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You have problems. Maybe more than you know. In addition to all the usual ills – work, relationships, money, time – civilized life can also cause psychological trauma.
The disconnection of nature can be bad for our mental health. But this unease had no name until 2000, when Australian philosophy professor Glenn Albracht coined the term psychoterratica, creating the beginning of a vocabulary to discuss the relationship between mental health and the environment.
Since then, he has created a whole lexicon. In May, the Albrecht dictionary, Earth Emotions: New words for a new world, will be published by Cornell Uiversity Press. It includes gems like the word ecoagnosy, a term created to describe the ignorance of the environment or its indifference to ecology. Then there is solastalgia, a particularly contemporary nostalgia: the psychic pain of climate change and the absence of a home that is changing before your eyes.
The healing power of nature
Julia Plevin, author of the book to come The healing magic of swimming in the forest, to be published in March by Random House, who suffered from psychoterratica. As a design student in New York, Plevin acknowledged that all gray buildings and lack of greenery made her depressed and worried. She focused her studies on psychoterratica and began to examine the link between space, nature, health and design.
When she returned to her hometown of San Francisco to work in Silicon Valley, she found herself under a miracle cure for her psychological discomfort. It's remarkably simple … if you live near a forest, in particular. As Plevin says, we just need to "update" regularly, spending time outside, especially among the trees. Walking in the woods and cultivating links with nature are her medicines, and sharing this therapy has become her mission.
Plevin is the founder of the San Francisco Forest Bathing Club. When she started the band on Meetup.com in 2016, she did not know if people would be interested. They were. In a few months, more than 500 members registered and she spoke to reporters around the world about the tonic of nature. Swimming in the forest, one of humanity's oldest pastimes, was suddenly gaining popularity.
What is old is new
Wood therapy started in Japan in 1982, when the government introduced the concept of yoku shinrin, or "in forest ". He urged citizens to use the country's 3,000 wooded miles to improve their well-being. Tomohide Akiyama, then head of the Ministry of Forests, intuitively understood that the woods are good for people, while the remoteness of nature makes us sick.
Soon, Japanese researchers attempted to quantify this intuition by studying the healing effect of trees. They discovered that the forest baths were not only beneficial, but also physically healing, as they exposed people to healthy essential oils released from the trees, the phytoncids. These antimicrobial oils protect trees from germs and have a host of benefits for human health, including improving the mood and functioning of the immune system; reduce blood pressure, heart rate, stress, anxiety and confusion; improve sleep and creativity; and eventually fight cancer and depression.
From 2004 to 2012, Japanese authorities spent about $ 4 million to study the physiological and psychological effects of swimming in the forest, designating 48 therapeutic pathways based on the results. In a very small (and therefore limited) but interesting study, Qing Li, a professor at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, measured the activity of natural killer (NK) cells from 12 male immune systems before and after exposure to wood. These cells provide a rapid response to virus-infected cells and tumors and are badociated with immune system health and cancer prevention. In a 2009 study, Li's subjects showed a significant increase in NK cell activity the week after a forest visit, and the positive effects lasted a month after each weekend in the woods.
Japan now has 62 designated therapeutic woods, attracting about 5 million visitors a year, and Li has become known as a postmodern shaman, the pioneering scientist in tree medicine. Finland presents itself to tourists as a bathing destination in the forest. There are forest therapy guides and certification programs in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as a global institute for forest therapy. Groups around the world, such as the official and unofficial Plevin Forest Swim Club, treat their psychotherapeutic with a dose of nature, whether they know it or not.
Civilization and its dissatisfied
That said, there are many ways to take your medicine for nature. The blue science of mind is the study of the healing properties of water, and studies have shown that a trip to the ocean and a shower at home are soothing . A visit to the park is also restorative, as is barefoot walking and grounding, which basically involves connecting to the ground.
Simply digging your fingers in the soil of a potted plant can improve your mood and strengthen your immune system. It turns out that, just like trees, dirt has beneficial properties for human health. The soil contains a microbiome and the more we contact it, the more we let it infiltrate our systems, the better our chances of maintaining our physical and mental well-being.
We have both a physical and psychological need to be in nature, as new research shows, and we get sick when we are disconnected from it. Fortunately, the prescription of what hurts us turns out to be a simple, inexpensive solution with no negative side effects.
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