A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of Qing Li’s Into the Forest. While on a short adventure to Wooyung we did go for a trip inland to Mullumbimby a great little town to stock up on groceries and enjoy a coffee or lunch. They also had a fantastic little bookshop and I can never walk past a bookshop especially an independent one. That is where I grabbed this copy of Into the Forest, I could have spent an absolute fortune in this bookshop but I try to restrict myself to one title at a time, partly for economy and partly because my TBR is starting to stagger under the growing weight of titles. I had recently been reading some of Qing Li’s research on the health benefits of “Shinrin yoku” or forest bathing. Forest bathing is not just some new age feel good thing, it has been the subject of some serious evidence based research and is earning a place as a serious preventative and auxiliary treatment in medical practice, especially in Japan.
Into the Forest is an accessible and pop science introduction to the practice and benefits of forest bathing, a practice which is more than just a walk in the woods, it is in essence, a mindful complete immersion in a natural environment for a short period of time in order to experience health benefits.
One of Qing Li’s own specific areas of research has been on the health benefits of phytoncides, or put simply the smells of the forest, and how that impacts on immune function. (I might write a proper post on this later). At the moment I can’t indulge my usual escapes into the forest so I purchased some essential oil to recreate the forest indoors, if nothing else it smells good and makes me feel more cheerful.
#BookSnapSunday is a weekly bookish Instagram meme hosted here at Gum trees and Galaxies.com, if you would like to join in please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments below. Happy reading.
And remember support your local bookshop, especially at this time!
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I think it will be quite a while before you might have the chance to do some forest bathing, but I am not surprised at all at the health benefits. Although the research sounds interesting. Funny how there often turns out to be a scientific basis for the things we just know or feel are beneficial for us.
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Yes, I am afraid you are right about it being some time before we get to do things like forest bathing again, feels like it is going to be a long few months at least.
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I’m a bit surprised that there is an organized process for enjoying nature. Is it more than opening your awareness and feeling the oneness with all that is? Is it less? What an interesting premise for a book!
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I think it came about in response to high levels of stress in Japan and then once they identified that spending time in the forest in a mindful way helped that stress and the associated health issues they set about codifying it but it does seem really obvious, maybe in such a high work orientation culture they had to establish good reasons for taking that time to just enjoy nature
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I’m glad my life isn’t that stressful!
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