Shinrin yoku is a practice that started in Japan in the 1980s, encouraging people to go into nature and breath in deeply. It’s also called forest bathing.
You can forest bathe in whatever “wild home” is available to you—a backyard, park or garden will do.
Rules of Engagement for Forest Bathing
- Put your phone in airplane mode to prepare for forest bathing. Disengaging from electronics provides the best mindset.
- Get comfortable and relax. Tune into your senses and your surroundings.
- Transition back into daily life. Favorite poems and quotes about nature make a nice wrap-up. Tea and a snack punctuate the forest bathing.
While two to four hours are preferred for forest bathing, not every schedule can accommodate. Take advantage of 10- to 15-minute trips if your schedule is tight.
Listen as Melanie Choukas-Bradley joins Dr. Pamela Peeke to share the joys of forest bathing.
Sponsor:
Smarty Pants Vitamins
Featuring:
Melanie Choukas-Bradley, Author
Melanie Choukas-Bradley is the author of the forthcoming book,
The Joy of Forest Bathing: Reconnect With Wild Places & Rejuvenate Your Life (Rock Point, August 2018) and four natural history books, including the highly acclaimed
City of Trees: The Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Washington, DC. The Washington Post Book World called
City of Trees: “A splendid field guide—practical, botanically sound, and filled with good stories.” The book has been published in three editions over a 37-year period.
Her recent book,
A Year in Rock Creek Park—the Wild, Wooded Heart of Washington, DC, won an Independent Publishers IPPY award for Mid-Atlantic nonfiction. Melanie is also author of two books about Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland. She is currently working on a book tentatively titled
A Year at Theodore Roosevelt Island. Melanie leads tree tours, field trips and forest bathing walks for Smithsonian Associates, the Audubon Naturalist Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Rock Creek Conservancy, the U.S. Botanic Garden, Politics & Prose, the National Bonsai Foundation and Casey Trees. She lectures widely and has been a guest on NPR’s the Diane Rehm Show, Morning Edition, All Things Considered and WAMU’s the Kojo Nnamdi Show. In 2014 she was awarded one of four inaugural Canopy Awards by Casey Trees for her efforts to educate people about the trees of the nation’s capital. Melanie’s freelance articles have been published in The Washington Post and many other publications.
