Forest Bathing/ Shinrin-Yoku - Outside Reading 3

Today we have many forms of medical treatment. We create chemicals and prescribe them to fix our physical well being or to rewire our brains away from mental illnesses. Through many of our man made creations, such as technology, buildings, and reliance on plastics, we have become distant from our heritage: outside. We forget that we are part of Land Ethic, we, as humans, are part of the wilderness community. When we are away from it for too long, we start to feel sick and sad. This comes through forms of stress, anxiety, depression, and other diagnose mental illnesses and common frustrations.
Studies have done to support the legitimacy of forest bathing medicine. It originated in Japan, and is refereed to as the art and science of Shinrin-Yoku. The practice of forest therapy practice involves leaving your societal ties for only two hours a day and entering a landscape of greenery. The chemicals, scents, textures, and colors of nature have been proven to release positive receptors in the brain, leaving a person feeling happier and less upset. It also has been shown to increase your number of KBR cells, which are your killing bacteria that fight viruses and diseases, so being in the forest can make you physically healthier too.
There's a reason why people say they need a breath of fresh air, or that they need to take a walk, why gardening is thought of as therapeutic, why people choose to take vacations in the mountains; because outside actually does make you feel better, mentally and physically

Li, Qing. Forest Bathing. Viking, 2018.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lett- Own topic- #1

In reflection of the Pacific Crest Trail video, it's amazing to me how united every hiker seems to be. Once you're on the trail it's as if you are apart of a separate universe. In the normal universe, people are labeled by class or what job they have, but on the trail everyone is of equal status and is treated as human. It's beautiful. I loved listening to what motivated each one of the hikers to finish their journey and i loved seeing the reactions once they did reach the end. While i am not sure if i would be able to go on such a journey, videos like this definitely make one get motivated to complete a big task like this. The other thing that fascinated me was that while it seemed many of the hikers were united and taking this trip together, each journey is specific in it's own right. That is what interests me so much about the idea of Long distance hiking. It's very relateable to our everyday walk of life; we all have people we encounter over the course of ou...
Read more

Roberts Phenomenology of Prayer

In chapter three of Phenomenology of Prayer, there are a few paragraphs on to whom a prayer is addressed. It says in the first paragraph, that the people who pray address their prayers to the divine and then wait for a response. So where do the prayers go? The prayers go to God or the divine and then God or the divine sends forth an answer. In another paragraph, a prayer is related to an artist and their painting. Sometimes an artist paints with a specific audience or person in mind. Sometimes it is a gift for a specific person. Other times, the artist paints without an audience. Or, the painter has someone in which they are painting for but does not disclose it. This is related to prayer because sometimes a person prays with a specific target in mind but other times, they are unsure of who the target should or can be. This metaphor was helpful in the understanding of to whom a prayer is addressed.
Read more

Phenomenology of Prayer#1

The first chapter of this book focuses on prayer with a decentered self. I think that this is necessary when it comes to praying seriously. When praying you are talking to a higher being. A being that you believe is more powerful than you. So you shouldn't be focused on yourself when you pray but your relationship to whatever you're praying towards. If you think of yourself while you're praying it defeats the purpose of praying.
Read more