Suzanne's Mom's Blog

It should be obvious that being out in nature is good for us, but today it often seems like a foreign concept.

“Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning” is a lovely article, coming to you from Outside magazine. (I got the link from Andrew Sullivan’s blog.)

“These days, screen-addicted Americans are more stressed out and distracted than ever. And nope, there’s no app for that. But there is a radically simple remedy: get outside. [Outside magazine’s] Florence Williams travels to the deep woods of Japan, where researchers are backing up the surprising theory that nature can lower your blood pressure, fight off depression, beat back stress —  and even prevent cancer. …

“If the Japanese embrace of forest therapy can be attributed to one man, it’s [Yoshifumi] Miyazaki, a physiological anthropologist and vice director of Chiba University’s Center for Environment, Health, and Field Sciences, located just outside Tokyo.

“Miyazaki believes that because humans evolved in nature, it’s where we feel most comfortable, even if we don’t always know it. …

“Miyazaki has taken more than 600 research subjects into the woods since 2004. He and his colleague Juyoung Lee, also of Chiba University, have found that leisurely forest walks, compared with urban walks, yield a 12.4 percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a seven percent decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4 percent decrease in blood pressure, and a 5.8 percent decrease in heart rate. On subjective tests, study participants also report better moods and lower anxiety. …

“The science is so convincing that other countries are following Japan’s lead in studying and promoting nature as a cure. Lee just got hired away by the South Korean government, which is pouring more than $140 million into a new National Forest Therapy Center, expected to be completed in 2014. Finland, an empire of boreal spruce and pine, is also funding numerous studies. ‘Japan showed us that there could be cooperation between forestry and medical fields,’ says Liisa Tyrvainen of the Finnish Forest Research Institute” More.

Apart from just feeling better when I step outside for my walk and breathe the outdoors air, I note that a couple of my hero writers (Dickens and Asakiyume) are known for ruminating on long walks. Nature nourishes creative thought. P.S. Asakiyume also takes great pictures on her walks and posts them on her blog.

May 27, 2013, update from John: Mononoke creator Hayao Miyazaki on how he thinks about his art, here.

Photograph: Casey Yee
Mononoke forest, Yakushima Island, along the Kusugawa Trail. This is the forest that inspired Ghibli studio’s “Princess Mononoke.”

[University of Chiba‘s Yoshifumi Miyazaki] believes that because humans evolved in nature, it’s where we feel most comfortable, even if we don’t always know it. “Throughout our evolution, we’ve spent 99.9 percent of our time in natural environments,” he says. “Our physiological functions are still adapted to it. During everyday life, a feeling of comfort can be achieved if our rhythms are synchronized with those of the environment.”

To prove it, Miyazaki has taken more than 600 research subjects into the woods since 2004. He and his colleague Juyoung Lee, also of Chiba University, have found that leisurely forest walks, compared with urban walks, yield a 12.4 percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a seven percent decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4 percent decrease in blood pressure, and a 5.8 percent decrease in heart rate. On subjective tests, study participants also report better moods and lower anxiety.

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