I recently took my first walk in a pine forest. I have walked through lots of pine forests, but never intentionally in one. I have considered an evergreen forest to be just something that blocks my view. 

I took my intentional pine forest walk because I’ve been learning a few things lately about evergreen forests that made me really curious. I’ve learned that human beings have a kind of symbiotic relationship with forests. Well, if you can call it symbiotic when one of the members gets almost all of the benefits in the relationship. And in this case, it turns out that it’s the human beings that get the vast majority of the benefits.

Here’s a few of the benefits that have been documented. 

Take a forest walk and you:

• Reduce blood pressure
• Lower stress
• Improve cardiovascular and metabolic health
• Help weight-loss
• Lower blood-sugar levels

• Improve concentration and memory
• Lift depression
• Increase anticancer protein production

• Improve pain thresholds
• Sleep better
• Improve energy
• Boost the immune system with an increase in the count of the body’s (NK) white blood cells

All these benefits can come from just taking a relaxed walk in a forest.

In Japan they call these walks forest bathing. Which is not taking a bath in the forest, but immersing yourself in the atmosphere of a forest.

It began over 30 years ago to combat the stresses of increased technology and urban life. Scientists like Dr. Qing Li  knew that forest bathing was beneficial for people but he didn’t know why. In search of the answer, Qing  Li and his colleagues spent many years and various research studies measuring hormone levels, hooking people up to various monitors and sending them out into the forest for walks. The researchers then repeated the same process in the city in order to compare urban walks with forest walks. Researchers experimented with various lengths of time and various locations for forest walking and even isolated elements of the forest and brought them in to study in a petri dish. 

What is it about walking in a forest that makes it so beneficial for us? There are multiple contributing factors. Here are a few.

• The lower noise level, and sounds such as running water, wind in the leaves, bird song. 
• Beneficial microbes in the dirt such as mycobacterium vaccae.
• The views of beauty which invites us to delight.
•  Our brain’s skill of giving relaxing attention.  
• The phytoncides, chemicals that we experience as the beautiful scent of an evergreen forest.

Of all these factors I was most surprised by the phytoncides. Prolonged exposure to these chemicals was found to increase the number and activity of our NK white blood cells. A serious upgrade for our immune system. Phytoncides differ from one tree species to another. Dr. Qing Li ‘s group was especially interested in researching the various evergreen trees in Japan and it was their evergreen phytoncide research that inspired me to select a pine forest for my first forest bath. 

Soul Sculpting Project: Take a 2 1/2 Minute Forest Bath

Though you typically take a walk, for a forest bath it is not about physical exercise. It is about using our senses to immerse ourselves in nature.

1. Go find a tree or if possible a number of trees to be with.
2. Do each of the following for 30 seconds each.

• Look. What do you see?
• Close your eyes and listen. What do you hear?
• Smell. Smell the air, the tree, the dirt. What do you smell?
• Feel. Touch the trees and touch the ground. What do you feel?

3. Take your last 30 seconds to: 

• Breathe deeply. Inhale the oxygen from the tree and give the gift of carbon dioxide to the tree.

 Extra credit In some locations you can add another 30 seconds and find something safe to taste.

On my first forest bath, when I decided to see the forest as more than something that was just blocking my view, I was rather amazed at my experience. It had been raining so the cold air was full of negative ions. It felt vital and I took repeated deep breaths.

The ground was spongy soft under foot. The bird songs sounded new to me and the height of the towering pines was extraordinary. How do they move water all the way up to those needles? I pondered the tree’s underground communication system. 300 miles of tiny fungal network under each step I took.

I was surprised how visually complex the whole dense forest was. So many shapes, textures, plants. How in the world had I seen this place as uninteresting? 

I intend to take regular forest baths now and though I’m getting almost all the benefits of this symbiotic friendship I can offer the forest my gift of some carbon dioxide as I exhale from the fresh oxygen I have just received.

The Bible begins with trees in the Garden of Eden and ends with trees in the Book of Revelations.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;  . . .   and a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,. . .  On either side of the river was the tree of life,. . . and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Rev 21:1, 22:1-2