Forest Bathing: Why Only Five Minutes in The Forest are So Healthy
Many people go to the forest to clear their heads. However, a walk in the forest is so much more than pure relaxation – it has a positive effect on our entire body.
Numerous poets have dedicated their poems to the beauty of the forest, some of which can still be found in shelters today. Why the forest? Because there is hardly a better place to switch off and rearrange your thoughts. A walk through the trees invigorates, refreshes and is much more than pure relaxation. Studies and books prove that nature offers great health benefits. In fact, a walk in the woods can relieve stress, strengthen the immune system and boost self-esteem – in no time at all.
Refuel in five minutes
During a walk, the heart beats measurably slower, blood pressure drops and the muscles relax. Stress and exhaustion fall away from us and the positive feelings come to the fore. To achieve this result, you don’t need an hour in the forest, but only five minutes. This is what researchers at the University of Essex have found out in a study.
According to the analysis, walks in the forest increase self-esteem, lift up the mood and reduce stress. This effect is said to increase if there is a lake or a stream on the way. Mood and self-esteem are key indicators of our physical and mental health. After all, they influence our ability to deal with stressful situations. And provide us with a momentary feeling of happiness.
Forest walks influence the immune system
As the biologist Clemens G. Arvay writes in his book “The Biophilia Effect – Healing from the Forest”, forest walks – especially in winter – strengthen the immune system. The reason for this: the forest has a positive effect on the parasympathetic system, the “nerve of calm”, which is effective against chronic stress and lifts the mood. “At the same time, we breathe in terpenes released by the trees in the forest, which strengthen our immune system and multiply our defence cells against dangerous or diseased cells,” says Arvay.
Terpenes are messenger substances that increase the number and activity of natural killer cells in the human body. These killer cells then act against viruses such as cold viruses, but also against potential cancer cells. “If you spend a lot of time in the forest, you will definitely get through the winter in a healthier way,” the biologist is certain.
By the way: According to a study at the Center for Health, about 3000 steps a day are enough to reduce the risk of arteriosclerosis – and thus the risk of a heart attack or stroke. And these 3000 steps are better done in the fresh forest air than in the city.
Personality decides on positive effect
Of course the forest does not have the same positive influence on mood and self-esteem for everyone. A beautiful landscape can be a wide field or a dune or desert landscape for one person, for another it is the sea or the mountains. Not all places have the same effect, the personality plays a decisive role.
As US researchers have found out, introverted people feel most at home in the mountains, while extroverted people love the sea. Why is this so? Experts suspect that extroverts are attracted to beaches because they reflect their inner openness. Introverts can retreat better in mountainous landscapes, which is more in keeping with their character.
Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. We are more likely to agree with the words of the painter Vincent van Gogh: “If you truly love nature, you will find it beautiful anywhere”.