I spent the day with friends Jim, George and Susie. Twice a year, Jim picks me up and we head out to Renfrew County to tour George's woodlot, to embrace the Hugging Tree, and then to sit amongst the trees, eating lunch around a fire. The combination of good company, good food and good surroundings is a prescription that's hard to beat. I always come away from these visits feeling calm, connected and loved.

While socializing with friends is an important element of those positive feelings, the effect of spending time in the woods cannot be underestimated. Numerous organizations point to the therapeutic benefits of roaming among trees. For example, in Take a dip with Parks Canada… in the forest, Parks Canada notes that:

Scientists have found that forest bathing can reduce levels of stress hormones in the body. Some studies have also suggested that phytoncides (natural chemicals released by trees) can boost the immune system. More generally, researchers have found that being in nature can improve mood, attention and problem-solving skills.

So I took a look at some of the research pertaining to the positive impacts of trees on our physical and mental health. In a 2009 paper on The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing), Japanese researchers shared the results of field studies carried out in 24 forests in Japan in which they sent six subjects to walk in a forest and six others to walk in a city. They measured participants' salivary cortisol, blood pressure, pulse rate, and heart rate variability. The following day, they reversed the settings—sending the forest walkers to the city and the city walkers to the forest—and measured the same indicators again. "The results show that forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments."

Similarly, in a study published in 2018 on the Psychological Benefits of Walking through Forest Areas, Japanese and Korean researchers found that participants who spent 15 minutes walking through a forest area experienced an increase in positive moods and a decrease in negative moods compared to participants who spent 15 minutes walking through a city. "The results revealed that walking through forest areas decreased the negative moods of 'depression-dejection', 'tension-anxiety', 'anger-hostility', 'fatigue', and 'confusion' and improved the participants’ positive mood of 'vigor' compared with walking through city areas."

I was intrigued by the concept of forest bathing. In Take a bath…in the forest, Tree Canada states:

Forest bathing is about opening ourselves up and bridging the gap between ourselves and nature through our five senses. It is about getting out of our thoughts and into our bodies; turning off our sympathetic nervous system (the stress, or fight or flight, response) and turning on our parasympathetic nervous system (the calming, or rest and digest, response). When this gets turned on, it can evoke a sense of calm, decreased anxiety and an overall improved mood.

I certainly felt calmer and more at peace today in George's woodlot, observing the trees or watching the fire instead of staring at a screen.

One of the more interesting stories I came across this evening while working on this post was that of self-described tree hugger David Knott. A curator with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in Scotland, Knott agreed to hug 350 trees over the course of a year as a fundraising endeavour. His tree-hugging technique was to wrap his arms as far around the tree as he could and to lean into it. A colleague would take a photo. The fundraising campaign raised more than double the target. Knott strongly recommends tree hugging, describing it as "a wonderful way of reconnecting with nature on a deep level."

I have a fledgling collection of photos from my embraces of George's Hugging Tree, but perhaps I'll take a page from Knott and add to that collection by taking photos of me with my arms stretched around many trees.