Natural Healing Looking to boost your physical and mental health? Get out into the great outdoors —which could be as close as your own backyard.
BY GENE REBECK
If you’re feeling better now that summer is finally here, well, that’s no coincidence. It’s not just the refreshing sensation of warm breezes after a long winter. The grass is green, leaves are on the trees, and flowers are blooming. These are sensations we all feel with a quickening heart. But they’re also more than just feelings. In a real sense, nature has long been one of our best doctors, offering physical and mental health benefits. And that’s why this time of year is a great time to get up and reconnect with the great outdoors. Come to your senses The Japanese have a special term for walking in nature — shinrin-yoku , which roughly translates as “forest bathing.” It’s a phrase that sounds like a soothing, calming soak. Forest Bathing is also the title of a 2018 book by Qing Li, a doctor at the NipponMedical School in Tokyo. In it, he makes the point that the time we spend indoors, glued to TVs, smartphones, and other devices tends to make us anxious, irritable, and depressed. It also leads to sleep problems.
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