Trying to be healthy? Take a walk.

Shinrin-yoku is a Japanese term meaning “forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”. According to the Shinrin-yoku website, the practice was developed in the 1980s and has become essential to healing Japanese medicine. Forest bathing involves walking around in the woods in a calm, relaxed manner. The more structured approach of Shinrin Yoku Forest Therapy combines these walks with guided meditations and other activities to enhance the exercise.

A study done by researcher Juyoung Lee at the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences at Chiba University, Japan, tested the effects of walking in forests compared to urban environments, according to American Scientist Magazine. The study found evidence of lower pulse rates, an increase in positivity and a decrease in negativity. Subjects’ parasympathetic nervous-system activity (responsible for slowing heart rate, Merriam-Webster) increased and sympathetic nervous-system activity (responsible for increasing heart rate) decreased.

Another study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that the benefits of forest walking lie in two types of attention, “voluntary”, or consciously focusing on something, and “involuntary”, in which something random grabs attention (Hutchinson, Globe and Mail). Dr. Berman, a research fellow at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest in Toronto, believes that walking in nature relieves voluntary attention, which is usually worn down through the demands of daily life, and engages involuntary attention.

Other qualities that enhance health in a forest may be the cleaner air quality, the soothing colors found in nature, and the “wood essential oils” supposedly emitted by trees as suggested by Japan’s Nippon Medical School. Another reason stretches back hundreds of years. According to Dana Desonie in her 2007 book, “Geosphere: The Land and Its Uses”, around 80% of the world’s forests are now gone. Britain destroyed most of its virgin forest 500 years ago while the U.S. now has less than 4% of its original forested land. Humans lived for centuries on a planet very different from the one we now inhabit. Perhaps going back to our “roots” is not an immature, hippie idea, but rather a realistic one taken from the recent past we lost so rapidly.

So take some time amidst the chaos of your working day to walk outside, during a lunch break or in the morning before work. It can be difficult to find peace of mind living in a city, but it is not impossible. Perhaps forest bathing will not only improve your health, but settle some of the confusion and unrest that you’ve been feeling in your heart.