the term “burnout” is now an official medical diagnosis. Although the diagnosis is focused on employment or unemployment related stress, this new diagnosis gives even more credence to the effects of stress on our bodies and minds. Anyone going through a divorce can empathize with the effects of stress in the context of divorce. So what are some strategies you can use to help counter the effects of stress if you are going through this process?

“Forest Bathing” is a practice in Japan that is scientifically proven to help improve your health. The idea is that by being in the presence of trees, you can help reduce your stress levels.  

See Forest Bathing Health Benefits

The QZ article notes that, “Experiments on forest bathing conducted by the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences in Japan’s Chiba University measured its physiological effects on 280 subjects in their early 20s. The team measured the subjects’ salivary cortisol (which increases with stress), blood pressure, pulse rate, and heart rate variability during a day in the city and compared those to the same biometrics taken during a day with a 30-minute forest visit.

“‘Forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments,’ the study concluded.”

Being out in nature, even if it is only in a city park, can help you to replenish a weary heart and mind. You may have noticed the calming effect of nature on your own mind and body after you have been outside, especially now that warmer weather is upon us. 

Who knew there was a scientific reason for that? Now, where is that Fitbit?

This article appeared in our Summer 2019 Newsletter.