You need a bath…

A forest bath, that is. No need for a tub or soap and towel. You won’t even need much of a forest - a city park or even a single tree will do - though immersion helps.

For one recent forest bath, we joined a pleasant walk on the campus of the New Hampshire State House to be introduced to about a dozen trees that populate that space. All are venerable and some are vulnerable, many have histories as long as that of this “oldest of state houses in continuous use.” Several trees are “state champions” for their species, meaning that they are the largest of that species in several dimensions. Like beauty contestants, trees can be town, county, state, and even national champions. How is this decided? If you must know, Trunk Circumference (inches) + Height (feet) + ¼ Average Crown Spread (feet) = Total Points. A tree must be re-measured at least every 10 years to maintain its champion status with circumference measurement taken at 4 ½ feet above the ground on the uphill side. Do you remember how to measure the height of a tree?

That being in nature, particularly in a mindful way, benefits health and well-being seems so intuitively obvious as not needing science for confirmation. Nevertheless, Japan in the 1980s “invented” a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”) and set about proving its benefits through scientific study. And South Korea accommodates tourists at its National Center for Forest Therapy. Needless to say, forest bathing and forest therapy have caught on in the United States to the extent that the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs now lists 556 certified therapists. One of these therapists will present a free webinar for our own New Hampshire Healthcare Workers for Climate Action on December 6, 2022 titled “Nature Connected Wellness - An Introduction to Forest Bathing for Healthcare Workers.” Click on the link to register; you don’t need to be a healthcare worker to attend.

You may have noticed that there is no talk of birds in this blog. The birds already know the message and its meaning. It’s about the habitat that we share with them, the habitat that is not only for bathing, but for protecting, preserving, and admiring as it is as threatened as the birds by the human forces on our planet. Trees and their forest communities are literally the sources of the air we breathe. In simple terms, trees and greenspace near us prolong and enrich our lives.

Finally, in case you’d like a good read while you're taking a regular wet bath or sitting under a tree, I recommend The Nature Fix by Florence Williams. And as for poetry, anything by John Muir would work, but I think Mary Oliver does it best.

Carl Cooley, MD

When I Am Among The Trees by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees, 
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”