(intriguing music) - [Lois] There was something comforting about being in the trees.

- It really has been sort of a reconnection with myself and how I relate to the world.

- We're helping people to become mindful.

- The idea of forest bathing is to be present and to be mindful of your surroundings.

(gentle music) - [Sandi] The research is amazing.

If you can get outside for 20 minutes a day, it increases your immune system.

(gentle music) - Being in the forest, being out in nature, surrounded by trees, does really affect our mental and physical health in measurable ways.

(upbeat music) (intriguing music) - It's a proven way to get you out of your head and into what's going on here, being mindful of the moment that we're in.

Shinrin yoku, I believe that translates to forest bath.

Forest bathing started in the '80s in Japan, during the beginning of the tech boom.

They recognized right away that people were succumbing to stress-related illnesses.

They started asking questions and one of the questions that they asked was, "Could nature help our people?"

(light music) So they started researching the health benefits of nature.

They set up 60-plus forests over there as research stations.

One of the first things that they studied was the immune system and being out in nature.

That's why it's called forest bathing.

It's because the trees give off chemicals called phytoncides that are like antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral.

They protect the trees.

(light music) Just like they give off oxygen that's good for us, when we walk under the trees that are giving off these phytoncides, it increases our immune system.

(light music) (group chattering) - Some of the most profound changes that they were able to document are decreased blood pressure rates, decreased cardiac rates, reducing cortisol levels, which is one of our stress hormones.

It affects the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our stress response.

But the most important thing that I think that they found is they did blood draws to measure the levels of these natural killer T-cells in our body, which are lymphocytes.

They're the white blood cells that fight off cancer, for example, and free radicals.

And what they found was that that increased level of the killer T-cells in our blood lasted for up to a month after a simple walk through the woods.

So that's how profound it can benefit our life.

(gentle music) My name is Jessie Violet Larson.

I am the medical massage therapist at UPMC's Center for Integrative Medicine.

I grew up in nature here in Pittsburgh in a beautiful little piece of land, and then I've lived in the inner city for many, many years, and I just couldn't wait to get back out into nature.

(gentle music) I think that in this day and age when it is so often that we are disconnected from the world around us and looking at our devices and surrounded by electronics, that it's really important for our mental and physical health to reconnect with nature.

One of the women I work with was laughing when I told her that we were gonna be talking about forest bathing, and she was like, "What is that?"

She's like, "Do I have to take my clothes off?"

And we all had a good laugh.

You do not have to take your clothes off.

(gentle music) - If you were to draw air in as if you would through a straw... (inhaling) See if the air has a taste.

- I really listened for the wind and there was like human sounds and nature sounds.

And at one point, you couldn't tell the difference, you know, because the planes going over sounded like the wind.

(wind blowing) People laughing in the background sounded like the birds.

(wind blowing) It was just a symphony of sound.

(gentle music) - As I walked along, I looked at things like a rotting tree stump and thought, "I bet there's a lot of noise going on in there that I can't hear."

That's what I thought about.

- I was focused on gravity.

I just thought it was kind of amazing, realizing this force that's holding me onto the Earth.

(gentle music) - [Sandi] Go out and sit in nature for 15 minutes and enjoy your hot rock.

It seems like it's a pretty simple thing to get out in nature and just walk around and do some meditations, but the sequence that we follow has been specifically designed to bring people out of their heads and down into themselves so that they can experience what's going on at the moment.

(gentle flute music) - Some of the trauma that we face on a a daily basis might be alleviated or you might be able to deal with it more if you learn how to like be out in nature, and that nature absorbs some of that trauma.

(gentle flute music) - I think it is an incredible opportunity for people to come out and benefit from the science-y part of it, but also just falling in love with nature.

Like this is a gorgeous day.

Who wouldn't fall in love with a day like this?

- Since we're having a rainy cold November afternoon, you can still get the benefits of forest bathing on a day like this when all the trees have lost their leaves.

- [Shawn] I just felt very small, and not in a bad way.

Just...

There's just awe and wonder all around and I'm just a piece of it.

And it just made me feel grateful.

(gentle flute music) - [Sandi] Breathe and be present and enjoy the healing benefits.

They're free.

(gentle flute music) (intriguing music)