A small but growing number of people here believe that immersing yourself in nature can boost your mood, reduce anxiety, and make you happier. Now, who wouldn't want that?
You Min first experienced forest therapy during a five-day hiking trip in Kenya. "We were taken through the forest at a really slow pace. I found it difficult to settle into it at first, but by the end of it, I realised I had gained a lot of mental and emotional clarity from taking my time and observing how things in nature unfold," she says. It was the most tranquil she had felt in a long time.
On returning home, You Min found it hard to recapture what she had experienced. That is, until she chanced on a video about forest bathing on Facebook. It's a Japanese practice where people focus on being present in nature, with the belief that it helps them discover new perspectives and insights.
Intrigued, she signed up for a training course at the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs in Melbourne, where she underwent eight days of intensive training, followed by six months of walks, reports and assignments. After the course, she left her job in public service, and in January this year, she founded Xiu Nature Connections.
Among other things, she leads fortnightly forest-therapy walks in parks such as the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Fort Canning Park, and the Japanese Garden. Each session - which costs $35 and allows a maximum of 12 participants - is two and a half hours long.
Think of forest bathing as a type of ecotherapy - a term coined by author Howard Clinebell in 1996. Practitioners of ecotherapy believe that spending time in nature has psychological benefits. The research backs it up. A 2013 University of Essex study found that taking a walk in nature reduced depression scores in more than 70 per cent of its participants.
But the question is, does it really work? Or is this New Age mumbo? I put on my activewear, slapped on some mosquito repellent, and joined a forest bathing session at the Japanese Garden led by You Min. We began by holding "worry stones" in our hands. These smooth gemstones are used for relaxation or anxiety relief, and the process helped me let go of negative thoughts and fears. After that, You Min worked on "opening up our senses". She told us to walk slowly, feel the breeze, watch the dragonflies, and listen to what was going on around us. That was hard, because I'm not the sort to meander, and I had to hold back from overtaking people ahead of me.
Throughout the session, You Min prompted us to talk about what we had observed. I told her I'd been watching a monitor lizard and turtle, and how comfortable they seemed roaming at their own pace. Articulating my feelings alongside everyone else made me feel less self-conscious, while paying attention to what was going on around me also helped to quieten the noise in my mind. Later, we spent 10 minutes just sitting in one spot and observing our surroundings.
All in, the guided walk made me feel calm, refreshed, and ready to tackle the rest of the day similar to a good yoga class.
Taking root in Singapore
Some businesses here are helping people in Singapore ease into ecotherapy. John Holden, founder of executive coaching and organisational consulting practice Mind Odyssey (from $3,000 for a half-day nature-programme workshop), launched a nature-based corporate coaching programme last year. The aim? To help busy professionals reconnect with nature. Singapore, with its reputation as a "garden city", was a perfect fit.
John, himself a nature lover, structures his programme as a half-day or full-day workshop. Take his Hort Park programme, for instance. The day begins indoors, where participants create art that allows them to reflect on their stressors at work and in other aspects of life. This also gives them a better understanding of their colleagues and their triggers.
After that, the group moves outdoors for a series of activities - for example, looking at objects in nature and sharing memories that are sparked by what they observe. "It's for them to draw connections between nature and their lives, while fostering a bond with the team," says John.
Get your feet wet
c If forests and parks aren't your scene, immesing in nature can also be done at a beach or reservoir. Try Mindful Paddling. It's a programme run by Ding Kian Seng, co-founder of Splashaxis (from $50 a session), which combines his love of paddling and meditation.
Participants are encouraged by Kian Seng to be present and aware of their thoughts, emotions and surroundings as they paddle. The session closes with meditation out on the water. You don't need to be an expert kayaker to take part in this. Kian Seng says participants feel the practice de-stresses them and gives them clarity to relook challenges. He adds: "In some cases, participants get so emotional after the session, they tear up."
Do it yourself
Ways to immerse yourself in Forest Bathing.
Step 1. Walk in nature trails without your handphone.
Step 2. Move slowly and be aware of your surroundings ,what you are ...
Seeing ...
Smelling ...
Hearing ...
Touching ...
Last Step : Sit down in a comfortable space for 15 minutes each week.
s
Forest Therapy is a common remedy in countries like Japan and Korea for stress from a fast-paced lifestyle and different kinds of pollution. Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing as it is known in Japan is shown to provide many health benefits, including increased immunity from the inhalation of the essential wood oils from plants.
The idea is less about escaping from the urban jungle and more about connecting, and returning to a natural way of being. Many people now live in an artificial or otherwise depleted environment, bombarded by endless stimulus and information. Conventional work schedules mostly ignore natural rhythms and the body’s needs, whether it is working long hours past sunset, skipping lunch, or working night shifts. Technology, while bringing people afar close together, also changes the nature of human relationship and the relationship between nature and human.
Much of human existence has been in tune with the many different cycles and the natural environment. We looked to the lunar cycles to plant and harvest. We rose and retired with the rising and setting of the sun. We observed days off.
Urbanization on today’s scale is a relatively recent phenomena. The world’s tallest buildings now soar over 2000 feet above ground, disconnecting people from the earth’s beneficial radiation which research has shown is necessary for health.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Many researchers are interested in the relationship between emotions, behaviour, and the environment, with much written on the emotional health benefits of green spaces. In a study of the urban brain in outdoor activity, researchers used mobile EEG to observe participants who walked for 25 minutes in three types of urban environment in Edinburgh, Scotland. The results showed a lower level of frustration and engagement when inside the green space zone.
Hort-Faber Southern Ridges Singapore
We regularly experience what this type of research finds when we spend time in the woods, the beach, out in the open sea. Nature is healing. Even a brief walk through an urban park helps us de-stress. It is more than the fresh air or having a break from work and responsibilities. The soundscape is soothing, with birdsongs, crickets, rustling of the leaves…The landscape is an undulation of gradations.
THE QUESTION IS HOW DO WE FOREST-BATHE WHEN THERE ARE NO FORESTS AROUND?
Not every city has access to 400 gardens like Paris and it is not everywhere that people own mountainsides as in Norway. Many of us have access to nature reserves, open countryside, running trails through the forests, or maybe cross country ski runs in the summer. Just remembering running through the muddy grounds of the endowment lands in Vancouver brings a smile to my face and a sense of contentment.
SMALL-SCALE FOREST BATHING
PARKS COUNT
Immersion is key. What about spending some quiet time leaning against a tree? Open up your senses and really take in the entire experience. Allow the variation of all the greens to flood your senses. What do you pick up on the wind? Do you hear any birds? Touch the bark of the tree and the grass beneath your bare feet.
Or try stretching out on the ground and look up at the canopy of trees. Enjoy the flight of bird high above.
EXPLORE
Google new spaces in your city to visit or just explore on foot, wandering with no plan or agenda. Maybe there is some random hill that has been left alone. The importance of green spaces is increasingly being considered in urban planning and redevelopment.
VISIT A NURSERY
A walk through a nursery with all the different plants and flowers can be enough of a boost in between treks out to the woods. We don’t need forests for forest bathing, at least on a daily basis. Check out the Nature Pyramid for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual recommendations of forest bathing and other nature-based dietary suggestions.
The importance of natural environments, forests, and green spaces cannot be understated. They are essential to our well-being in so many ways and on so many levels that supporting conservation efforts is everyone’s responsibility.
Forest Bathing Hort-Faber Southern Ridges Singapore
Forest Bathing Hort-Faber Southern Ridges Singapore
#GetOutside and schedule in some forest bathing as often as possible. In Singapore, you can check out the reserves, parks, and the Southern Ridges, a 5+mile “trail” that links parks between HarbourFront and Kent Ridge Park. Enjoy vistas and views of the city and nature on the Forest Walk, raised high above the ground.
You Min first experienced forest therapy during a five-day hiking trip in Kenya. "We were taken through the forest at a really slow pace. I found it difficult to settle into it at first, but by the end of it, I realised I had gained a lot of mental and emotional clarity from taking my time and observing how things in nature unfold," she says. It was the most tranquil she had felt in a long time.
On returning home, You Min found it hard to recapture what she had experienced. That is, until she chanced on a video about forest bathing on Facebook. It's a Japanese practice where people focus on being present in nature, with the belief that it helps them discover new perspectives and insights.
Intrigued, she signed up for a training course at the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs in Melbourne, where she underwent eight days of intensive training, followed by six months of walks, reports and assignments. After the course, she left her job in public service, and in January this year, she founded Xiu Nature Connections.
Among other things, she leads fortnightly forest-therapy walks in parks such as the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Fort Canning Park, and the Japanese Garden. Each session - which costs $35 and allows a maximum of 12 participants - is two and a half hours long.
Think of forest bathing as a type of ecotherapy - a term coined by author Howard Clinebell in 1996. Practitioners of ecotherapy believe that spending time in nature has psychological benefits. The research backs it up. A 2013 University of Essex study found that taking a walk in nature reduced depression scores in more than 70 per cent of its participants.
But the question is, does it really work? Or is this New Age mumbo? I put on my activewear, slapped on some mosquito repellent, and joined a forest bathing session at the Japanese Garden led by You Min. We began by holding "worry stones" in our hands. These smooth gemstones are used for relaxation or anxiety relief, and the process helped me let go of negative thoughts and fears. After that, You Min worked on "opening up our senses". She told us to walk slowly, feel the breeze, watch the dragonflies, and listen to what was going on around us. That was hard, because I'm not the sort to meander, and I had to hold back from overtaking people ahead of me.
Throughout the session, You Min prompted us to talk about what we had observed. I told her I'd been watching a monitor lizard and turtle, and how comfortable they seemed roaming at their own pace. Articulating my feelings alongside everyone else made me feel less self-conscious, while paying attention to what was going on around me also helped to quieten the noise in my mind. Later, we spent 10 minutes just sitting in one spot and observing our surroundings.
All in, the guided walk made me feel calm, refreshed, and ready to tackle the rest of the day similar to a good yoga class.
Taking root in Singapore
Some businesses here are helping people in Singapore ease into ecotherapy. John Holden, founder of executive coaching and organisational consulting practice Mind Odyssey (from $3,000 for a half-day nature-programme workshop), launched a nature-based corporate coaching programme last year. The aim? To help busy professionals reconnect with nature. Singapore, with its reputation as a "garden city", was a perfect fit.
John, himself a nature lover, structures his programme as a half-day or full-day workshop. Take his Hort Park programme, for instance. The day begins indoors, where participants create art that allows them to reflect on their stressors at work and in other aspects of life. This also gives them a better understanding of their colleagues and their triggers.
After that, the group moves outdoors for a series of activities - for example, looking at objects in nature and sharing memories that are sparked by what they observe. "It's for them to draw connections between nature and their lives, while fostering a bond with the team," says John.
Get your feet wet
c If forests and parks aren't your scene, immesing in nature can also be done at a beach or reservoir. Try Mindful Paddling. It's a programme run by Ding Kian Seng, co-founder of Splashaxis (from $50 a session), which combines his love of paddling and meditation.
Participants are encouraged by Kian Seng to be present and aware of their thoughts, emotions and surroundings as they paddle. The session closes with meditation out on the water. You don't need to be an expert kayaker to take part in this. Kian Seng says participants feel the practice de-stresses them and gives them clarity to relook challenges. He adds: "In some cases, participants get so emotional after the session, they tear up."
Do it yourself
Ways to immerse yourself in Forest Bathing.
Step 1. Walk in nature trails without your handphone.
Step 2. Move slowly and be aware of your surroundings ,what you are ...
Seeing ...
Smelling ...
Hearing ...
Touching ...
Last Step : Sit down in a comfortable space for 15 minutes each week.
s
Forest Therapy is a common remedy in countries like Japan and Korea for stress from a fast-paced lifestyle and different kinds of pollution. Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing as it is known in Japan is shown to provide many health benefits, including increased immunity from the inhalation of the essential wood oils from plants.
The idea is less about escaping from the urban jungle and more about connecting, and returning to a natural way of being. Many people now live in an artificial or otherwise depleted environment, bombarded by endless stimulus and information. Conventional work schedules mostly ignore natural rhythms and the body’s needs, whether it is working long hours past sunset, skipping lunch, or working night shifts. Technology, while bringing people afar close together, also changes the nature of human relationship and the relationship between nature and human.
Much of human existence has been in tune with the many different cycles and the natural environment. We looked to the lunar cycles to plant and harvest. We rose and retired with the rising and setting of the sun. We observed days off.
Urbanization on today’s scale is a relatively recent phenomena. The world’s tallest buildings now soar over 2000 feet above ground, disconnecting people from the earth’s beneficial radiation which research has shown is necessary for health.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Many researchers are interested in the relationship between emotions, behaviour, and the environment, with much written on the emotional health benefits of green spaces. In a study of the urban brain in outdoor activity, researchers used mobile EEG to observe participants who walked for 25 minutes in three types of urban environment in Edinburgh, Scotland. The results showed a lower level of frustration and engagement when inside the green space zone.
Hort-Faber Southern Ridges Singapore
We regularly experience what this type of research finds when we spend time in the woods, the beach, out in the open sea. Nature is healing. Even a brief walk through an urban park helps us de-stress. It is more than the fresh air or having a break from work and responsibilities. The soundscape is soothing, with birdsongs, crickets, rustling of the leaves…The landscape is an undulation of gradations.
THE QUESTION IS HOW DO WE FOREST-BATHE WHEN THERE ARE NO FORESTS AROUND?
Not every city has access to 400 gardens like Paris and it is not everywhere that people own mountainsides as in Norway. Many of us have access to nature reserves, open countryside, running trails through the forests, or maybe cross country ski runs in the summer. Just remembering running through the muddy grounds of the endowment lands in Vancouver brings a smile to my face and a sense of contentment.
SMALL-SCALE FOREST BATHING
PARKS COUNT
Immersion is key. What about spending some quiet time leaning against a tree? Open up your senses and really take in the entire experience. Allow the variation of all the greens to flood your senses. What do you pick up on the wind? Do you hear any birds? Touch the bark of the tree and the grass beneath your bare feet.
Or try stretching out on the ground and look up at the canopy of trees. Enjoy the flight of bird high above.
EXPLORE
Google new spaces in your city to visit or just explore on foot, wandering with no plan or agenda. Maybe there is some random hill that has been left alone. The importance of green spaces is increasingly being considered in urban planning and redevelopment.
VISIT A NURSERY
A walk through a nursery with all the different plants and flowers can be enough of a boost in between treks out to the woods. We don’t need forests for forest bathing, at least on a daily basis. Check out the Nature Pyramid for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual recommendations of forest bathing and other nature-based dietary suggestions.
The importance of natural environments, forests, and green spaces cannot be understated. They are essential to our well-being in so many ways and on so many levels that supporting conservation efforts is everyone’s responsibility.
Forest Bathing Hort-Faber Southern Ridges Singapore
Forest Bathing Hort-Faber Southern Ridges Singapore
#GetOutside and schedule in some forest bathing as often as possible. In Singapore, you can check out the reserves, parks, and the Southern Ridges, a 5+mile “trail” that links parks between HarbourFront and Kent Ridge Park. Enjoy vistas and views of the city and nature on the Forest Walk, raised high above the ground.
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