Forest bathing, the secret therapy of trees

Forest Bathing, the secret therapy of trees: the best plants are also found in the Mediterranean area.

Forest Bathing, the secret therapy of trees: all the best plants are also found in the Mediterranean area.

Nature, trees, regenerate us. After all, we already know it spontaneously: when we are stressed, in a bad mood, nervous, even just a walk immersed in the green of nature helps us to feel better immediately.

Science confirms that this is not a question of suggestion at all: being in contact with Green induces calm and serenity, regulates the heartbeat, modulates blood pressure, raises the immune system and the ability to fight diseases and tumors (a Japanese study has shown a direct correlation between a higher percentage of forest cover and lower mortality), aggression decreases, energy increases and also has effects directly on the mind, stimulating memory and all cognitive abilities.

All the vegetation contributes to our psychophysical well-being: and it works even just admiring it within a natural landscape. Any environment - large or small, simple or complex - characterized by a significant presence of "Nature" (from potted plants to trees in a forest or the Amazon forest) - becomes therapeutic: they affirm it, without doubt, Marco Mencagli e Marco Nieri in their book "Secret Tree Therapy" (Sperling & Kupfer). Thus, according to preferences and needs, we will be called - for example - to immerse ourselves in open spaces (the savannah model) or to take refuge in a garden (which symbolically recalls the idea of a room, more protected and defined) or to seek an environment in which the presence of water (at an unconscious level represents a fundamental support for life) is important.

Without forgetting those practices that involve hugging trees, the real novelty is the "forest bathing": A sort of immersion in the forest that allows you to" fill up "with monoterpenes (substances emitted by the leaves and responsible for the aroma of plants, are beneficial for us; they are absorbed through the skin but also by olfactory) and breathe in negative ions (particularly present close to waterfalls but also in natural environments, among other things they induce greater relaxation and less irritability).

Scientific data in hand, therefore all that remains is to plan time for long, very long walks or days in the woods of holm oak, thorny oak, beech, chestnut, pine, spruce, birch, poplar and eucalyptus (which are among the botanical species more suitable for forest bathing and, luckily !, abound in the Mediterranean area); if this is not possible, however, we should try to secure a "personal breathing zone" by holding at least one medium-sized plant near where we stay the longest (ideal: three medium plants in the room, such as the dracena deremensis, or six small table plants like it Spathiphyllum; for those wishing to learn more, the book by Mencagli and Nieri also offers targeted advice for the home environment, and the choice of the most suitable plants).

Read also: 15 plants that reduce home pollution

Without prejudice to this information, however, it is worth continuing to stay in Nature even with another look. Sacred. Green, the central tone of all the vegetation, is one of the two colors of the heart chakra: it acts as a "bridge" between the earth and the sky, between body and mind; connects the material realization with the spiritual one. Incredibly, it is in the middle (even) of the visual spectrum perceivable by the human eye. In its welcoming and natural shades (not acidic) it speaks to us of harmony and development; it is the "visible" part of the language of the spiritual world: in this case we are dealing with elemental beings, which operate on the basis of the indications of spiritual entities superior to them.

Forest bathing, the secret therapy of trees

The "fruits" of this work become living matter, plants, trees and flowers with their chemical and physical characteristics, but also archetypes to which one can connect to find one's own center, the authentic one. Nature, Green, Plants are also - above all - this for us: and it is perhaps the easiest - and at the same time most difficult - secret to recognize and then discover.