stress – The Key Point

Forest Bathing: The Japanese Art and Science of Shinrin-Yoku
by Qing Li, MD, PhD

“The concept that humans have a biological need to connect with nature has been called biophilia… The American biologist E.O. Wilson… believed that, because we evolved in nature, we have a biological need to connect with it.”

Qing Li is an immunologist and associate professor at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo who studies how spending time in the forest improves our health. In Japanese, shinrin (森林) means forest and yoku (浴) means bathing. “So shinrin-yoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere, or taking in the forest through our senses.” The term forest bathing is analogous to sunbathing, nikkou-yoku (日光浴) in Japanese.

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The Little Book of Mindfulness: 10 Minutes a Day to Less Stress, More Peace
by Dr. Patrizia Collard

Dr. Patrizia Collard is a psychotherapist, stress management consultant, and lecturer at the University of East London. She writes, “The goal of any mindfulness practice is simply to experience life as it unfolds. To stay present and calm and not slip back into thinking/worrying mode, we choose an anchor of awareness—a point of focus we direct our mind to.”

“Mindfulness is being aware of or bringing attention to this moment in time deliberately and without judging the experience. So, when we go for a mindful walk we really notice every little detail and all we encounter—trees, cars, flowers growing out of small cracks, or a cat crossing the road—rather than creating to-do lists.”

“When we procrastinate and distract ourselves with ‘busyness,’ we avoid engaging with the real thing—our lives… Living in the moment, and seeing everything afresh without judgment and worry lets us experience life rather than simply get through it.”

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