connecting with your spirit 169
gather materials to build forts, to swing from vines, and to conquer
the ultimate walkie - talkie tag challenge (our middle school version
of hide - and - seek using walkie - talkies to direct or taunt the seeker).
Although you may not have the upper-body strength or the burning
desire to get your exercise through swinging from vines and playing
tag, you certainly may become inspired to walk through the woods
more often, especially after reading the latest research on forest bath-
ing. Shinrin - yoku is a word that was coined in 1982 by the Forestry
Agency of the Japanese government to encourage the enhancement
of physical and mental health. It is a compound word made up of
words that mean “ forest ” and “ bathing ” and was probably designed
to convey, as with sea bathing, the potential curative or thera-
peutic effect of immersing oneself in the forest ’ s atmosphere and
terrain.
For decades we have been enticed by interesting research on the
health benefi ts of a natural environment, but we have just scratched
the surface of understanding how deeply we are indebted to nature
and the multisensory advantages of living close to the natural world.
Simply the sight of nature really matters to your health. Roger S.
Urlich ’ s clinical trials, conducted in 1984, which examined the
recovery records of hospital patients for ten years, found that patients
with tree views had shorter hospitalizations than did patients with
brick - wall views.
From studies dealing with the fi ve senses separately, Yoshifumi
Miyazaki and others ’ research clarifi ed that simply the smell of
Japanese cedar wood lowered blood pressure and regional cerebral
blood fl ow in the prefrontal area, and Riho Mishima and colleagues ’
research found that the sound of murmuring water lowered blood
pressure as well. Although some studies evaluated the effects of
longer periods of forest exposure, these last two cited studies by
Miyazaki and Mishima showed that experiencing health benefi ts
did not take long: the changes in physiological parameters caused by
inhaling the odor of wood or hearing the sound of murmuring water
were observed within sixty to ninety seconds. Japanese scientists
have hard evidence that walking in the forest decreases blood glu-
cose levels of diabetic patients, and that people who viewed forest