The Savage Shaman

Shinrin Yoku is commonly known as the “Japanese art of forest bathing.” According to Yoshifumi Miyazaki in his 2018 best-selling book Shinrin Yoku: The Japanese Art of Forest Bathing:

“The word shinrin-yoku was coined in 1982 by Tomohide Akiyama, Director of the Japanese Forestry Agency. It can be translated literally as “forest bathing” and is used in a similar way to “sun bathing” and “sea bathing”. You don’t literally take a bath, but you do bathe in the environment of the forest, using all your senses to experience nature up close.”

If the concept of shinrin yoku still feels enigmatic, imagine a simple daily exercise that involves “walking slowly through the woods, in no hurry, for a morning, an afternoon or a day.” If it were sufficient to leave the definitions at this, one may actually capture the essence of shinrin yoku, and walk outside to enjoy perfect contentment. While, admittedly, the term was first coined as a marketing exercise to “attract people to the many beautiful forests of Japan”, the concept itself beckons all humans back to a more primal reality, when our pre-industrial ancestors existed on the razors edge of survival, completely at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Unfortunately, as our modern civilization divests further and further from the wild, unpredictable, and uncontrollable nature in which our species evolved, our “escape” back to nature requires a more rationalistic understanding. As a product of his scientific training and modern urban society, Yoshifumi Miyazaki invites his readers, likewise products of scientific/rationalistic societies, into the landscape of shinrin yoku through history, poetry, and science.

History

Homo sapiens have evolved over seven million years to live in and with nature, he explains, citing “in 1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 1900 the figure was close to 14% and in 2016 this reached 54%. The United Nations Population Division predicts that by 2050, this figure will reach 66%.” (pg 26)

What have we gained, and what have we lost in the relentless pursuit of “civilization?” We have lost our silence, we have lost our darkness, we have lost our peace, and we have lost our purpose. Finally, as we are collectively losing our humanity, we are turning back to our Mother Nature for solace, for healing, and reconciliation.

Poetry

“The leaf of every tree brings a message from the unseen world. Look, every falling leaf is a blessing.”

– Rumi

“Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky.”

– Kahlil Gibran

“The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.”

– Henry David Thoreau

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.”

– William Blake

Science

“In March 1990 I conducted the first experiments to study the physiological effects of shinrin-yoku on the Japanese island of Yakushima. With the cooperation of NHK (Japan Boradcasting Corporation) we began our experiments to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the saliva of subjects walking through a forest…” Yoshifumi Miyazaki continues to explain that humans are increasingly subject to artificial urban environments, “yet our physiological functions are still adapted to nature. Because of this,” he argues, “the sympathetic nervous system is in a constant state of over-stimulation” contributing to chronic stress and poor sleep leading to a “lack of healthy regulation in the nervous system.”

Miyazaki’s research confirmed that spending time walking slowly in a forest has a positive correlation with lowered blood pressure, lowered heart rate, and lowered cortisol; while conversely improving immune function.

If this is good enough for you, please stop reading now and watch this video:

….however, if this is not quite good enough, if there are still deeper questions itching at your soul such as:

1. what are we really doing when we step back into wilderness?
2. how (and why) to listen deeply and speak truthfully with the trees?
3. what if the secret to saving humanity was hidden deep in the forest?
4. and what would happen if I joined the de-colonization of humanity and committed to re-wilding my body and soul at the mercy of Mother Nature?

Stay tuned for a deeper reading into the philosophy of shinrin yoku, and a re-wilding of our species and planet.