Summary

A study of the effect of Shinrin-Yoku or "forest bathing" (immersing oneself in nature by mindfully using all five senses) on human physiological and psychological systems.

Extract

In general, from a physiological perspective, significant empirical research findings point to a reduction in human heart rate and blood pressure and an increase in relaxation for participants exposed to natural GS. Even research involving the use of nature videos of the forest or the ocean have the same physiological effects. From a qualitative and psychological perspective, Danish participants reported a sense of safety, calm and overall general wellbeing following exposure or engagement with nature. South Korean participants with a known alcohol addiction and high pre-test scores of depression benefited more from the Forest Therapy Camp than participants with lower pre-test scores of depression and alcohol abuse. Differences in culture, gender, education, marital or economic status were not associated confounding factors in many of the empirical studies. Overall, our review of the literature, as illustrated in Table 1, points to positive health benefits associated with SY and NT while confounding factors were clearly identified by the researchers.

Link

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5580555/

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