Are We There Yet? vol. 226
In the Opinions section of The Washington Post earlier this week, I saw a phrase that was new to me: forest bathing. Dr. Leona Wen, a contributing columnist to the Post, wrote about this practice, in which one immerses oneself in nature, with benefits that include reduced stress, lower blood pressure, improved moods, better sleep, and stronger immune systems. There’s no set standard for what you need to do to accomplish anything other than just be in nature. It seems too good to be true and certainly not something that boosts the profit margins for big pharma. Better health outcomes with no medicines, pills, or treatments.
According to National Geographic, the practice “emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”). The purpose was twofold: to offer an eco-antidote to tech-boom burnout and to inspire residents to reconnect with and protect the country’s forests.”
According to Qing Lee, a physician and professor at Nippon Medical School, “The relaxing effects of forest bathing begin to appear 20 minutes after you begin and reach their maximum effect after two hours.” While most of us can’t allocate two hours a day to walk or meditate in the woods, we can probably find 20 minutes to take a walk.
All of us would prefer to age in a way where we remain healthy and active, enjoying our post-retirement years in the way we hoped we would. Maybe forest bathing can play a role in helping to improve our well-being. Even if you’re a skeptic, it’s worth a try.
Take care and stay safe.
BOOK:
Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.
The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.
In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.
Learn more about Bob Len here.
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