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Shinrin-yoku

Translated to English is Forest Bathing.  No bathing suit needed.  It is literally a walk in the woods.  In the last century the Japanese discovered that to get away from the grind of the big city and rejuvenate oneself they could take a walk among the trees.  This has proven to be preventive approach to health care and healing in Japanese medicine.

 CNN recently showcased a series on longevity and living well hosted by their on staff Doc (of Indian origin) called Sanjay Gupta.  He took a trip to Japan to find out how their citizens lived long years for the most part and discover why city dwellers seemed lonely and overworked.  The latter is attributed their work ethic and surviving through post WWII times to build a better life.  Unfortunately overwork is today a leading cause of stress in their society.

 His findings lead him to discover this old technique of getting immersed in nature to solve the problems of modern society aka stress build up.  Wife and I took a page from this docu and did what we knew how, here in the east bay of San Francisco.  We went out this gorgeous spring Sunday for our version of Shinrin-yoku.

 We have not checked our BP or have any empirical data to validate it but we do feel energized and invigorated after watching nature do its thing as the sun kept rising through the bay fog and dazzling the living creatures with its embrace.  Below some observations when looking below...

 PS: am no botanist so could not tell the buttercups from the other wild yellow sprouts et al but some good examples of the state flower - the CA poppy - was on full display











Bird in flight?  It seemed stationary balancing the Bernoulli theorem so to speak

CA POPPY



 Breathing in the phytoncides produced by trees can help fight bacteria and build immunity in the human body, is the PSA many a state in the USA is pushing on their websites.  Cheap health care -something with bit of planning people can aspire to achieve rather than waste money on packaged chemicals boosting Swiss or US corporate pharma profits.
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