Forest Bathing and Mental Health

Whenever possible, I like to finish work and go for a walk in the woods near my house. I log off, chuck my wellies on and head out the door. I often listen to a podcast on my walks, usually something about mental health or Psychology. I like to learn as I go. I work from home so this walk can feel like my commute and space to decompress between work and my free time.

There’s a lot of research that says that walking is good for mental health. Our Well Minds PTS Blog talks a lot about how the power of physical activity and time in nature can have huge benefits for our mental health, and a walk after work is no exception. Even a 10 minute mooch around the block can make a big difference. It was while I was researching the power of exercise and mental health that I came across the idea of ‘Forest Bathing’ and its positive impact on mood, it definitely looked like something that fits well with the Well Minds PTS philosophy, so I thought I’d have a good look and report back.

Forest bathing is a Japanese practice of relaxation. It’s about being calm and quiet amongst the trees, observing nature and being present in the moment. We spend too much thinking time in stressful and unhappy mental places going over things we cannot change or influence in the future and the past. This mental time travel is exhausting and can feel dreadful, so any practice that keeps us in the present can only be a good thing. If we think of our brain as a muscle to be trained, the more time we focus in the present, the stronger this muscle becomes able to find peaceful moments in the here and now. This means Forest Bathing is good exercise for our bodies and our brains!

So, with all this new information in mind, I decided to conduct an experiment. I know that walking does me good, but could Forest Bathing be even better? I found some top tips to get me started:

• Turn off your devices to give yourself the best chance of relaxing, being mindful and enjoying a sensory forest-based experience.

• Slow down. Move through the forest slowly so you can see and feel more.

• Take long breaths deep into the abdomen. Extending the exhalation of air to twice the length of the inhalation sends a message to the body that it can relax.

• Stop, stand or sit. Notice what’s around you. Pay attention to what you can see, smell, hear and touch? (Find out more:  https://www.forestryengland.uk/blog/forest-bathing)
  

My plan was to go for my normal walk one night and go Forest Bathing the next, I’d think about my stress levels and mood in both cases and see what made me feel better.

Here’s what I found out:

My podcast walk was very enjoyable overall, I went through the woods, over a field where I stroked some horses and then headed home down a muddy path. I chatted to some dog walkers, fussed a few dogs and noticed the odd squirrel. It was quite lovely.

One thing I did notice however was that I became aware of was that the podcast content influenced how I felt and not in a good way. I had unintentionally brought stress on the walk with me and that wasn’t helpful at all. This has made me wonder about other things that we do and how this can have an unintentional impact on mood, things like social media. It occurred to me that even when we might be in beautiful, stress relieving environments, our mobile phones and devices can inadvertently add to our stresses and negatively influence our mood. All the more reason to take a break from them from time to time.

The same can be said for the people we spend time with, whilst we often feel better for a shared experience, the people themselves and the type of conversation we have can impact our mood. There might be other things that have a negative impact on your stress levels so it’s important to take time to reflect on how you’re feeling and what may have contributed to you change in mood. This will help you to understand more about your patterns and then try different ways to help yourself. (If you need help with this, please get in touch, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be really effective at teaching you how to be your own therapist).

On the next night, I headed out with the intention of Forest Bathing (no devices this time!). As I entered the woods, I reminded myself of the tips outlined above and immediately noticed how many birds I could hear. To misquote Julie Andrews, the trees were alive with the sound of music!! It was fabulous. I took a moment to wonder what all these birds had to talk about - mating calls and territory marking probably but who knows, I’m not a bird whisperer. I definitely heard about 4 different calls and a weird screechy one that turned out to be a squirrel (who knew they made such a racquet!!)

I had missed all this the night before when I was listening to my podcast. I tried to spot each bird and see if I could recognise who was who. It’s not an easy task and I vowed to google them when I got home. This walk had already given me a new hobby as a bird spotter!!

As I carried on into the woods, I remembered to slow down and regulate my breathing. My pace was quite different to usual, I realised I must normally gallop through the woods and although it’s good to get your heart pumping, that wasn’t the intention today. I needed to be slow and to take it all in. This instantly made me feel calmer. (Giving yourself permission to slow down is great!!! Try it!!)

Moving on, I had a little sit down on a log bench and noticed that someone had taken the time to carve an owl into the back of the seat. It was awesome. I sat for a few minutes just looking around and taking it all in. Stopping and sitting prompted my thoughts to wander off down their own little path. I wasn’t so distracted by walking so thinking snuck off on its own direction to other places and situations: issues at work, things I needed to do when I got home and minor niggles I need to sort out. I may have been pondering this for a little while before I noticed it, but once I was aware, I was able to bring myself back into the moment. I noticed that I was feeling more tense from my mind wandering too. Thinking can have a powerful effect on mood and the body and bringing myself back into my environment quickly helped to ease that tension.

I continued on and I took myself off on a path I’d not ventured down for a long time, someone had cleared the path and rebuilt a section of dry-stone wall. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about how hard it is to build a dry-stone wall. Neither had I, until that moment. I marvelled at how some dry stones walls have stood firm for hundreds of years, while the world has changed around them.

Onward I plodded, taking time to notice how my feet felt as I padded along the path, squished through mud, wobbled over tree roots, and splashed through the stream. I enjoyed not worrying about getting my shoes dirty, that’s what wellies are for! I noticed far more squirrels on this walk, darting on the ground and leaping across branches in the trees. I counted 6 squirrels in total, unless it was just the one squirrel following me the whole time. I crossed the field and stroked the horses again, taking an extra moment to stroke their velvety noses and give them temporary relief by flicking flies away from their eyes.

Soon it was time to head home, I felt like I had seen some parts of these woods for the first time, which is bizarre because I’ve been walking and playing in these woods since I was a child. I felt a sense of awe at some of the things I’d spotted and a real sense of enjoyment from doing things differently and taking time off from my thoughts and to do list. I felt a sense of calm and peace from my walk.

Conclusions:

Overall, both walks did me good and I got a lot out of them in different ways. From this I have decided to combine the two ways to get the best of both experiences.

I am more careful with my podcast choices though, it’s still nice to learn something new, however, when I find an appropriate spot along my route, I switch off my podcast, take my earphones out and bathe is the loveliness of the woods. It’s just wonderful.

I have even taken my shoes and socks off, rolled up my trousers and paddled in the stream for a more literal Forest Bath! I recommend this; it’s loads of fun and freezing water on your toes is a good reminder to stay present.

Take yourself for a walk, try out different things and see what works for you, remember to be aware of what is going on for you and what might be adding stress to your experience and then refocus into the environment and see what it does for you.

Report back, we’d love to know how you got on.

Just a quick note that Forest Bathing is good for stress management, but you might need more support than this for the things you are going through. If you’d like to talk to us and get some support, please click below to get in touch.