February 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Immerse yourself in nature’s healing embrace with the transformative power of forest bathing.
Ana Ka’ahanui, co-founder of Capital Nature, uncovers the secrets behind this mindfulness practice rooted in Japanese culture.
More than just a walk among the trees, Ana shares how forest bathing can lower blood pressure, enhance creativity, and offer a sanctuary for mental and physical well-being in our fast-paced world.
We dive into the principles, benefits, and practices of forest bathing, emphasizing its ability to help individuals reconnect to nature in everyday settings and the joy it brings through mindful sensory experiences. Let’s Go!
Join us next week when Ana shares her most memorable and transformative forest bathing experiences, additional ways to connect with nature, and resources for taking your mindfulness practice to the next level.
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Mentioned in this Episode:
Connect with Ana Kaahanui: Website I Instagram (Personal) Instagram (Capital Nature) I Facebook (Personal) Facebook (Capital Nature) I Email: ana@capitalnature.org
Ana’s upcoming Forest Bathing Walks in the DMV
Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs (ANFT)
ANFT Certified Guides
Forest Bathing Finder
Some of Ana’s favorite books on forest bathing, nature and trees
The Nature Fix (book)
Night Magic (book)
iNaturalist (app)
Seek by iNaturalist (app)
City Nature Challenge (global)
City Nature Challenge (local)
Virginia Master Naturalists
NOVA Park’s Roving Naturalist
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Contact show host, Jessica Bowser:
jessica@virginiaoutdooradventures.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay,
Virginia is a mecca for outdoortravel and adventure. Virginia
outdoor adventures Podcast isyour local guide for hiking,
camping, kayaking, travel and somuch more. Get the information
and the inspiration to plan yourown adventure right here in
(00:20):
Virginia, I'm your host. JessicaBowser,
immerse yourself in nature'shealing embrace with the
transformative power of forestbathing. Ana ka AHA Nui, co
founder of capital nature,uncovers the secrets behind this
mindfulness practice rooted inJapanese culture more than just
(00:41):
a walk among the trees, Annashares how forest bathing can
lower blood pressure, enhancecreativity and offer a sanctuary
for mental and physical wellbeing in our fast paced world,
we dive into the principles,benefits and practices of forest
bathing, emphasizing its abilityto help individuals reconnect to
nature in everyday settings andthe joy it brings through
(01:03):
mindful, sensory experiences.
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app.
Anna, welcome to Virginiaoutdoor adventures. Thanks so
much for having me. Jessica. I'mreally happy to be here. What do
you love about Virginia'soutdoors? What do I not love
about Virginia outdoors? There'sso many different places for us
to practice forest bathing.
Contrary to popular belief,people think that they need to
(02:10):
get in their vehicle and drivemiles and miles out into the
forest or the mountains to doforest bathing, but actually you
can do it right in your ownbackyard or right in your local
park. And so what I love,especially about me living in
Northern Virginia, is there's somany places within 510, three
miles, that I can go andpractice forest bathing. Can you
tell us a little bit about whatforest bathing is, and how is it
(02:31):
different from a hike or a walkin the woods? Forest bathing is
a little more intentional than awalk in the woods. So for
example, it's not a hike, it'snot for exercise, necessarily.
It's not for identifying speciesor trees. So it's not like a
fitness activity. It's it'sreally a mindfulness practice.
(02:51):
It's all about slowing down.
It's all about connecting tonature and whatever green spaces
or force that you're in. It'sall about making observations,
slowing down and makingobservations. And so I think if
somebody was on a jog in a parkor a forest, you know, they
might not be slowing down enoughto see what's on that tree or
(03:11):
what's on that bush, or, youknow, what little bug is on the
ground. And so it's amindfulness practice where we
can just slow down to be moreconnected through observation, I
can understand why people wouldwant to make that connection
with the outdoors. In fact, thistopic is a topic that my
listeners requested when I putout a listener survey last fall,
(03:32):
so I was really excited to seethat people are more interested
in slowing down and being moremindful when they're outdoors.
So Anna, what are the origins offorest bathing? I've heard it
comes from Japan. Is that true?
Yes, basically, you know, we allhave been communing with nature
since the beginning of time. Butthe term forest bathing actually
originated in the early 1980s inJapan, and the term that they
(03:54):
came up with is called ShinrinYoku, or they would say shindin
yoku, and it means to take inthe forest atmosphere with all
of your senses. And the reasonthat they came up with this term
is because right after right inthe early 80s, they noticed that
their working population waspretty stressed out. After the
(04:14):
tech boom, there were high ratesof depression, anxiety, chronic
disease, suicide rates were veryhigh. And so they knew that they
needed to do something to helptheir people. And so they
decided to conduct some tests.
And so they took groups ofpeople, and they did some
diagnostic tests, such as heartrate variability, their stress
(04:37):
hormone levels, their bloodpressure. They tested all these
things, even things likecreative thought and things like
that. And then they sent groupsof people out into nature, into
the forest, and then also peopleinto the city. And when they
sent the people, when they sentthem out for an exposure for the
day, and then they brought themback. They did those tests
(04:57):
again, those diagnostic tests,and they noticed.
Asked that the people that hadbeen exposed to nature had lower
blood pressure, had better heartrate variability, had better
creative thinking and lessruminative thinking. And so
they're like, What is this whatis this magic that's happening
when people are outdoors?
Obviously, when people go for awalk in the woods or outside,
they usually feel better. Youknow, what is this magic? What
(05:20):
they discovered is, is thatcertain plants and trees, they
have a an above groundcommunication system of organic
compounds called phytoncides.
And that's fighting with P, h,y, t, o, n, C, I, D, E, S,
phytoncides, it literally meansplant killer, but basically it's
a defense mechanism and acommunication mechanism between
(05:40):
trees and plants, and how itworks is trees and plants, when
they're being browsed bypredators like bugs or beetles
or something like that, they canfeel that and know what's
actually eating them. And sothey're actually able to change
their chemical composition andsmell to give warnings to area
trees and plants to warn them,like, Hey guys, we're being
(06:01):
eaten right now. You better putup your defenses, and so the
fight inside. What theydiscovered in these medical
tests is that when humans ingestthem, when we breathe them in,
when we're walking around, itjust provides tremendous
physical and mental benefits.
Why do you think forest bathinghas become so popular? I feel
like some people would hear theterm forest bathing and think it
was just like, woo, woo, right?
(06:24):
Like, there was, I start, Istart all of my forest bathing
walks with I have bad news.
We're not getting naked today.
And that usually makes peoplelaugh. Because, you know, when
people tell others that like,Oh, I'm going on a forest
bathing walk today, usually thefirst question they will get is,
oh, are you going to get naked,or, Oh, are you going to get in
your bathing suit and runaround? And so it's, it's just
(06:44):
a, it's a, it's the term isweird for people to understand,
but if they can just think aboutit as just bathing in the
atmosphere, not physicallybathing, like jumping in the
water, jumping in a tub, orsomething like that, then they
can kind of understand it alittle more. But people need it
now more than ever, becausepeople are really busy, they're
really stressed out. You know,there's a lot of people that are
(07:05):
having mental health issues. Andso obviously, anyone can do
this. It's a free and easy wayto get some help, you know, from
nature. And so, you know, weevolved to be in nature. Our
senses were developed over time,to be receptive to fractal
patterns in nature and thingslike that. And so we've come in
(07:25):
our sort of like industrial ageor whatever, now that we're all
working and everything, we'renot spending as much time
outside when I think deep down,I think our bodies and minds
really crave that. And so forestbathing is all about
reconnecting, possibly evenremembering, even maybe thinking
back to when your child and likethe wonder that you had as a
child experiencing nature. Sopeople, people, when they go on
(07:47):
our walks, they can have alldifferent types of responses.
There's all different ways thatpeople can respond to a four
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(08:10):
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(09:15):
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I love what you just said aboutthe wonder. The first time I did
a forest bathing walk, I.
(10:00):
Isn't really sure what toexpect, and it really does
introduce you to all of thesenses and what you're
experiencing in the moment, butyou start to pay attention to
things that you didn't payattention to before, and I
thought that that was one of thebiggest benefits for me, or
having that experience, was thatnow when I go out, even if I'm
just on a hike. And I'm notnecessarily in the mindset of
(10:23):
practicing forest bathing, but Ijust want to be more mindful. On
my hikes, I find myself, like,stopping to, like, really
examine things, or if there'slike, a really bushy patch of
moss, and it's like, Oh, thislooks cool. And then I touch it
and it's really spongy, and I'mlike, Oh, wow, look at that. And
it's something I wouldn't haveexperienced if I hadn't thought
(10:44):
to slow down and start to payattention to these things. So I
really enjoy that part of it,the sensory and paying more
attention and the sense ofwonder that comes from it. My
favorite word is wonder. So myfavorite word is wonder. My
second word is joy. And that'skind of like how I try to
operate, you know, try to bringthat to people. And I love
watching people experience thewonder of nature and giving them
(11:07):
sort of the permission to do it.
Because I think sometimes peopledon't sometimes, when we're
touching things on my walks,they say, Oh, I didn't know that
I could touch that moss or thatmushroom, you know, I didn't
know that was okay. And so thatwhole giving the permission and
the validation of like, Yes, youare allowed to smell this
flower, you are allowed to touchthis little, you know, beetle or
something like that, you know.
(11:27):
And it's really awesome to watchpeople just kind of sort of
awaken in a way, or reawakenactually, you know, they may
have again done this, maybe as akid when they were, you know,
playing outside or something,but they haven't done it in
years and years and years. Iactually had a woman on a walk
recently. We were talking abouttrees and bark, and she said to
me afterwards, I never knew thattrees had different barks. I
(11:48):
just I thought all trees havethe same bark, and I never
noticed that they weredifferent. And so just just
something small is like lookingat the bark of a tree. I just
think is it can be really arevelation to people. Let's talk
about the physical and mentalhealth benefits. Let's start
with the physical Can you justlist what some of the physical
health benefits are from forestbathing? Sure. So one of the
(12:09):
biggest ones is the productionand increase of NK or natural
killer cells, and those are thecancer fighting cells, the
infection fighting cells.
Studies have shown that people'spercentages of NK cell, or NK
cells do increase lowering theblood pressure is another one.
And I have actually been onwalks where we've had blood
pressure monitors for people,where we can test our blood
(12:29):
pressure before we go out, andthen do it at the end of the
walk. And sometimes that'seffective. Sometimes, you know,
a lot of times when we'reoutside, like there's adrenaline
going and all the times ofdifferent factors. So it's not
like a medical setting. Sosometimes, you know, it's not
always perfect. But a lot ofpeople who I've spoken to have
who have done this, have said,Oh, yeah, I definitely had the
lower blood pressure heart ratevariability is another thing. We
(12:49):
need to have a good variablerate on our heart and so it
helps with that. Let's go intothe mental if we can. Yeah,
let's talk about the mentalhealth benefits too. Yeah, less
ruminative thinking. So peoplethat usually have kind of, like,
spiraling thoughts, kind of haveless of that. After a forest
bathing walk, people tend to be,you know, calmer. I I've had
people on my walks that's at thebeginning of the walk, say, you
(13:13):
know, I came here today veryanxious. I really didn't know
what this was going to be, andthen afterwards, they just felt
very relaxed and, you know, kindof at peace. And so everyone
experiences it a different way.
I kind of tell people thatthere's no right or wrong way to
do force bathing, so there's nolike, expected outcomes, like,
it could just be totallydifferent for each person, which
(13:34):
is great. It's just whatever.
What I tell people is they'regoing to get out of the
experience what they needpersonally, everyone's going to
have a little bit of differentoutcome. So no wonder it's
become so popular with all thephysical health benefits and the
mental health benefits, I cansee why this would almost be
addicting. If you come outfeeling so much better than you
did before you go in. Then, ofcourse, you're going to want to
do this more often. It's like,why don't we do it all the time?
(13:55):
You know what I mean? Just like,it's free and it's easy, anyone
can do it, which is great, andthe fact that you can do it
anywhere during COVID, I wascertified through an
organization called theassociation of nature force
therapy guides and programs. Andwe are 2500 plus guides in 65
countries on six continents. Andso we're all over the place. And
(14:16):
during COVID, some of us pivotedto virtual nature immersions,
where I might be set up with myphone on zoom out in a park
somewhere, and people would bedialed in from their living
room, from their patio, from alocal park bench, from a local
park while they're walking, andwe can still do some of the same
activities that we would do inperson. And it actually it has a
(14:38):
really different and cool kindof aspect to it, because I've
had, I've been on, I've ledVirtual Box, where people were
dialed in from Africa andJamaica and London, and so
you're, you're getting to hearfrom these people, experience
their nature, where they are,and then sharing it with the
rest of us. Is there a specifictechnique or approach to.
(15:00):
Forest bathing, or is it simplyabout spending time in nature?
So it's interesting. Theorganization that I've been
trained through a NFT, we have aspecific method that we use
where it is. It's made up ofinvitations. And so invitations
are sensory exercises. So theremight be where the guide set
(15:20):
some parameters. Like, Hey guys,we're going to do this for the
next 10 minutes. Here are yourboundaries. So you're going to
send you out for 10 minutes.
Don't worry about the time. I'llcall you back, and then I'll
call people them. We'll callpeople back. Sometimes using
animal sounds, which I love. Ionly have two animal sounds in
my repertoire right now, andthat is coyote and American
crow. And so basically,sometimes I give the group an
option to like, Hey guys, do youwant to do coyote or crow? And
(15:43):
then I'll do them, and thenthey'll decide which one they
want me to call them with,because they have to do it back
to me. And that's part of aguide. Thing is like, we need to
know where everyone is outthere. And so if I have
everybody howling like a coyote,I kind of know, like, where they
are in relation to me, so thatthey'll come back to me, and so
we do these invitations. And thebest part, in my opinion, and
which makes this different froma hike, is that there's
(16:05):
opportunity to share between theinvitations. When we come back
together, we gather in a circle,and we have the opportunity to
share with the prompt, what areyou noticing? And in my personal
opinion, hearing how otherpeople experience the natural
world is just fascinating to me.
It brings up so many differentthings for people, it might
bring up a memory like, oh, thisreminds me of when I was on a
(16:28):
farm with my grandfather inColumbia, you know, or something
like that. Or this is when Iwent and picked apples with
grandma in Vermont, or somethinglike that. So people have
opportunities to share. However,sharing is completely optional
and silence is welcome. And so Ialways tell people like they
don't have to feel like theyhave to say anything for the
entire program. They need to dothem whatever feels right for
(16:49):
them. And so there's noexpectation that there's any
sharing. But from my personalopinion, that's where I think a
lot of the cool, transformativestuff happens is when you're
hearing and being able to relateto others and how they connect
to nature. Talk a little bitabout engaging the senses. I
know that that's a really bigpart of forest bathing, and it
includes sight, sound, touch,smell, and, to my surprise, even
(17:11):
taste. So how do all of thoseplay a role in the experience
guides? When we're trained,we're trained to train to do all
kinds of invitations, it's likewe have a little playbook, and
based on the location that we'reat the time that we have the
demographic, how old the peopleare, their kids or their adults,
we can decide which invitationsto use. Some might be a little
(17:33):
more active than others, somemight be a little more passive.
And so one of the firstinvitations that we do, that's
part of our program is calledpleasures of presence, or we
call it pop, for short. Theguides call it pop. And so
basically, it's kind of like aguided meditation, where I
invite people, we're usuallystanding in a circle, and I
invite people to close theireyes, if they're comfortable
(17:54):
doing that, and I'll just kindof walk them through some
breathing. First we'll do someslowing down and breathing, but
then just focusing on hearingfor a while, like focusing on
sounds that are far away,focusing on sounds that are
close, even the sound of yourown breath and things around
you. And touch, I have peopletouching their own fingers and
their skin and their clothingand textures so that they can
(18:14):
kind of, you know, people don'tusually kind of sit there and
kind of feel their skin, andkind of feel, you know, just
what it feels like to be theirskin. So we do touch smelling.
We do we do smelling where wesmell. And I have people if
they're comfortable doing so Ihave them maybe turn their head
from left to right, or up ordown, like an animal would be in
the forest, because that's howthey're catching the different
(18:35):
scents. And so when they'removing around, like, if they
move to the left and, you know,sniff up, they might smell
different, something differentfrom like what's on the other
side of them. For taste, it'sfunny, I have them taste like
what's in their mouth andthings, but I also have them
imagine that I have a straw intheir mouth, an imaginary straw,
and they sip up and taste theair of where we are. And that's
a kind of a really coolsensation, because people, you
(18:57):
know, it's like, you don't usedto tasting the air, but you
know, for a lot of people, theair has a taste. And so that's a
quick, easy one, you know,sometimes, if we're in a place
where their herbs are somethingthat we are, we know are safe,
you know, we might, oh, let's,you know, here's a spearmint
leaf, or here's lavender orsomething like that, you know,
we might. We might do a littletasting that way. We just do all
of these things together, justand that, we do that whole pop
(19:19):
for the first, you know, firstinvitation just kind of gets
people slowed down and kind ofinto it. I would call it
dropping in. They're likedropping into the experience,
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the first four the sight, sound,touch and smell, those seem
pretty obvious to me, especiallywhen you're in the outdoors, but
the taste one always throws me.
And the first time I ever did aforest bathing experience, the
guide was having us pick leavesand things from the trees and
actually put them in our mouths.
(20:25):
And then I found out later on, Idid a podcast episode about wild
edible plants, and that guidewas like, you don't want to do
that if you don't know whatyou're putting in your mouth.
And I was like, oh, okay, sowhat's the right answer here?
Yeah, so I probably unless I ama Virginia Master Naturalist. So
I did have studied a bunch ofnature nerdy stuff in the area,
(20:46):
which includes plants and treesand things. I'm I'm a
dendrophile. I'm a lover oftrees, and so I love to learn
about trees, and I love to teachabout trees. And part of what my
nonprofit capital nature does,we have been, you know,
contracted by organizations tolead tree identification walks
and neighborhood tree walks. Andso if I'm aware, if I know
exactly like this is what thisbush is. For example, Spice Bush
(21:08):
is one of my favorites, and ithas the really sort of pungent
smell. So we'll, we'll, if I seeone when on or on a walk, I'll
have people pause and take alittle sniff of the twigs. You
know, that type of thing. Otherguides like they might use the
Spice Bush to make tea, becausewe do end after a series of
invitations. We do end with atea ceremony. It's in reference
(21:29):
to the Japanese culture, butit's not the Japanese tea
ceremony. It's just literally anact of reciprocity. It's like
bringing in nature intoyourself. We always offer the
first cup to Mother Earth, youknow, and then we have tea
together, and then that's reallywhere you get the real taste.
Because real taste. Because I'musually guides, pick teas that
they like that are, you know, ofnatural, like, there's a tea
that I love that has all kindsof stuff in it, from passion
(21:49):
flower, cardamom, spearmint,skull cap, you know, lavender,
like that, you know, so thatthat gives them the taste. Oh,
that's the one you shared withus the other day. You had it
with you recently, yeah, yes.
And I'll admit what it is, it'sYogi bedtime.
So there's a smelling exercisewhere I have, we have passed the
Tea around, and I have everybodyhold on to it, and then I have
(22:10):
them sniff and yell out whatthey smell. And there's so many
things in the tea that I usethat like, you know, 10 things
will get yelled out, and they'reall right for all right, which
is great, anyway, yeah. And thenI kind of confess that it's that
it's Yogi bedtime. And, youknow, I always just tell people,
like, having a couple sips ofthis tea is not going to make
you pass out or fall asleep. Imean, it's just a very soothing
it's just a very soothing tea.
Oh, that just sounds lovely. Imean, I usually carry tea with
(22:31):
me almost anywhere I go, butespecially out when I'm outside,
I think I'm just going to startenjoying it in a completely
different way now, in a moremindful way, yes, for somebody
who is new to forest bathing,what are some simple ways to get
started? I mean, you've beentalking about leading forest
bathing walks. But what ifsomebody doesn't have a forest
bathing walk happening near themthat they can join? Can they
(22:54):
still get started on their own?
Definitely, people can go forestbathing anywhere. People can
forest bathe from their couch,as long as you can see some
nature and possibly hear nature,you can do forest bathing. And
so even if you're hanging outwith a potted plant in your
house, a living being, like Isaid, when we during COVID, we
(23:15):
when we did the virtualimmersions, when I had people
doing a sit spot with a tree ora sit spot with a being. The
people that were hunkered downin their homes went and got, you
know, their plant, their a plantfrom their kitchen or something,
and were able to spend time withthat being. So it's, again, not
having to go out into theforest. And so I would just
(23:36):
encourage people to go,possibly, to any sort of green
space that's nearby, and itcould just be a little pocket
park. It doesn't have to be thishuge regional park or up in the
mountains or anything, and justslowly walk around and just look
just look at things. Look up,look down, look for textures.
One of my favorite activityinvitations to do is texture
(23:57):
treasure hunt, where I sendpeople out to just to sort of
like, feel bark and feel leavesand and things, and bring back
for show and tell, like, oneitem to share. It's really
interesting to see what peoplewhat people gravitated to in
terms of texture, and they allkind of do, like a show and
tell. And so basically, show,there's just so many textures,
you know, in nature, that peopledon't really notice a lot of the
(24:19):
time, because they're not reallypaying attention. So just again,
they don't have to be on a on alead walk by a certified guide
just to get started. They couldjust be slow and observatory.
And, you know, be observational.
Just try to notice and just seehow it makes them feel. Like,
how does it make them feel totouch the bark of the tree
that's on the corner there? It'sa tree that's been there for the
last five years they've livedthere, but, oh, I'm gonna
(24:41):
actually touch this tree now.
Oh, look, it has grooves. Oh,look, there's little bugs on it.
Oh, my gosh, you know. Sothere's all this discovery that
can happen, so that it's allabout that it's all about just
getting in touch with yoursenses and then just making that
connection. I think I just had arealization as you were saying
that. So I work from home, and.
And several times throughout theday, I'll just walk out into my
(25:03):
backyard and just look at allthe plants. Now, I plant native
plants because, you know, it'sgood for the birds and the bugs
and the environment, and so Itake a lot of pride in my
plants, and I like to go out andjust see how things are
progressing out there and andwhat might be new, but I do it
because I need a break, like Ineed a mental break, I need a
(25:26):
physical break. And aftersitting at my computer for
hours, stepping outside, even ifit's just for a few minutes,
completely changes my mood, likeit's the smell of the air, it's
the sound of the birds, it's thesunshine, the breeze on my skin,
and then also makingobservations. So I think I've
been forest bathing all alongand didn't even have, you
absolutely, you absolutely have,yeah, yeah. I mean, like, that's
(25:48):
exactly, and that's, that's whatwe're encouraging people to do.
It can be in short dosages, likethat, short bursts. It doesn't
have to be. My walks aretypically a two hour walk. You
know, that's a kind of anaverage is two hours but, I
mean, we can do them in youknow, I have some colleagues
that have done, like, reallyquick ones for like, 30 minutes,
you know, that type of thing.
But for me personally, to twotwo and a half hours is kind of
the sweet spot for me. And Iactually, for my groups, I like
(26:10):
to keep them around 12 to 15people, just because you have
the element of sharing. I've ledgroups of over 30 before, but,
you know, you want to giveeverybody an opportunity to
share. And when you have thatmany people, you know sometimes
we have, in the DC metro area,we have probably over 40, close
to 40, certified guides in thearea. Not everyone is
practicing, but we have, do havethose people, and we keep in
(26:31):
touch. We refer each other forwalks and gigs and things like
that. And so there's a lot ofopportunities in the DC metro
area for forest bathing in and Ido mention that on my website,
capital nature.org, I have apage for forest bathing, and I
have a calendar there where, ifother colleagues might want me
to list their walks, I put themon there as well. Because I kind
of feel like it's a yogapractice where, you know yoga,
(26:52):
all the yoga instructors aredifferent, right? So we have the
same toolbox, but we all executedifferently. And so I, after I
lead a walk, I say, I say, Youknow what? If you liked this,
definitely come see me onanother walk in another's place.
But if you want to experienceanother guide, please, you know,
go on one of the walks of one ofmy colleagues. Does your website
have any listings for otherparts of Virginia by any chance?
(27:13):
Basically, it's wherever theguides are. So most of the
guides that I'm in contact forthis sort of sharing of walk
information, or DMV, DMV folks,right? But in terms of finding a
guide, there are, there are twoways. It's called forest bathing
finder. And so you can go there,and you can pop in, I think,
your your address, your state,or something, to see you know
(27:33):
what might be in your area. Alsothe organization that I've been
certified through theirwebsites, a n, f t, dot Earth,
they have a section on theirpage that says, find a guide. So
any of the guides that arecertified through us have the
option of being listed, beinglisted on their director. For
example, if I was visiting mybrother in Texas recently, I
think I said to him, hey, youknow, go on the website and just
(27:56):
look up Texas and see if youhave any forest bathing guides
here so that he could experiencethat in Texas. So there's
definitely resources out there.
Awesome. I'll put a link to thatin the show notes, because
people listening to this podcastare all over the stage and even
outside of Virginia, and maywant to try to find something
closer to them. So I'll put thatin the show notes. Anna, are
(28:18):
there any unlikely places whereyou've led a forest bathing
walk.
Join us next week when Annashares her most memorable and
transformative forest bathingexperiences additional ways to
connect with nature andresources for taking your
mindfulness practice to the nextlevel.
(28:38):
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(28:59):
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(00:20):
Virginia, I'm your host. JessicaBowser,
immerse yourself in nature'shealing embrace with the
transformative power of forestbathing. Ana ka AHA Nui, co
founder of capital nature,uncovers the secrets behind this
mindfulness practice rooted inJapanese culture more than just
(00:41):
a walk among the trees, Annashares how forest bathing can
lower blood pressure, enhancecreativity and offer a sanctuary
for mental and physical wellbeing in our fast paced world,
we dive into the principles,benefits and practices of forest
bathing, emphasizing its abilityto help individuals reconnect to
nature in everyday settings andthe joy it brings through
(01:03):
mindful, sensory experiences.
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(01:49):
app.
Anna, welcome to Virginiaoutdoor adventures. Thanks so
much for having me. Jessica. I'mreally happy to be here. What do
you love about Virginia'soutdoors? What do I not love
about Virginia outdoors? There'sso many different places for us
to practice forest bathing.
Contrary to popular belief,people think that they need to
(02:10):
get in their vehicle and drivemiles and miles out into the
forest or the mountains to doforest bathing, but actually you
can do it right in your ownbackyard or right in your local
park. And so what I love,especially about me living in
Northern Virginia, is there's somany places within 510, three
miles, that I can go andpractice forest bathing. Can you
tell us a little bit about whatforest bathing is, and how is it
(02:31):
different from a hike or a walkin the woods? Forest bathing is
a little more intentional than awalk in the woods. So for
example, it's not a hike, it'snot for exercise, necessarily.
It's not for identifying speciesor trees. So it's not like a
fitness activity. It's it'sreally a mindfulness practice.
(02:51):
It's all about slowing down.
It's all about connecting tonature and whatever green spaces
or force that you're in. It'sall about making observations,
slowing down and makingobservations. And so I think if
somebody was on a jog in a parkor a forest, you know, they
might not be slowing down enoughto see what's on that tree or
(03:11):
what's on that bush, or, youknow, what little bug is on the
ground. And so it's amindfulness practice where we
can just slow down to be moreconnected through observation, I
can understand why people wouldwant to make that connection
with the outdoors. In fact, thistopic is a topic that my
listeners requested when I putout a listener survey last fall,
(03:32):
so I was really excited to seethat people are more interested
in slowing down and being moremindful when they're outdoors.
So Anna, what are the origins offorest bathing? I've heard it
comes from Japan. Is that true?
Yes, basically, you know, we allhave been communing with nature
since the beginning of time. Butthe term forest bathing actually
originated in the early 1980s inJapan, and the term that they
(03:54):
came up with is called ShinrinYoku, or they would say shindin
yoku, and it means to take inthe forest atmosphere with all
of your senses. And the reasonthat they came up with this term
is because right after right inthe early 80s, they noticed that
their working population waspretty stressed out. After the
(04:14):
tech boom, there were high ratesof depression, anxiety, chronic
disease, suicide rates were veryhigh. And so they knew that they
needed to do something to helptheir people. And so they
decided to conduct some tests.
And so they took groups ofpeople, and they did some
diagnostic tests, such as heartrate variability, their stress
(04:37):
hormone levels, their bloodpressure. They tested all these
things, even things likecreative thought and things like
that. And then they sent groupsof people out into nature, into
the forest, and then also peopleinto the city. And when they
sent the people, when they sentthem out for an exposure for the
day, and then they brought themback. They did those tests
(04:57):
again, those diagnostic tests,and they noticed.
Asked that the people that hadbeen exposed to nature had lower
blood pressure, had better heartrate variability, had better
creative thinking and lessruminative thinking. And so
they're like, What is this whatis this magic that's happening
when people are outdoors?
Obviously, when people go for awalk in the woods or outside,
they usually feel better. Youknow, what is this magic? What
(05:20):
they discovered is, is thatcertain plants and trees, they
have a an above groundcommunication system of organic
compounds called phytoncides.
And that's fighting with P, h,y, t, o, n, C, I, D, E, S,
phytoncides, it literally meansplant killer, but basically it's
a defense mechanism and acommunication mechanism between
(05:40):
trees and plants, and how itworks is trees and plants, when
they're being browsed bypredators like bugs or beetles
or something like that, they canfeel that and know what's
actually eating them. And sothey're actually able to change
their chemical composition andsmell to give warnings to area
trees and plants to warn them,like, Hey guys, we're being
(06:01):
eaten right now. You better putup your defenses, and so the
fight inside. What theydiscovered in these medical
tests is that when humans ingestthem, when we breathe them in,
when we're walking around, itjust provides tremendous
physical and mental benefits.
Why do you think forest bathinghas become so popular? I feel
like some people would hear theterm forest bathing and think it
was just like, woo, woo, right?
(06:24):
Like, there was, I start, Istart all of my forest bathing
walks with I have bad news.
We're not getting naked today.
And that usually makes peoplelaugh. Because, you know, when
people tell others that like,Oh, I'm going on a forest
bathing walk today, usually thefirst question they will get is,
oh, are you going to get naked,or, Oh, are you going to get in
your bathing suit and runaround? And so it's, it's just
(06:44):
a, it's a, it's the term isweird for people to understand,
but if they can just think aboutit as just bathing in the
atmosphere, not physicallybathing, like jumping in the
water, jumping in a tub, orsomething like that, then they
can kind of understand it alittle more. But people need it
now more than ever, becausepeople are really busy, they're
really stressed out. You know,there's a lot of people that are
(07:05):
having mental health issues. Andso obviously, anyone can do
this. It's a free and easy wayto get some help, you know, from
nature. And so, you know, weevolved to be in nature. Our
senses were developed over time,to be receptive to fractal
patterns in nature and thingslike that. And so we've come in
(07:25):
our sort of like industrial ageor whatever, now that we're all
working and everything, we'renot spending as much time
outside when I think deep down,I think our bodies and minds
really crave that. And so forestbathing is all about
reconnecting, possibly evenremembering, even maybe thinking
back to when your child and likethe wonder that you had as a
child experiencing nature. Sopeople, people, when they go on
(07:47):
our walks, they can have alldifferent types of responses.
There's all different ways thatpeople can respond to a four
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I love what you just said aboutthe wonder. The first time I did
a forest bathing walk, I.
(10:00):
Isn't really sure what toexpect, and it really does
introduce you to all of thesenses and what you're
experiencing in the moment, butyou start to pay attention to
things that you didn't payattention to before, and I
thought that that was one of thebiggest benefits for me, or
having that experience, was thatnow when I go out, even if I'm
just on a hike. And I'm notnecessarily in the mindset of
(10:23):
practicing forest bathing, but Ijust want to be more mindful. On
my hikes, I find myself, like,stopping to, like, really
examine things, or if there'slike, a really bushy patch of
moss, and it's like, Oh, thislooks cool. And then I touch it
and it's really spongy, and I'mlike, Oh, wow, look at that. And
it's something I wouldn't haveexperienced if I hadn't thought
(10:44):
to slow down and start to payattention to these things. So I
really enjoy that part of it,the sensory and paying more
attention and the sense ofwonder that comes from it. My
favorite word is wonder. So myfavorite word is wonder. My
second word is joy. And that'skind of like how I try to
operate, you know, try to bringthat to people. And I love
watching people experience thewonder of nature and giving them
(11:07):
sort of the permission to do it.
Because I think sometimes peopledon't sometimes, when we're
touching things on my walks,they say, Oh, I didn't know that
I could touch that moss or thatmushroom, you know, I didn't
know that was okay. And so thatwhole giving the permission and
the validation of like, Yes, youare allowed to smell this
flower, you are allowed to touchthis little, you know, beetle or
something like that, you know.
(11:27):
And it's really awesome to watchpeople just kind of sort of
awaken in a way, or reawakenactually, you know, they may
have again done this, maybe as akid when they were, you know,
playing outside or something,but they haven't done it in
years and years and years. Iactually had a woman on a walk
recently. We were talking abouttrees and bark, and she said to
me afterwards, I never knew thattrees had different barks. I
(11:48):
just I thought all trees havethe same bark, and I never
noticed that they weredifferent. And so just just
something small is like lookingat the bark of a tree. I just
think is it can be really arevelation to people. Let's talk
about the physical and mentalhealth benefits. Let's start
with the physical Can you justlist what some of the physical
health benefits are from forestbathing? Sure. So one of the
(12:09):
biggest ones is the productionand increase of NK or natural
killer cells, and those are thecancer fighting cells, the
infection fighting cells.
Studies have shown that people'spercentages of NK cell, or NK
cells do increase lowering theblood pressure is another one.
And I have actually been onwalks where we've had blood
pressure monitors for people,where we can test our blood
(12:29):
pressure before we go out, andthen do it at the end of the
walk. And sometimes that'seffective. Sometimes, you know,
a lot of times when we'reoutside, like there's adrenaline
going and all the times ofdifferent factors. So it's not
like a medical setting. Sosometimes, you know, it's not
always perfect. But a lot ofpeople who I've spoken to have
who have done this, have said,Oh, yeah, I definitely had the
lower blood pressure heart ratevariability is another thing. We
(12:49):
need to have a good variablerate on our heart and so it
helps with that. Let's go intothe mental if we can. Yeah,
let's talk about the mentalhealth benefits too. Yeah, less
ruminative thinking. So peoplethat usually have kind of, like,
spiraling thoughts, kind of haveless of that. After a forest
bathing walk, people tend to be,you know, calmer. I I've had
people on my walks that's at thebeginning of the walk, say, you
(13:13):
know, I came here today veryanxious. I really didn't know
what this was going to be, andthen afterwards, they just felt
very relaxed and, you know, kindof at peace. And so everyone
experiences it a different way.
I kind of tell people thatthere's no right or wrong way to
do force bathing, so there's nolike, expected outcomes, like,
it could just be totallydifferent for each person, which
(13:34):
is great. It's just whatever.
What I tell people is they'regoing to get out of the
experience what they needpersonally, everyone's going to
have a little bit of differentoutcome. So no wonder it's
become so popular with all thephysical health benefits and the
mental health benefits, I cansee why this would almost be
addicting. If you come outfeeling so much better than you
did before you go in. Then, ofcourse, you're going to want to
do this more often. It's like,why don't we do it all the time?
(13:55):
You know what I mean? Just like,it's free and it's easy, anyone
can do it, which is great, andthe fact that you can do it
anywhere during COVID, I wascertified through an
organization called theassociation of nature force
therapy guides and programs. Andwe are 2500 plus guides in 65
countries on six continents. Andso we're all over the place. And
(14:16):
during COVID, some of us pivotedto virtual nature immersions,
where I might be set up with myphone on zoom out in a park
somewhere, and people would bedialed in from their living
room, from their patio, from alocal park bench, from a local
park while they're walking, andwe can still do some of the same
activities that we would do inperson. And it actually it has a
(14:38):
really different and cool kindof aspect to it, because I've
had, I've been on, I've ledVirtual Box, where people were
dialed in from Africa andJamaica and London, and so
you're, you're getting to hearfrom these people, experience
their nature, where they are,and then sharing it with the
rest of us. Is there a specifictechnique or approach to.
(15:00):
Forest bathing, or is it simplyabout spending time in nature?
So it's interesting. Theorganization that I've been
trained through a NFT, we have aspecific method that we use
where it is. It's made up ofinvitations. And so invitations
are sensory exercises. So theremight be where the guide set
(15:20):
some parameters. Like, Hey guys,we're going to do this for the
next 10 minutes. Here are yourboundaries. So you're going to
send you out for 10 minutes.
Don't worry about the time. I'llcall you back, and then I'll
call people them. We'll callpeople back. Sometimes using
animal sounds, which I love. Ionly have two animal sounds in
my repertoire right now, andthat is coyote and American
crow. And so basically,sometimes I give the group an
option to like, Hey guys, do youwant to do coyote or crow? And
(15:43):
then I'll do them, and thenthey'll decide which one they
want me to call them with,because they have to do it back
to me. And that's part of aguide. Thing is like, we need to
know where everyone is outthere. And so if I have
everybody howling like a coyote,I kind of know, like, where they
are in relation to me, so thatthey'll come back to me, and so
we do these invitations. And thebest part, in my opinion, and
which makes this different froma hike, is that there's
(16:05):
opportunity to share between theinvitations. When we come back
together, we gather in a circle,and we have the opportunity to
share with the prompt, what areyou noticing? And in my personal
opinion, hearing how otherpeople experience the natural
world is just fascinating to me.
It brings up so many differentthings for people, it might
bring up a memory like, oh, thisreminds me of when I was on a
(16:28):
farm with my grandfather inColumbia, you know, or something
like that. Or this is when Iwent and picked apples with
grandma in Vermont, or somethinglike that. So people have
opportunities to share. However,sharing is completely optional
and silence is welcome. And so Ialways tell people like they
don't have to feel like theyhave to say anything for the
entire program. They need to dothem whatever feels right for
(16:49):
them. And so there's noexpectation that there's any
sharing. But from my personalopinion, that's where I think a
lot of the cool, transformativestuff happens is when you're
hearing and being able to relateto others and how they connect
to nature. Talk a little bitabout engaging the senses. I
know that that's a really bigpart of forest bathing, and it
includes sight, sound, touch,smell, and, to my surprise, even
(17:11):
taste. So how do all of thoseplay a role in the experience
guides? When we're trained,we're trained to train to do all
kinds of invitations, it's likewe have a little playbook, and
based on the location that we'reat the time that we have the
demographic, how old the peopleare, their kids or their adults,
we can decide which invitationsto use. Some might be a little
(17:33):
more active than others, somemight be a little more passive.
And so one of the firstinvitations that we do, that's
part of our program is calledpleasures of presence, or we
call it pop, for short. Theguides call it pop. And so
basically, it's kind of like aguided meditation, where I
invite people, we're usuallystanding in a circle, and I
invite people to close theireyes, if they're comfortable
(17:54):
doing that, and I'll just kindof walk them through some
breathing. First we'll do someslowing down and breathing, but
then just focusing on hearingfor a while, like focusing on
sounds that are far away,focusing on sounds that are
close, even the sound of yourown breath and things around
you. And touch, I have peopletouching their own fingers and
their skin and their clothingand textures so that they can
(18:14):
kind of, you know, people don'tusually kind of sit there and
kind of feel their skin, andkind of feel, you know, just
what it feels like to be theirskin. So we do touch smelling.
We do we do smelling where wesmell. And I have people if
they're comfortable doing so Ihave them maybe turn their head
from left to right, or up ordown, like an animal would be in
the forest, because that's howthey're catching the different
(18:35):
scents. And so when they'removing around, like, if they
move to the left and, you know,sniff up, they might smell
different, something differentfrom like what's on the other
side of them. For taste, it'sfunny, I have them taste like
what's in their mouth andthings, but I also have them
imagine that I have a straw intheir mouth, an imaginary straw,
and they sip up and taste theair of where we are. And that's
a kind of a really coolsensation, because people, you
(18:57):
know, it's like, you don't usedto tasting the air, but you
know, for a lot of people, theair has a taste. And so that's a
quick, easy one, you know,sometimes, if we're in a place
where their herbs are somethingthat we are, we know are safe,
you know, we might, oh, let's,you know, here's a spearmint
leaf, or here's lavender orsomething like that, you know,
we might. We might do a littletasting that way. We just do all
of these things together, justand that, we do that whole pop
(19:19):
for the first, you know, firstinvitation just kind of gets
people slowed down and kind ofinto it. I would call it
dropping in. They're likedropping into the experience,
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(19:42):
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the first four the sight, sound,touch and smell, those seem
pretty obvious to me, especiallywhen you're in the outdoors, but
the taste one always throws me.
And the first time I ever did aforest bathing experience, the
guide was having us pick leavesand things from the trees and
actually put them in our mouths.
(20:25):
And then I found out later on, Idid a podcast episode about wild
edible plants, and that guidewas like, you don't want to do
that if you don't know whatyou're putting in your mouth.
And I was like, oh, okay, sowhat's the right answer here?
Yeah, so I probably unless I ama Virginia Master Naturalist. So
I did have studied a bunch ofnature nerdy stuff in the area,
(20:46):
which includes plants and treesand things. I'm I'm a
dendrophile. I'm a lover oftrees, and so I love to learn
about trees, and I love to teachabout trees. And part of what my
nonprofit capital nature does,we have been, you know,
contracted by organizations tolead tree identification walks
and neighborhood tree walks. Andso if I'm aware, if I know
exactly like this is what thisbush is. For example, Spice Bush
(21:08):
is one of my favorites, and ithas the really sort of pungent
smell. So we'll, we'll, if I seeone when on or on a walk, I'll
have people pause and take alittle sniff of the twigs. You
know, that type of thing. Otherguides like they might use the
Spice Bush to make tea, becausewe do end after a series of
invitations. We do end with atea ceremony. It's in reference
(21:29):
to the Japanese culture, butit's not the Japanese tea
ceremony. It's just literally anact of reciprocity. It's like
bringing in nature intoyourself. We always offer the
first cup to Mother Earth, youknow, and then we have tea
together, and then that's reallywhere you get the real taste.
Because real taste. Because I'musually guides, pick teas that
they like that are, you know, ofnatural, like, there's a tea
that I love that has all kindsof stuff in it, from passion
(21:49):
flower, cardamom, spearmint,skull cap, you know, lavender,
like that, you know, so thatthat gives them the taste. Oh,
that's the one you shared withus the other day. You had it
with you recently, yeah, yes.
And I'll admit what it is, it'sYogi bedtime.
So there's a smelling exercisewhere I have, we have passed the
Tea around, and I have everybodyhold on to it, and then I have
(22:10):
them sniff and yell out whatthey smell. And there's so many
things in the tea that I usethat like, you know, 10 things
will get yelled out, and they'reall right for all right, which
is great, anyway, yeah. And thenI kind of confess that it's that
it's Yogi bedtime. And, youknow, I always just tell people,
like, having a couple sips ofthis tea is not going to make
you pass out or fall asleep. Imean, it's just a very soothing
it's just a very soothing tea.
Oh, that just sounds lovely. Imean, I usually carry tea with
(22:31):
me almost anywhere I go, butespecially out when I'm outside,
I think I'm just going to startenjoying it in a completely
different way now, in a moremindful way, yes, for somebody
who is new to forest bathing,what are some simple ways to get
started? I mean, you've beentalking about leading forest
bathing walks. But what ifsomebody doesn't have a forest
bathing walk happening near themthat they can join? Can they
(22:54):
still get started on their own?
Definitely, people can go forestbathing anywhere. People can
forest bathe from their couch,as long as you can see some
nature and possibly hear nature,you can do forest bathing. And
so even if you're hanging outwith a potted plant in your
house, a living being, like Isaid, when we during COVID, we
(23:15):
when we did the virtualimmersions, when I had people
doing a sit spot with a tree ora sit spot with a being. The
people that were hunkered downin their homes went and got, you
know, their plant, their a plantfrom their kitchen or something,
and were able to spend time withthat being. So it's, again, not
having to go out into theforest. And so I would just
(23:36):
encourage people to go,possibly, to any sort of green
space that's nearby, and itcould just be a little pocket
park. It doesn't have to be thishuge regional park or up in the
mountains or anything, and justslowly walk around and just look
just look at things. Look up,look down, look for textures.
One of my favorite activityinvitations to do is texture
(23:57):
treasure hunt, where I sendpeople out to just to sort of
like, feel bark and feel leavesand and things, and bring back
for show and tell, like, oneitem to share. It's really
interesting to see what peoplewhat people gravitated to in
terms of texture, and they allkind of do, like a show and
tell. And so basically, show,there's just so many textures,
you know, in nature, that peopledon't really notice a lot of the
(24:19):
time, because they're not reallypaying attention. So just again,
they don't have to be on a on alead walk by a certified guide
just to get started. They couldjust be slow and observatory.
And, you know, be observational.
Just try to notice and just seehow it makes them feel. Like,
how does it make them feel totouch the bark of the tree
that's on the corner there? It'sa tree that's been there for the
last five years they've livedthere, but, oh, I'm gonna
(24:41):
actually touch this tree now.
Oh, look, it has grooves. Oh,look, there's little bugs on it.
Oh, my gosh, you know. Sothere's all this discovery that
can happen, so that it's allabout that it's all about just
getting in touch with yoursenses and then just making that
connection. I think I just had arealization as you were saying
that. So I work from home, and.
And several times throughout theday, I'll just walk out into my
(25:03):
backyard and just look at allthe plants. Now, I plant native
plants because, you know, it'sgood for the birds and the bugs
and the environment, and so Itake a lot of pride in my
plants, and I like to go out andjust see how things are
progressing out there and andwhat might be new, but I do it
because I need a break, like Ineed a mental break, I need a
(25:26):
physical break. And aftersitting at my computer for
hours, stepping outside, even ifit's just for a few minutes,
completely changes my mood, likeit's the smell of the air, it's
the sound of the birds, it's thesunshine, the breeze on my skin,
and then also makingobservations. So I think I've
been forest bathing all alongand didn't even have, you
absolutely, you absolutely have,yeah, yeah. I mean, like, that's
(25:48):
exactly, and that's, that's whatwe're encouraging people to do.
It can be in short dosages, likethat, short bursts. It doesn't
have to be. My walks aretypically a two hour walk. You
know, that's a kind of anaverage is two hours but, I
mean, we can do them in youknow, I have some colleagues
that have done, like, reallyquick ones for like, 30 minutes,
you know, that type of thing.
But for me personally, to twotwo and a half hours is kind of
the sweet spot for me. And Iactually, for my groups, I like
(26:10):
to keep them around 12 to 15people, just because you have
the element of sharing. I've ledgroups of over 30 before, but,
you know, you want to giveeverybody an opportunity to
share. And when you have thatmany people, you know sometimes
we have, in the DC metro area,we have probably over 40, close
to 40, certified guides in thearea. Not everyone is
practicing, but we have, do havethose people, and we keep in
(26:31):
touch. We refer each other forwalks and gigs and things like
that. And so there's a lot ofopportunities in the DC metro
area for forest bathing in and Ido mention that on my website,
capital nature.org, I have apage for forest bathing, and I
have a calendar there where, ifother colleagues might want me
to list their walks, I put themon there as well. Because I kind
of feel like it's a yogapractice where, you know yoga,
(26:52):
all the yoga instructors aredifferent, right? So we have the
same toolbox, but we all executedifferently. And so I, after I
lead a walk, I say, I say, Youknow what? If you liked this,
definitely come see me onanother walk in another's place.
But if you want to experienceanother guide, please, you know,
go on one of the walks of one ofmy colleagues. Does your website
have any listings for otherparts of Virginia by any chance?
(27:13):
Basically, it's wherever theguides are. So most of the
guides that I'm in contact forthis sort of sharing of walk
information, or DMV, DMV folks,right? But in terms of finding a
guide, there are, there are twoways. It's called forest bathing
finder. And so you can go there,and you can pop in, I think,
your your address, your state,or something, to see you know
(27:33):
what might be in your area. Alsothe organization that I've been
certified through theirwebsites, a n, f t, dot Earth,
they have a section on theirpage that says, find a guide. So
any of the guides that arecertified through us have the
option of being listed, beinglisted on their director. For
example, if I was visiting mybrother in Texas recently, I
think I said to him, hey, youknow, go on the website and just
(27:56):
look up Texas and see if youhave any forest bathing guides
here so that he could experiencethat in Texas. So there's
definitely resources out there.
Awesome. I'll put a link to thatin the show notes, because
people listening to this podcastare all over the stage and even
outside of Virginia, and maywant to try to find something
closer to them. So I'll put thatin the show notes. Anna, are
(28:18):
there any unlikely places whereyou've led a forest bathing
walk.
Join us next week when Annashares her most memorable and
transformative forest bathingexperiences additional ways to
connect with nature andresources for taking your
mindfulness practice to the nextlevel.
(28:38):
Virginia Outdoor Adventures isinspired by and supported by
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so much to me. You can text medirectly by clicking on Send
Jessica a text message in yourshow notes, I answer questions,
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(28:59):
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