Who needs forest bathing? You do
You’re busy. I get it. So why should you spend precious time forest bathing? Here’s the low down on why you need to start forest bathing and the health impacts of staying indoors.
You should spend more time outside forest bathing if you:
- Spend most of your day indoors
- Live in the city
- Feel stressed
- Have children
- Get anxious or depressed
- Have high blood pressure
- Can’t focus
- Love nature
- Long to be outside
Throughout human history, we’ve taken the benefits of being outside for granted. We spent most of our time outside, so there was no reason to think about why and how being in nature might actually be good for us. Or necessary. Now that we’re inside more often than out, we’re starting to realize that we need to be outside because we belong there.
Why you should you make a commitment to spend more time in nature
We know that proximity to nature buffers stress and improves overall health in myriad ways. How green your neighbourhood is corresponds directly to how healthy you are.
The further away from nature you live, the sicker you are. At the far end of the scale, people with less than 10 percent of green space within 0.6 miles (one kilometer) of their home are at 25 percent greater risk of depression and 30 percent greater risk of an anxiety disorder compared with people who had the largest percentage of green space within the same radius.
Conversely, people who live closer to green space are less likely to experience stress, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, asthma, migraines, infections, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. The closer you live to nature, the lower your risk of dying from any cause. Having ten more trees per city block is like having a life expectancy improvement equal to being seven years younger or $10,000 richer.
Want to live better, happier, and longer? Get outside and start forest bathing.
*Need a basic how-to forest bathing guide? Here’s how. Want more info about the health benefits of forest bathing? Read my book.
