Shinrin Yoku, A Growing Trend To Help You Breathe

Forest bathing, or nature immersion therapy, doesn’t always require a forest

Photo by Sergei A on Unsplash

Feeling alive and breathing the trees adds an element of your actual belonging to our planet.

But nature is neutral, and we must look at our own power and empowerment. One pathway is Shinrin Yoku. But, first, a word about our human psychology.

When wildfire threatens, or hurricane’s blast, we can worry that Nature is wrathful, is striking out in vengeance, or that we are reaping the whirlwind due to our continuing damage to our own home.

But this is nothing but psychological projection, the same kind of thinking that always seeks scapegoats and the most vulnerable to be blamed when inevitable problems arise.

But belonging on Earth and recognizing that we do is a far better strategy. Yes, human beings have polluted, scoured, drilled and spilled, but that we can engineer proves that we have the power to undo the worst effects of our extraction and agricultural geoengineering. Or, over time, to learn ways to use technological geoengineering for adaptation or mitigation. To learn all the pros and cons requires that we research and innovate wisely.