Nature therapy, or forest bathing, as it’s loosely translated, is an exercise rooted in the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku. The practice follows three traditional concepts: the first is a keen awareness of the beauty of the natural world - specifically, beauty that can’t be expressed with words; the second is noticing the symbiotic relationship of the sunlight and the leaves; and the third concept is to celebrate the grand imperfection and impermanence of nature.
And much like the practice of meditation, forest bathing has a range of health benefits. Studies over the last ten years have shown that spending two hours a week in nature can improve your breathing and sleep, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, and even lower blood pressure.
John Muir, the botanist and so-called Father of the National Parks, may not have realized the full truth of his words when he wrote: “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
It’s the first week of July and we’re hearing writing along the theme of nature this month. Today, Monroe Williams shares a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, called “Elegy Before Death." A poet and playwright from New York, Millay published a handful of books, wrote the libretto of one of the few American grand operas, and won the Pulitzer prize for her collection, The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver. She died in 1950 at the age of 58.
Something I Heard is supported by Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
