Let me answer your question right away. There is no water involved. No, this is bathing for the soul. The mind. The heart. From the deep, coastal forest of southern Japan comes Forest Bathing.
To bathe in a forest you must plunge into your surroundings becoming consumed with the atmosphere. Once that connection is made to the senses around you, your anxiety and everyday stressors will melt away.
In retrospect, this somewhat ritual-like experience was only coined back in 1982 by Japans Ministry of Agriculture. If you know anything about Japan you know the whole population is over worked. Part of their culture is being over worked even to the point of death. Yes, dying from exhaustion is so common it has its own word– Karoshi.
So Forest Bathing is supposed to take its participants out of their usual state of stress, specifically technostreee, caused by our phones and other devices bombarding us with constant notifications. Notifications that are mostly to remind us the world is currently falling apart. Yikes.
The scientists behind this idea of indulging in Mother Nature strongly believe building “a bridge between us and the natural world” is absolutely necessary.
All of this being said, I think Forest Bathing has been around since the dawn of human kind. All other species worship the Earth and find refuge in her lush forest and vast valleys. We are the only thing alive on this planet that chooses to live in a concrete box looking at a screen full of negativity all day.
Maybe forest bathing feels so good and relieves so much anxiety because we are finally returning back to our natural state. If you think about human history, we haven’t been around that long. Industrialization and the expansion of technology has sky-rocked at an exponential rate. Our primitive minds haven’t adapted to this new way of life.
I bet our brains are still back in a time where we were supposed to be outside and nourish our connection to nature. Probably why the world is going to shit if you ask me. We could all use some Forest Bathing to gain some perspective on what really matters in this life cause it sure ain’t oil fracking and expensive laptops.
Want another reason to hate Trump? As long as he’s in office the world will continue to burn as he is in denial of Climate Change. Check out what this 18-year-old did as a response.
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