In the past few years it has become fashionable to move freely and exhilarated in nature. The confinement and travel restrictions during the height of the pandemic have given an enthusiasm for nature a powerful boost. And so you see people in the forest enthusiastically hugging trees or wanting to feel the lush green of the herbaceous layer with their hands.
Health experts are enthusiastic about this: they recommend that you move freely in nature much more often and sometimes adopt unusual postures, as a current study suggests. Spending time in nature is known to lower blood pressure, boost the immune system, relieve anxiety and help you find peace. Anyone who moves in the fresh air and is concentrating on something outside of themselves manages to break out of tiresome circles of thoughts.
Hug trees and hear leaves rustle
A meta-analysis of 28 studies just published in The Lancet Planetary Health proves the beneficial effect. The study was conducted by Xiaoqi Feng of Australia’s University of New South Wales and Thomas Astell-Burt of the University of Wollongong. Both are co-directors of the Population Wellbeing and Environment Research Lab. It is not surprising that the directors of such a research laboratory proclaim the value of the environment for well-being.
Nevertheless, the publication arouses curiosity – and envy, because some of the data that the professors evaluated comes from “Nature Prescription” programs. In Scotland, Canada, the USA and other nations, doctors can prescribe “nature on prescription” for their civilization-stricken patients. In Canada, patients with a natural prescription receive free entry to various national parks. And in Great Britain, such an outdoor program is financed by the state health service with more than five million euros. The money is to be used to pay experts who put together the individually suitable program for the patients.
Apparently this is sorely needed: Anyone who looks around on the relevant websites must realize that not every nature patient is clear on what to do between the trees and bushes. Lists of tips are intended to help: for example, you can hug trees and listen to the rustling of the leaves – the classic Japanese forest bathing school. It is also interesting to turn a stone to explore the wonderful world of worms and isopods.
There’s also advice for physical activity: crouching down to touch the needles on the forest floor, and rolling in piles of leaves like a kindergarten child. You can also lie down on the grass, legs and arms stretched out, face down – and then breathe, smell, feel. It is also recommended to dig your hands deep into the forest floor and cling there.
That sounds more like wild boar than forest bathing. Do adults really have to chase their inner child into the woods? But it’s good, if such a bizarre forest experience is actually healthy, strengthens and calms the connection to nature: That’s good. The only thing that should be given to the nature explorers is that they should be a little more careful with their therapy during these weeks – and preferably not leave the forest paths.
Because it’s not just the buds and blossoms that sprout – wild animals also experience spring. It’s throwing time for the wild boar. Our tip for people who pay attention to their health: recipe or not, it is better to retreat in an orderly manner in the face of an angry brook. For the blood pressure.