July 16, 2025, 2:03 am | Read time: 6 minutes
Forest bathing–it sounds like relaxation, unwinding, and quite literally, letting yourself “hang out” with trees. And that’s exactly what it is. It’s a unique form of therapy, also known as Shinrin Yoku. Back in the 1980s, Japanese scientists discovered the healing power of the forest. Today, “Forest Medicine” is its own branch of medical research. However, the impact of the forest on the human body–and thus on our well-being–has only been thoroughly studied beyond Japan’s borders in recent years. The more scientists learn, the more astonishing the findings about the forest’s healing properties become. I wanted to try Shinrin Yoku–and here, I share my experiences with forest bathing.
Overview
- I Want to Experience What Forest Bathing Does to Me
- Being Able to Perceive More Again–This Is Also What a Forest Bath Should Do
- Forest Bathing–Densely Mossy Spot Is My Dive Site
- Forest Bathing Experience: After 30 Minutes I Feel Energized
- Effect on Blood Pressure and Stress Hormone Levels
- Immune System and Hormonal Balance Communicate with Trees
- In Japan, Shinrin Yoku Is Prescribed as Therapy
- Forest Bathing Experience: The Little Happiness from the Trees I Feel Even the Next Day
I Want to Experience What Forest Bathing Does to Me
You can learn more about the forest’s healing properties through a “forest dive.” I definitely want to, so I meet Pia Hötzl, a trauma therapist, naturopath, and professional “forest bathing master” with her own forest practice in Basdorf, Brandenburg, about 30 kilometers north of Berlin. “Our brain feels at home in the forest because it’s designed to see a lot of green and irregular patterns, like dense foliage. It’s not evolutionarily adapted to the straight, gray architecture of cities, let alone smartphones and modern stress,” she explains as we enter the forest.
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Being Able to Perceive More Again–This Is Also What a Forest Bath Should Do
Some trees here are 300 years old and older. With them live deer, wild boars, hares, badgers, slow worms, and countless bird and insect species. The morning sun sparkles between the leaves. Pia spots a millipede being awkwardly dragged away by ants, a slow worm burying its head in the sand in fright, and a small blue-and-white striped feather in the moss. I wouldn’t have seen any of this and would have walked by carelessly. Being able to perceive more again–this is also what a forest bath should do.
Forest Bathing–Densely Mossy Spot Is My Dive Site
After a few minutes of leisurely strolling, we arrive at a spot with pines, beeches, and dense moss. A wonderfully beautiful postcard forest spot. This is to be my dive site. “Imagine you’re a child and in the forest for the first time. Marvel, look at everything closely, feel, smell, listen carefully. Take your time,” the forest therapist tells me. Then we begin. I dig my hands into the mossy ground, smell the typical earthy scent, feel the softness of the leaves, and see abstract images in their fine grain.
Forest Bathing Experience: After 30 Minutes I Feel Energized
Cautiously, I move forward step by step, look up into the creaking treetops, crumble rotten wood, find spider webs suddenly beautiful and ingenious, just like the lumpy, reddish-brown tree fungus. There’s quite a lot going on here! I notice more and more details. I’m so deeply immersed in the forest world that I completely forget myself. The carousel of thoughts stops, and I’m entirely in the here and now. When I resurface after half an hour, I feel truly energized. And yes, happy!
Effect on Blood Pressure and Stress Hormone Levels
A medical check, says Pia Hötzl, would now show that my blood pressure has regulated, the stress hormone levels have significantly decreased, and the endorphin levels have significantly increased. At the same time, the immune system shows a higher proportion of cancer-fighting killer cells. How does this happen? “You’ve connected with the forest,” Pia explains.
The term “Shinrin-Yoku” was introduced in 1982 by the Japanese Forestry Agency to encourage people to relax and promote health through forest visits. However, at that time, there was no scientific evidence for the health benefits of this practice. That changed with Professor Quing Li, a leading expert in the field of forest medicine (“Forest Medicine”) and forest bathing (“Shinrin Yoku”) in Japan.
Li discovered that trees “talk” to each other through chemical messengers called terpenes. They inform other plants and fungi where a pest is climbing, causing them to pump inedible substances into the leaves. Through terpenes, the big trees also nourish and protect their offspring. And these chemical substances enter our bodies through the lungs and begin to work there.
Several studies now show that nature and forest therapy have overall stress-reducing effects and are particularly suitable for counteracting cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The Charité University Medicine Berlin’s outpatient clinic for naturopathy at the Immanuel Hospital Berlin is researching this topic.
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Immune System and Hormonal Balance Communicate with Trees
“The human immune system and hormonal balance speak ‘forest language,’ so to speak; we subconsciously communicate with the trees,” says Pia Hötzl. It sounds esoteric–but it’s not, as this effect is physically measurable. In fact, being tuned into the chemical forest chatter is our original state. Others would describe it as a feeling of being part of the bigger picture. No wonder everyone longs for nature. Biophilia–the love of living things–is innate. When this longing is fulfilled, happiness arises. And those who are happy are less susceptible to illness.
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In Japan, Shinrin Yoku Is Prescribed as Therapy
In Japan, Shinrin Yoku, as forest bathing is called there, is prescribed as medical therapy to five million stressed city dwellers annually. Here, the concept is still in its infancy but is gaining more and more followers. Germans have had a special relationship with their forest since the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. And they are rightly upset when it is threatened.
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Forest Bathing Experience: The Little Happiness from the Trees I Feel Even the Next Day
The power of the forest goes much further: “It teaches us humility, makes us more mindful, calmer, more stress-resistant, and keeps an oversized ego in check. Moreover, aimless, thoughtless wandering through the bushes is an important counterbalance to our much too fast, always goal-oriented everyday life,” says Pia Hötzl. Sure, you have to be able to let go and relearn what it’s like to look around with a child’s eyes. But the forest works. And even sustainably. I still feel the little happiness from the trees the next day.
Pia Hötzl is a trauma therapist, coach, and psychological naturopath who regularly offers guided forest dives in the Barnim Nature Park near Berlin. During the forest experience, certain topics can also be accompanied psychotherapeutically.