Shri Jagat Singh Bisht
(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer, Author, Blogger, Educator and Speaker.)
☆ SHINRIN-YOKU: FOREST BATHING☆
HOW TREES CAN HELP YOU FIND HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
Video Link : SHINRIN-YOKU: FOREST BATHING
Spending mindful, intentional time around trees – what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing – can promote health and happiness.
Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, can reduce your stress levels and blood pressure, strengthen your immune and cardiovascular systems, boost your energy, mood, creativity, and concentration, and even help you lose weight and live longer.
We all know how good being in nature can make us feel.
The sounds of the forest, the scent of the trees, the sunlight playing through the leaves, the fresh, clean air – these things give us a sense of comfort.
Being in nature can restore our mood, give us back our energy and vitality, refresh and rejuvenate us.
‘Shinrin’ in Japanese means ‘forest’ and ‘yoku’ means ‘bath’.
So shinrin-yoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere, or taking in the forest through our senses.
Shinrin-yoku is not exercise, or hiking, or jogging.
It is simply being in nature, connecting with it through our sense of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.
We are part of the natural world. Our rhythms are the rhythms of nature.
As we walk slowly through the forest, seeing, listening, smelling, tasting and touching, we bring our rhythms into step with nature.
Shinrin-yoku is like a bridge. By opening our senses, it bridges the gap between us and the natural world.
When we are in harmony with the natural world we can begin to heal.
Our nervous system can reset itself, our bodies and minds can go back to how they ought to be.
We may not travel very far on our forest walk but, in connecting us with nature, shinrin-yoku takes us all the way home to our true selves.
Even a small amount of time in nature can have an impact on our health.
A two-hour forest bath will help you to unplug from technology and slow down.
It will bring you into the present moment and de-stress and relax you.
Shinrin-yoku can:
- Reduce blood pressure
- Lower stress
- Improve cardiovascular and metabolic health
- Lower blood sugar levels
When people started to practise shinrin-yoku, in the early 1980s, it was based only on common sense and the intuitive idea that being in the beautiful green forests of Japan would be good for us. Until recently, however, there was little scientific evidence to support what we have always known innately about the healing power of the forest.
It has been now scientifically proven that shinrin-yoku can:
- Boost the immune system
- Increase energy
- Decrease anxiety, depression and anger
- Reduce stress and bring about a state of relaxation
- The World Health Organization calls stress the health epidemic of the twenty-first century. And finding ways to manage stress – not just for our own health but for the health of our communities, at home and in the workplace – is the most significant health challenge of the future.
Studies have now proved that forest bathing:
- Lowers the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline
- Suppresses the sympathetic or ‘fight or flight’ system
- Enhances the parasympathetic or ‘rest and recover’ system
- Lowers blood pressure and increases heart-rate variability Numerous studies have been conducted and a huge mass of data collected from hundreds of people on the impact of forest-bathing on various aspects of human health.
- Forest-bathing can help you sleep
- Forest-bathing can improve your mood
- Forest-bathing boosts the immune system
Courtesy: THE JAPANESE ART AND SCIENCE OF SHINRIN-YOKU FOREST BATHING by Dr Qing Li Music: Healing by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-… Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Our Fundamentals:
The Science of Happiness (Positive Psychology), Meditation, Yoga, Spirituality and Laughter Yoga. We conduct talks, seminars, workshops, retreats and trainings. Email: [email protected]
Founders: LifeSkills
Jagat Singh Bisht
Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being; Laughter Yoga Master Trainer Past: Corporate Trainer with a Fortune 500 company & Laughter Professor at the Laughter Yoga University. Areas of specialization: Behavioural Science, Positive Psychology, Meditation, Five Tibetans, Yoga Nidra, Spirituality, and Laughter Yoga.
Radhika Bisht:
Yoga Teacher; Laughter Yoga Master Trainer Areas of specialization: Yoga, Five Tibetans, Yoga Nidra, Laughter Yoga.
