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Probably most of us reading this Nature Forum have already intuitively figured this out, but here's an article about the benefits of not only getting out in the woods, but of just sitting there and soaking it up for an hour or two at a time.. The Japanese have given it a name-- Shinrin- yoku--.
Like swearing, it always seems better in a foreign language.
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Ha, finally ahead of the curve, having done this type of thing since childhood (wish I could do it more as a tired adult). Interesting to see it's been given a name.
I've always tried to make time to "just stand and stare". It isn't anything as intentional as meditation, just letting stuff come in all the pores. So many seem to think doing nothing in particular is a sin. They must be busy or the time's wasted. Producing, spending, exerting, competing, impacting, measuring against something, justifying, on and on. Maybe because they can't tolerate being alone with their own thoughts. Just because a body is sitting quietly doesn't mean nothing's going on.
..."A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."
from Leisure by W. H. Davies, 1911.
Last edited by Parnassia; 05-14-2024 at 01:36 PM..
I've always tried to make time to "just stand and stare". It isn't anything as intentional as meditation, just letting stuff come in all the pores. So many seem to think doing nothing in particular is a sin. They must be busy or the time's wasted. Producing, spending, exerting, competing, impacting, measuring against something, justifying, on and on. Maybe because they can't tolerate being alone with their own thoughts. Just because a body is sitting quietly doesn't mean nothing's going on.
..."A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."
from Leisure by W. H. Davies, 1911.
Agreed - one can certainly enjoy a brisk walk or jog through the forest and it's good exercise. But, you'll have a different experience if you pause frequently and direct your senses to try to notice everything, to take it all in... the smell of that balsam, the sound of the squirrel chattering or that woodpecker hammering and echoing through the stillness, or the gleam of that sun glittering on the waves... this kind of mindful attention to the surroundings is what I think of as "forest bathing".
When you hike thru the woods, meadow, etc, the wildlife know you're coming and hide.....When you sit still for awhile they soon forget you're there and start about their normal business again.
"It's amazing how much you can observe by just looking.". --Yogi Berra
When you hike thru the woods, meadow, etc, the wildlife know you're coming and hide.....When you sit still for awhile they soon forget you're there and start about their normal business again.
"It's amazing how much you can observe by just looking.". --Yogi Berra
I have great memories of one particular field biology professor who normally included visits to multiple regional habitats in his course curricula. The itineraries for these trips usually included hunting for, trapping, netting, handling, and recording data from various sorts of local critters in order to learn field skills. But he also knew the value of simply spending time in the wild observing without harassing anything. Sometimes he'd let his eager beaver students off their leashes, tell us to "record what's present", then park himself on a boulder, set up a spotting scope, binoculars, maybe a tape recorder, and a notebook. We'd be gone for hours. When we'd come back, his species list would top everyone else's. Just by being quiet and letting the place discover him. Yes, I'm sure a gaggle of students crashing around the country spooked a lot more than it observed, but I'm not sure everyone figured out what that message was all about.
There's a place up the road that advertises Yoga and Forest Bathing. It opened last year and I've seen one car there one time.
I call it sitting in the woods. I have a chair in the woods in back of my property. Forest Bathing just sounds dumb but I know the term isnt marketed toward people like me. But that's what it is, a marketing term.
Well, yea.... But keep in mind that this title is from Japan, and the orientals do, of course, have a way of putting a different slant on things....
European languages get thoughts across with a subjct-verb-object construction, but the oriental languages get thoughts across by juxta-postioning nouns. Cf-- Sienfeld's show in Japan- Super Terrific Happy Hour. Who knew 50,000 Yen was only about 8 cents?
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