“Time in nature is not only healing, it’s sacred. We have become a nature-starved culture. We are often in a rush somewhere else, running somewhere and never fully arriving. When we immerse ourselves in the forest, we create space to land, breathe, and simply be.”

— Jess Frey, life coach

It is midday on a recent Sunday and Beth and I are sitting in a booth at a Vietnamese restaurant south of Louisville, Kentucky. The restaurant is in a well-worn strip mall near the airport and shares space with a nail salon — a wall separates the two. There is a Marathon quick mart and gas station at one end of the building and at the other, a burger joint with a sign that proclaims, “Here everyday is a weekend.”

We struck up a conversation with a foursome across the way, a couple and two younger women. The pair were from Thailand, and the young women were Cambodian. They all work together at the same nail salon (not the one next door).

They had come from nearby Bernheim Arboretum. Apparently, this was their Sunday routine, two hours among the wooded trails, then lunch.

The man, Theeradej sae-Buai, or Captain S. as he likes to be called, mentioned trees in the forest emitting phytoncides. These are antimicrobial organic compounds that bolster the immune system, decreasing stress hormones and even affecting cancer cell production and are found in high concentrations in evergreen trees, such as juniper, spruce, cedar and pine.

The four had been forest bathing, a sort of meditation where one goes into nature and tunes into the sounds, smells, textures and movements of the forest.

The practice, like so many things indigenous people have done over the ages — eating unprocessed foods, finding medicines in plants, leading physically active lives —  was “discovered” in Japan, a country that is over 70 percent forest and where the population is crowded into cities.

Captain S, who has served in the U.S. Army, said he became aware of the practice while he was stationed in Korea. On weekends families would take walks together in the woods. Towns would close their downtown streets, limiting traffic to pedestrians and kids on bicycles, he said.

In the early 80s Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, seeking an antidote to the pressures of modern life, created the term shinrin-yoku, which translates to “forest bathing” or “absorbing the forest atmosphere.”

Researchers have since found that spending time in forests allows the stressed portions of your brain to relax. It helps to avoid stress and burnout and aids in fighting depression and anxiety. It is known to boost immunity and facilitate faster recovery from injury or surgery. It improves heart and lung health, and is known to increase focus, concentration, memory and improve sleep.

Forest bathing doesn’t require intense exercise, only immersing oneself in a natural setting — a forest, park, wooded lot, simply around trees — in a mindful way.

“In a mindful way” means no ear buds, cell phones or tablets — those are creators of stress we are seeking relief from in the woods.

We are blessed with an abundance of public forest trails: the Riverwalk, the soccer park in Burns Bottom, Lake Lowndes, Propst Park, Barton Ferry, Noxubee Wildlife Refuge, to name the most obvious.

Listen to the breeze blowing through the trees and the sounds of birds; look at the different textures of the trees, the different shapes of leaves; smell the fragrances of the woods. Allow your senses to enjoy the offerings of nature.

A pleasant, painless way to better health.

Birney Imes ([email protected]) is the former publisher of The Dispatch.

Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.