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Hikers and bikers know the feeling of needing hot baths after muddy treks in the woods.
What if nature provided the bath, without a drop of water?
My partner and I recently dabbled in Shinrin-yoku and lived to tell of it. Shinrin-yoku is Japanese for bathing in the forest atmosphere. Of course, this is not bathing as we think of it, but taking in the forest through the senses of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch.
“In the 1980s the Japanese government encouraged workers to get out from behind their desks and out into the forests,” says our forest guide, Andrea Prazmowski, the first in this area to become certified as a Forest Therapy Guide. There are now others now, and the Carp Ridge Ecowellness Centre is becoming a training hub.
To get qualified, Prazmowski trained in California with the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs followed by a six-month mentored practicum. She is also a certified hike leader.
That last attribute leads to a question. There are hikes and trails throughout the region, including Gatineau Park, which casts a large green shadow just across the Ottawa River. Can’t we just jog or hike or bike through the woods to escape the city and experience nature?
“This practice is different,” Prazmowski says. “It’s about slowing down … and really noticing where we are now.”
Andrea Prazmowski is a forest therapy guide. Wayne Cuddington/ Postmedia
Where we were was on the tranquil property of Gaia Wellness Retreat near Wakefield, on the shores of Petit Lac Usher on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Quiet enough to hear mosquitoes buzz. Our 2 1/2-hour session began with an introduction on the history of the land, including the glacial retreats that created the Champlain Sea, which once engulfed what is now Ottawa, Montreal and the surrounding area.
Toward the lake, where a breeze kept the bugs at bay, we stopped at the first therapy “station,” for an experience called the “pleasures of presence.”
After leaving the city and traffic snarled from race weekend road closures, here was the first chance to draw a deep breath and leave behind the highway dust.
Prazmowski had the group members — six of us — close our eyes to better appreciate the sounds and smells of the forest and imagine roots growing from our boots deep into the ground. It’s often said the loss of one sense heightens others, and so it was that, with eyes shut, the breeze off the lake and the sound of the birds in the woods were apparent in ways they weren’t before.
In a soothing voice, the guide had us spin slightly and open eyes, as though seeing for the first time. It was stunning, how green was the foliage in the nearby forest and across the lake, where new spring growth glistened in the light.
The group then walked, leisurely, with a focus on something as simple as a leaf or garden herb rippling in the breeze.
When do we ever take time from our day to be mindful of such things?
“Our society tends to be in overdrive,” Prazmowski says. “This is an invitation to take a break from all that thinking and awaken the sensory experience of being in the forest.”
Across a meadow, the group settled at the edge of a forest, again near the lake, where we formed pairs. One person — the “camera” — closes his or her eyes while guided by the other to a particular spot. The focus might be a plant or tree or anything at all. The idea is, as the eyes are open, that a cropped photograph appears from the mind’s eye. It does work, sharpening the focus on an image while distractions fall away.
Escaping the city seems therapeutic enough, but studies suggest there are additional benefits, physical and mental, from these slow, meditative sojourns in the forest.
Its proponents cite reduced levels of cortisone (the stress hormone), lower blood pressure and even improved physical immunity because of compounds called phytoncides released by trees. Phytoncides help defend trees from viruses and infections and some scientists say they help the human immune system as well, with benefits that can last for days after an intimate brush with nature.
Sheila Gariepy, 61, of Ottawa has done multiple walks with Prazmowski and has found personal insight after connecting in the woods. Confronting a challenge in her life, Gariepy returned to the forest on her own to work through something. She was struck by how the trees had so many human characteristics, including injured limbs and visible scars, yet healed and moved on.
Gariepy thought it was important for people to do likewise.
“Stopping with Andrea and taking on the invitations to observe, listen and notice things, I found that it really helped to slow everything down,” Gariepy says. “To effectively get out of my own thoughts and my own preoccupations to really focus on my senses, I found it very grounding.
“I guess that was the takeaway, Sometimes you have to stop and pay attention to what is going on around you and not get lost in your own thoughts.”
The “forest bathing” tour session also featured boughs of pine around pine tea at the end of it. Wayne Scanlan photo
Our walk concluded with a snack of figs, nuts and a warm cup of spruce tips tea: a toast to the forest and one cup for the earth.
For information on walks with Prazmowski, visit her web site foresttherapyottawa.ca
Wayne Scanlan writes a regular column on fitness and health. Contact: wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
What if nature provided the bath, without a drop of water?
My partner and I recently dabbled in Shinrin-yoku and lived to tell of it. Shinrin-yoku is Japanese for bathing in the forest atmosphere. Of course, this is not bathing as we think of it, but taking in the forest through the senses of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch.
“In the 1980s the Japanese government encouraged workers to get out from behind their desks and out into the forests,” says our forest guide, Andrea Prazmowski, the first in this area to become certified as a Forest Therapy Guide. There are now others now, and the Carp Ridge Ecowellness Centre is becoming a training hub.
To get qualified, Prazmowski trained in California with the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs followed by a six-month mentored practicum. She is also a certified hike leader.
That last attribute leads to a question. There are hikes and trails throughout the region, including Gatineau Park, which casts a large green shadow just across the Ottawa River. Can’t we just jog or hike or bike through the woods to escape the city and experience nature?
“This practice is different,” Prazmowski says. “It’s about slowing down … and really noticing where we are now.”
Andrea Prazmowski is a forest therapy guide. Wayne Cuddington/ Postmedia
Where we were was on the tranquil property of Gaia Wellness Retreat near Wakefield, on the shores of Petit Lac Usher on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Quiet enough to hear mosquitoes buzz. Our 2 1/2-hour session began with an introduction on the history of the land, including the glacial retreats that created the Champlain Sea, which once engulfed what is now Ottawa, Montreal and the surrounding area.
Toward the lake, where a breeze kept the bugs at bay, we stopped at the first therapy “station,” for an experience called the “pleasures of presence.”
After leaving the city and traffic snarled from race weekend road closures, here was the first chance to draw a deep breath and leave behind the highway dust.
Prazmowski had the group members — six of us — close our eyes to better appreciate the sounds and smells of the forest and imagine roots growing from our boots deep into the ground. It’s often said the loss of one sense heightens others, and so it was that, with eyes shut, the breeze off the lake and the sound of the birds in the woods were apparent in ways they weren’t before.
In a soothing voice, the guide had us spin slightly and open eyes, as though seeing for the first time. It was stunning, how green was the foliage in the nearby forest and across the lake, where new spring growth glistened in the light.
The group then walked, leisurely, with a focus on something as simple as a leaf or garden herb rippling in the breeze.
When do we ever take time from our day to be mindful of such things?
“Our society tends to be in overdrive,” Prazmowski says. “This is an invitation to take a break from all that thinking and awaken the sensory experience of being in the forest.”
Across a meadow, the group settled at the edge of a forest, again near the lake, where we formed pairs. One person — the “camera” — closes his or her eyes while guided by the other to a particular spot. The focus might be a plant or tree or anything at all. The idea is, as the eyes are open, that a cropped photograph appears from the mind’s eye. It does work, sharpening the focus on an image while distractions fall away.
Escaping the city seems therapeutic enough, but studies suggest there are additional benefits, physical and mental, from these slow, meditative sojourns in the forest.
Its proponents cite reduced levels of cortisone (the stress hormone), lower blood pressure and even improved physical immunity because of compounds called phytoncides released by trees. Phytoncides help defend trees from viruses and infections and some scientists say they help the human immune system as well, with benefits that can last for days after an intimate brush with nature.
Sheila Gariepy, 61, of Ottawa has done multiple walks with Prazmowski and has found personal insight after connecting in the woods. Confronting a challenge in her life, Gariepy returned to the forest on her own to work through something. She was struck by how the trees had so many human characteristics, including injured limbs and visible scars, yet healed and moved on.
Gariepy thought it was important for people to do likewise.
“Stopping with Andrea and taking on the invitations to observe, listen and notice things, I found that it really helped to slow everything down,” Gariepy says. “To effectively get out of my own thoughts and my own preoccupations to really focus on my senses, I found it very grounding.
“I guess that was the takeaway, Sometimes you have to stop and pay attention to what is going on around you and not get lost in your own thoughts.”
The “forest bathing” tour session also featured boughs of pine around pine tea at the end of it. Wayne Scanlan photo
Our walk concluded with a snack of figs, nuts and a warm cup of spruce tips tea: a toast to the forest and one cup for the earth.
For information on walks with Prazmowski, visit her web site foresttherapyottawa.ca
Wayne Scanlan writes a regular column on fitness and health. Contact: wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
