Forest Bathing Benefits: Tree Medicine for Body & Soul

QUICK SUMMARY

Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, is the Japanese practice of slowing down in a forest atmosphere and taking in nature through your senses. It is not a workout, hike, or productivity hack. It is a healing rhythm of being still enough to smell the trees, hear the birds, feel the breeze, see God’s design in creation, and let your nervous system come out of fight-or-flight.

Research continues to show measurable forest bathing benefits for stress, mood, blood pressure, heart rate, immune resilience, and natural killer cell activity. A growing body of evidence also points to phytoncides, the aromatic volatile compounds released by trees and plants, as one reason forest environments can support immune function.

Tree medicine is one of the simplest ways to pursue biblical health in daily life. Get outside when you can. Bring the outdoors inside with tree essential oils when you cannot. Use forest bathing as one piece of a bigger abundant-life lifestyle that includes prayer, movement, clean air, non-toxic living, nourishing food, rest, and wise integrative care.

Tree medicine through forest bathing is an ancient Japanese healing art impacting the modern world because of its incredible benefits to the mind, soul & body. There are incredible medicinal properties found by spending time in nature, which is why embracing tree medicine matters so much today, especially for people suffering from mental anxiety, depression, chronic stress, immune challenges, and even cancer.

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”
– Albert Einstein

Dr Qing Li wrote a book about the benefits of Forest Bathing and helped bring awareness to the modern world. On April 15, 2020, when most of the world was under shelter-in-place orders due to the global human health crisis, Roger Seheult, MD published his Update 56: What is “Forest Bathing” & Can It Boost Immunity Against Viruses? on YouTube. (1)

It was a fascinating presentation. Dr. Seheult warned that spending too much time indoors and extended quarantine could have ill effects on our mental health and physical health. He also highlighted what Stanford University School of Medicine and several medical schools and institutions in Japan have uncovered about “phytoncides,” the volatile organic compounds released by trees and plants that overlap with the essential oil constituents we know and love. (2, 3, 4)

Introduction to Tree Medicine & Forest Bathing

This was when I was formally introduced to the ancient healing art of “forest bathing,” the Japanese practice of simply being in nature. Shinrin-yoku means “forest bath,” with shinrin meaning “forest” and yoku meaning “bath.” In plain English, forest bathing means immersing yourself in the forest atmosphere and enjoying nature through your senses.

Not to be confused with hiking or any sort of exercise, the key to shinrin-yoku is connection. You are not trying to burn calories, track miles, or “crush” another wellness goal. You are slowing down enough to let your body, mind, and spirit receive what God has placed in creation.

Considered a bridge between the human experience and the natural world, one of the key components of forest bathing is being surrounded by the volatile organic compounds released by trees, flowers, and plants. These compounds are part of the aromatic language of the forest. And as we know, those VOCs are closely related to essential oils.

As shown in multiple clinical trials, forest environments and naturally occurring plant VOCs can have a profound, measurable effect on immune function by increasing natural killer cell quantity and activity, among other health benefits. Natural killer cells are white blood cells that help the body defend against tumors, inflammation, and viral infections. (5, 6, 7)

This is important.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis focused specifically on phytoncides found favorable immunological outcomes, including increases in natural killer cells, T-cells, and cytotoxic effector molecules. The authors also noted that more randomized controlled trials are needed to clarify how specific phytoncides may be used safely and effectively in clinical settings. (8)

Essentially, being out in nature is similar to wearing a personal aromatherapy inhaler or diffuser necklace filled with tree medicine. As you may guess, when researchers evaluated how participants fared indoors with phytoncide exposure or aromatherapy diffusers running, they found measurable immune effects as well. (4, 8)

We can, quite literally, bring the outside in with essential oils and obtain many of the same beneficial aromatic constituents that trees and plants release during forest bathing. No, a diffuser is not a full replacement for stepping into creation, breathing fresh air, and letting sunlight touch your skin. But it is a practical way to support mood, calm the nervous system, strengthen immune resilience, and make your home environment more healing.

And this became the springboard for our newest book, The Essential Oils Apothecary.

Introducing The Essential Oils Apothecary

Soothing practices, healing rituals, and 150+ practical recipes for applying essential oils to the treatment and symptom management of 25 chronic illnesses, including insomnia, libido, fibromyalgia, COPD, anxiety, depression, diabetes. dementia. and more—by the bestselling author of The Healing Power of Essential Oils.

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Positive Effects of Forest Bathing Revealed

Shinrin-yoku was first coined by Tomohide Akiyama, the Director of the Japanese Forestry Agency, in 1982 as a way to attract people to visit local forests. The Japanese characters for Shinrin-yoku are 森林浴.

• The first character represents a forest (three trees).
• The second character symbolizes a wood.
• The third character corresponds with bathing, with flowing water on the left side of the character and a valley on the right side.

When translated into English, Shinrin-yoku means “forest bathing,” the practice of slowly and mindfully walking in a forest environment to stimulate your senses.

• Smelling aromatic flowers and the VOCs, or essential oil constituents, being emitted from trees and plants.
• Touching blades of grass, putting your hand on the bark of a tree, or cooling your feet in a nearby stream.
• Listening to the wind whistling, birds chirping, rustling leaves, or a babbling brook.
• Looking at the sacred geometry and patterns found in leaves, tree trunks, flowers, clouds, and all around you.
• Tasting the fresh air as you take in deep breaths or chew on a blade of grass or wild herb that you know is safe and clean.
• And submerging yourself completely in the experience to release your sense of joy and calm. This is your sixth sense, a state of mind. Now you have truly connected with nature.

This ancient practice only recently got on the radar of scientists who wanted to evaluate the physiological and psychological outcomes of experiencing nature. Reviews continue to describe forest bathing as a promising nature-based practice for supporting stress resilience, mood, cardiovascular balance, and overall well-being. (9, 10)

The Japanese take the practice of forest bathing very seriously. It has been part of their culture unofficially for generations and is now part of the larger conversation around preventive health and forest medicine.

To quantify the physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku, scientists conducted a Japanese study using field experiments in 24 forests across the country. In each evaluation, 12 people walked in and experienced a forest or city area. On the first day, six people were sent to a forest or city area for 15 minutes. On the second day, each group was sent to the other area as a cross-evaluation. Salivary cortisol, blood pressure, pulse rate, and heart rate variability were measured before and after visiting the forest or city.

The results were fascinating: compared with city exposure, the forest environment promoted lower cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, increased parasympathetic nerve activity, and decreased sympathetic nerve activity. Put simply, the forest helped shift the body away from “fight or flight” and toward the “rest and digest” healing state. (11)

The mental health benefits are as important as the physical health impact. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis found that forest bathing significantly reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. This does not mean a walk in the woods replaces professional care for serious mental health needs, but it does show that God’s creation can be a powerful ally for emotional balance. (10)

More recent research also supports what the early forest medicine pioneers observed: repeated or extended forest bathing experiences can elevate natural killer cell activity and anticancer proteins for days, and in some study designs, immune benefits have been observed for weeks after forest exposure. (2, 3, 5, 8)

Reality check: this is simple, but it is not small.

Your body was not designed to live under fluorescent lights, stale indoor air, constant notifications, artificial fragrance, and chronic stress 24/7. Forest bathing gives your nervous system a different message: slow down, breathe deeply, receive peace, and remember that the Creator built healing rhythms into creation.

More Practical Solutions to Modern Problems

We spend most of our time indoors, and that is a problem – a BIG problem. The EPA notes that people spend about 90% of their time indoors, where indoor air quality can affect everyone, especially children, older adults, and people with asthma, heart disease, or other health concerns. (12)

At the same time, the world continues to urbanize. Current global development estimates project that by 2050, nearly 7 in 10 people worldwide will live in urban areas. (13) That means modern families need practical, daily ways to reconnect with nature even when life is busy, neighborhoods are crowded, and work keeps us indoors.

The take-home message here is to consider how the studies mentioned above were conducted in nature. Forest therapy may fall into the category of additional things we can do, with minimal risk for most people, to help lower stress, support immune resilience, and empower our bodies with cancer-fighting natural killer cells.

Now, I understand that most people cannot and should not spend all day in natural settings unless it is part of their work or lifestyle. We need to work, do household chores, take care of our families, run businesses, serve others, and live real life. That is a given. But most of us can make time to visit a nearby forest, state park, national park, nature trail, lake, botanical garden, or quiet green space and spend a couple of hours outside.

Application: start small, but start on purpose.

During the week, when you are toiling away at your daily life, consider what you can do differently. Instead of bouncing from one video conference call to another without ever stepping outside, bring the forest into your rhythms and your home to tap into the healing benefits of forest bathing:

• Diffuse tree essential oils like pine, cypress, sandalwood, frankincense, spruce, Douglas fir, cedarwood, and myrrh to reap some of the benefits of forest therapy in your home.
• Replace toxic chemical home and body products that are part of everyday life for many people with DIY cleaners and body care made with essential oils.
• Listen to sounds of natural environments through your TV and electronic devices, such as birdsong, rain, ocean waves, wind in the trees, or a flowing stream.
• Hang nature paintings and pictures on the wall, and fill your house with real plants.
• Chew on some fresh herbs throughout the day. Just make sure they are organically grown and safe to consume.
• Keep your windows and doors open when possible to enjoy the fresh air, and use common sense with pollen, outdoor pollution, weather, and safety.
• Be sure to take regular breaks throughout the day to get your vitamin D through the sunlight.
• And, spend some time grounding barefoot on the grass or dirt. Do not discount city parks and green spaces in urban environments, even if you do not have a backyard of your own.

Putting these forest bathing benefits into practice is a form of “biohacking,” but not in the cold, mechanical sense. This is biblical health stewardship. You are cooperating with God’s design by giving your body clean air, plant aromas, sunlight, movement, stillness, beauty, and peace.

It is like pressing an on-demand calm-and-resilience button throughout the day. Forest bathing does not have to be complicated. Walk slowly. Breathe deeply. Turn your phone off. Pray. Notice the sound of leaves. Put your hand on a tree. Thank God for creation. Let your children explore. Let your shoulders drop. Let your nervous system remember what peace feels like.

And, as we have learned so far, essential oils are a key component of this lifestyle!

This is just the beginning of the research we uncovered when writing.

Beat Chronic Disease with Forest Bathing & Essential Oils

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The Cancer Connection

In The Essential Oils Apothecary, we devote an entire chapter to the most cutting-edge research, explaining just how essential oils can help us all avoid and successfully manage cancer. Here are some of the key takeaways.

First off, essential oils have strong evidence for helping manage many side effects and co-morbidities that often burden cancer patients, including anxiety, nausea, sleep issues, pain, stress, and quality-of-life challenges. The National Cancer Institute’s PDQ summary describes aromatherapy with essential oils primarily as a supportive tool to improve quality of life for people with cancer, and newer reviews continue to evaluate aromatherapy for anxiety, nausea, pain, sleep, and fatigue in cancer care. (14, 15)

They can also be used to fight cancer directly in the sense that many essential oils and isolated constituents have demonstrated anticancer, antiproliferative, pro-apoptotic, antiangiogenic, and antimetastatic actions in laboratory, cell, and animal studies. That evidence matters. It also must be understood in context.

How exactly can they do this?

Through a variety of mechanisms, according to a study published in the BioMed Research International journal,

• EOs and their constituents act by multiple pathways and mechanisms involving apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, antimetastatic and antiangiogenic activity, increased levels of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, DNA repair modulation, and other actions that demonstrate antiproliferative activity in cancer cells. The effect of EOs and their constituents on tumor suppressor proteins, transcription factors, MAPK pathways, and detoxification enzymes has also been discussed. (16)

Yes, those are actually anti-cancer mechanisms, which is what makes the research so interesting. Here’s one of the charts that we feature in The Essential Oils Apothecary, which is a snapshot of just a fraction of the research that has been done suggesting that essential oils and their constituents can help fight cancer and protect the body from the harmful effects of chemotherapy and radiation.

As you will notice, we mainly included the essential oils that you can readily find on the market. Additionally, there are dozens of studies evaluating African basil, Brazilian peppertree, mojo berry or kenaf, also known as Hibiscus cannabinus, and many oils indigenous to native cultures that have been tested for chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic efficacy.

It is important to recognize that most direct anticancer essential oil research has not evaluated human cancer patients in randomized clinical trials with control groups. Many studies are human cell, in vitro, mechanistic, or animal evaluations. Thus, we cannot extrapolate dosing and other specific human cancer treatment recommendations as we can with some of the other conditions discussed in this book.

This is where wisdom matters.

We do not ignore promising cell and animal research simply because it is not yet a human clinical protocol. We also do not pretend that a petri dish study tells us exactly how a cancer patient should use an oil. Bold and truthful go together.

Nonetheless, essential oils are one of many natural therapies that you can discuss with your oncologist, especially for symptom support, stress resilience, sleep, mood, nausea, pain, and quality of life. We include an in-depth section in The Essential Oils Apothecary on how to use aromatherapy for cancer’s side effects.

The Cancer-Fighting Prowess of D-limonene

The most prominent and noteworthy component of citrus oils is d-limonene, a potent mood-supporting and cancer-fighting terpene. As described in the US National Library of Medicine’s open chemistry database, PubChem: d-limonene is a natural cyclic monoterpene and a major component of oil extracted from citrus peels with potential chemopreventive and antitumor activities. (17)

So basically, the limonene found in citrus and other essential oils can fight tumor growth by causing cancer cells to self-destruct in preclinical research. This suicide-triggering process is called apoptosis, also referred to as programmed cell death. Updated research continues to evaluate d-limonene for anticancer mechanisms, including antiproliferative effects, apoptosis, autophagy, and tumor-growth pathways in cell and animal models. (18, 19)

Citrus oils also shine for mood. A review on citrus essential oils in aromatherapy describes anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant, analgesic, and sedative effects reported for several citrus oils. Lemon essential oil research in mice has also linked antidepressant-like activity with changes in brain monoamines, including dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. (20, 21)

Application: try these two recipes featured in The Essential Oils Apothecary

There is no better approach than citrus oils when it comes to boosting mood and promoting a cancer-fighting lifestyle. They are bright, joyful, and emotionally uplifting, which is why you will see most essential oil companies blend several together with a sweet floral or vanilla note to create an orange-vanilla aroma reminiscent of those “Dreamsicles” or “Creamsicles” everyone loves.

Try mixing equal parts of vanilla absolute, vanilla CO2, or vanilla oleoresin and all of the citrus oils that you have on hand for a truly uplifting aromatic experience.

Recipe #1: Citrus Delight Blend

Author Mama Z

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Quantity

2x4x6x

Ingredients

• 10 drops orange essential oil
• 10 drops bergamot essential oil
• 10 drops clementine essential oil
• 10 drops grapefruit lemon essential oil
• 10 drops lemon essential oil
• 10 drops mandarin essential oil
• 10 drops tangerine essential oil
• 10 drops vanilla absolute, CO2, or oleoresin

Instructions

 

• Drop the essential oils into a 5ml bottle, cap, and shake to mix.
• Depending on the type and source of vanilla that you use, it may overpower the citrus oils, so start with a few drops and blend until you find that perfect smell that perks you up and puts a smile on your face.
• Use in your diffuser, roll-ons, and capsules.

RECIPE #2: Citrus Delight Spritzer

Author Mama Z

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Quantity

2x4x6x

Ingredients

• 10 drops Citrus Delight Blend
• 10 drops organic 190-proof grain alcohol OR the highest-proof alcohol you can get
• 10 drops unscented witch hazel
• Purified OR distilled water as needed

Supplies

• 1-ounce spray bottle

Instructions

 

• Drop the oil blend, grain alcohol, and witch hazel in the bottle.
• Fill with distilled water and shake gently to mix well.
• This works great as a body spray or to freshen up your linens, carpet, car floor mats, bed sheets, or anywhere that you want an aromatic boost. (Be sure to test a small area first to prevent staining.)

Notes

This water-based formula will last for a couple of weeks. We’ve used it for as long as two months and have not noticed bacterial overgrowth, which can happen with any water-based product. It may not be obvious at first, but the smell will become rancid, and you will notice a change in color if it is contaminated.

Thousands of testimonials and case studies alone should awaken us to the realization that essential oils can be quite effective in helping cancer patients with quality-of-life support. And, as long as there are no dangerous adverse reactions or conflicts with treatment, what is the risk in discussing appropriate aromatherapy with your care team?

At this point, an increasing number of doctors support the use of natural therapies such as essential oils as an adjunct to their standard of care, especially when you are working with an integrative oncologist. With them, the sky’s the limit!

I invite you to pick up a copy of The Essential Oils Apothecary to learn more.

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