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The Forest Bathing Concept of Nature Cleansing

Another word for nature cleansing

 

Do you ever feel like you’ve been cleansed after you’ve been out in nature, particularly under the sun?

I’ve noticed that my house just has a cleaner quality after I come in from outside.

As though being in the sun and dirt has transformed my perception.

As though nature has made me feel cleansed from within and outwardly.

 

In the same way as you might put your bed sheets or towels on the line to bleach in the sun…

…You expose your body and soul to the natural elements to be cleansed.

 

I was trying to see if there was a word in the English language for this concept of nature cleansing, but I couldn’t find one.

As an English scholar and nature lover, I feel like it definitely needs its own word.

This sense of cleansing is a bit different than shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. Forest bathing is a sense of immersion in a natural environment, which doesn’t quite encapsulate the quality of returning from nature feeling cleansed.

So, I went looking at Greek and Latin words for the concept of nature cleansing or nature purification.

 

Side note: in my search, I did find this neat Pinterest board with all kinds of meaningful nature words, and the nature word nerd in me nearly threw a party.

 

So, here’s what I found.

  • Physi means nature
  • Hagnos means to cleanse or purify

Put ’em together and you have exactly what I’m talking about. Physihagnos…

Um…that seemed a little clunky, so I kept searching…

  • Renewal in Latin is irae
  • Nature in Latin is naturae
  • Purgatio in Latin is cleansing or purging

Getting close.

I suppose I could invent a word with those, but I wanted to see if a word existed already out there somewhere.

So, I turned to Scandinavian terms.

Nature cleanse in Swedish is naturen renar and nature cleansing is naturrening. Nature purification is also naturrening.

The Norwegian translation of “nature cleansing” and “nature purification” are naturrensing.

I’d love to hear from our Swedish and Norwegian folks if naturrening and naturrensing carry the meaning we’re trying to encapsulate here. These terms flow off the American tongue quite easily and contain the recognizable “naturre” prefix.

I love how the concepts like hygge, ikigai, lagom, wabi-sabi, and friluftsliv have become popularized. Sometimes, the English language is insufficient at explaining these things.

That’s true for nature cleansing.

So, maybe we can borrow a Nordic one.

Naturrensing

Cool nature words: Naturrensing Norwegian word for nature cleansing

Today’s forest bathing invitation: get outside today, get your hands dirty and expose your (sunscreened) skin to the sun. Then, pay attention to how you and your environment seem cleansed when you go back inside.

 

Tell me in the comments…do you feel the same sense of cleansing after being in nature? Do you have another word for it?

The Message in Forest Bathing: You Need to Get Out More

Forest Bathing Message

Today’s forest bathing message:

 

You need to get out more.

It’s the message that’s been pressing on me for a few weeks now.

Now, I say this completely tongue in cheek because I should be the one to talk! I really don’t get out much at all. Haha.

I work from home and love being at home, so I don’t have a whole lot of reason to leave most days.

Except when it comes to nature exposure. (And pee-wee football practice;)

 

We spend a staggering 90 percent of our human lives indoors!

I mean, think about it…

You get in your car to drive to work and maybe spend 3 minutes outside on your way from the car to the building.

You maybe get outside for a quick 15-30 minute walk on your lunch break, if you force yourself.

You get 3 more minutes outside on your way back to your car.

You spend maybe an hour outside with the kids or doing yard work after work.

Even on weekends, you maybe spend up to 3 hours outdoors.

Then, in the winter, in colder climates, you may spend mere minutes outside.

 

{Source}

 

That statistic makes me want to run away to Ferngully!

Seriously, so alarming, especially when we consider how much we love being outside.

Being outside obviously doesn’t come natural to most of us.

It’s a habit we need to cultivate and learn to appreciate.

In order to free yourself from that statistic, you need to make a point to get out more!

 

So, this week, I tried that.

I was able to get outside for a run, rather than the treadmill, because my husband happened to be home for the kids.

And on my run, I noticed a few really cool things that really roused an emotional response in me:

  1. The doe and fawn that I startled from sleep, bounding off. Mom took graceful bounding leaps while baby humorously tried to keep up with her, three steps to mom’s one. It made me laugh.
  2. The myriad of monarchs in my neighborhood, including two that swooped down so close to my ear, I could hear their wings. The sound of monarch wings, you guys! Do you know what they sound like?
  3. The field of yellow wildflowers at the top of the hill I had never noticed before in all the times I’ve jogged that hill.
  4. The cicada making its electric buzzing noise across the pavement.

One measly half-hour gave me all these gifts!

 

And it made me think of all the crazy rare things I’ve seen out in the country since we started living here. Things I never saw in the city and never would’ve happened upon if I weren’t “getting out there.”

  1. The bald eagle that grabbed a fish right out of the water and took off with it. Seriously, I hadn’t seen an eagle in probably 10 years before moving out here. Now we see them regularly.
  2. The two bucks we saw, standing on their hind legs, fighting each other out in a field.
  3. The hawk hunting blackbirds in our backyard.
  4. The entire life cycle of a monarch from tiny white egg to breathtaking butterfly.
  5. The hilarious view, over the four-foot growth in the field, of just the mom, dad, and fuzzy baby sandhill crane’s heads. Another laugh-out-loud moment.

I could go on and on…

 

But I think you get the point.

The more you get out, the more you get to see. The more life you get to experience!

It just makes me think about all the beauty that’s out here for the taking. Right now!

It’s all around us.

But we can’t see it unless we open the curtains, swing open the door, and step outside.

Will you do that today?

 

Your invitation: get outside today one extra time and find a comfortable spot to observe. Just look around and notice what blessings you would’ve missed if you were inside.

 

forest bathing quote

 

 

I recorded a video with more of my thoughts on this, if you’d like to have a listen….

 

 

{If you’d like three free forest bathing invitations and a forest bathing starter guide to help you make more of your time in nature, click here to grab the PDFs}

 

Please share the lovely blessings you got to see while being outside today in the comments. I’d love to hear!

Your Forest Bathing Resource Guide

forest bathing recommended reading

 

I recently shared my recommended forest bathing resources with our email subscribers and I thought I’d share it again here, along with a giveaway of TWO of my favorites on this list. Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom.

Also, I’ll add all these books to our Suggested Resources page when I get a chance for easy reference.

{BTW, I’ve used Amazon affiliate links for all the books in this post. I make a small commission if you make a purchase, but it doesn’t affect your cost at all}

 

 

 

My foray into nature literature began in a college class…

I was assigned to read a clip from Henry David Thoreau’s, Walden, which I hadn’t discovered yet and recently re-discovered in my basement boxes. Little did I know what that little clip would ignite inside of me!

When I started to read the clip, it moved and mesmerized me. You can see the evidence in my voracious underlining and margin notes.

Check out that little note on the bottom. My little to-do list says to wash my car, schedule a haircut, and buy this book.

Something about this literature made me swell inside.
Someone had put the things I’ve felt in nature into succinct words.
Those words and the imagery they created made me feel lighter and alive-er.
I recognized from a soul level that nature was part of my calling.

I went on to study Environmental Studies for awhile before changing my major and earning my bachelor’s degree in English.

(See that? It was there all along: Nature + Literature = Pure Me)

And if you’re anything like me, you feel that too when you read a piece of nature literature.
Or, maybe you haven’t even discovered it yet.

I want you all to be able to soak in the rejuvenating vibes these pages conjure up.

So, I put together a list of recommended forest bathing resources.

 

The top 15 forest bathing resources for your library:

forest bathing books

The Top Three Forest Bathing Books

1. Forest Bathing, by Dr. Qing Li
Dr. Qing Li is the head researcher behind all dedicated forest bathing studies to date. When he writes a book about forest bathing, you just buy it. Because Qing is king.

2. Your Guide to Forest Bathing, Amos Clifford
Amos Clifford runs the organization that certifies forest bathing guides. He’s very knowledgeable about forest bathing and all the subtle nuances of shinrin-yoku. This book provides a great overview of forest bathing.

3. Forest Therapy, Sarah Ivens
Sarah Ivens book is like hanging out with your best friend, talking about how to find meaning and contentedness in your life. She infuses the practice of nature bathing with whimsy and enchantment.

Though it looks like this book is back-ordered, you can still get existing new or used copies. That’s how I snagged a copy.

Watch for my forest bathing book one day, k?

 

The Top Five Nature Literature Writings

classic nature literature

 

If I were to run a nature literature course, these books would be part of my quintessential reading list. You just can’t talk about nature literature without mentioning names like Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold.

4. Walden, Henry David Thoreau
5. Nature Writing, John Muir
6. Nature and Selected Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
8. The Singing Wilderness, Sigurd Olson

 

Top Three Nature and Science Picks

If you’re anything like me, you like to understand how things work. You like to understand as much about nature and trees as you can, not just at a surface level, but at a cellular level. These books provide detailed insight into how nature actually affects your body and mental state. They give you a scientific insight into why you’re drawn to the forest, which is pretty fascinating.

9. Your Brain on Nature, by Selhub & Logan
10. Vitamin N, by Richard Louv
11. The Nature Fix, by Florence Williams

Top Two Field Guides

I would always recommend you pick up a field guide for your area, because they help you identify  nature better. When you can name the trees, animals, wildflowers, and birds around you, you start to feel better acquainted with the forest. You start to understand what’s going around you better.

12. Trees, from the Discovery Channel
13. Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of the Midwest (This is the field guide for my area, but there are Kaufman Field Guides for other areas too)

 

Top Two Mainstream Non-Fiction Nature Stories

nature nonfiction books

14. A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
Bryson decides to walk the Appalachian Trail and takes you along as he encounters all sorts of natural phenomena and human conditions. Compelling descriptions of nature and tidbits about natural history add richness and depth to his own story.

15. The Forest Unseen, David George Haskell
Forest bathing is often an activity we do on the move, in different areas of the forest. However, imagine returning to the same exact location and examining the same few square feet of ground every time you go. It’s amazing the type of details Haskell notices and the richness inside his one small circle! Read this, then practice it yourself, and I guarantee you’ll see things a whole lot differently from now on.

 

Well, I could go on and on, listing kids nature books and naturalist guides, but I’ll leave it at the most pertinent 15. If you love forest bathing, these are the best books for your library.

 

Now, I promised you a giveaway;)

I have double copies of both Forest Bathing by Qing Li and Walden & Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, so I’d like to pass them on to another nature lover.

I’m giving you four different ways to earn entries into the Rafflecopter giveaway.

The giveaway runs until 12:00 midnight ET on 9/4/18.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ASMR Foot Friction Exercise

ASMR Foot Friction Exercise

{Pin me for later}

 

I feel like I just talked about feet.

And I’m here to talk about feet again.

For some reason, the subject keeps coming up.

No, I don’t have any sort of foot fetish; quite the opposite actually.

But our feet are such significant portals into the natural world.

Yet for some reason (you know, germs, ankle support, etc) we keep them covered most of the time.

 

Our feet give us so much more information about nature than we allow them to with shoes. Our feet:

  • Harbor countless nerves
  • Contain a large portion of our body’s pores
  • Need air to breathe
  • Are crucial to proprioception, balance, and body mechanics
  • Are the limbs that touch the earth
  • Absorb healthy negative ions

 

They wiggle and feel and create pressure and thereby offer a more information, a more comprehensive experience with nature.

 

So, point #1: take off your shoes when it’s safe during your time in nature

 

Now, let’s talk about one other way we can use our feet to explore our worlds.

The Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. ASMR for short.

If you look up ASMR on YouTube, you’ll find myriads of videos showing people combing their hair, whispering, tapping their fingers, and other interesting things.

The whole point of ASMR is that it’s supposed to trigger a feel-good response and give you the tingles. Pleasurable tingles.

Like the feeling you get when someone massages your scalp or lightly scratches your back.

There isn’t a whole lot of science behind ASMR yet because it’s so new. But I bet there will be.

 

ASMR stimulates both a positive physical (tingles) and an emotional (pleasure) response.

 

And you can use your feet and the grass to acquire that response. You also get all the benefits of grounding to go along with it.

 

ASMR Foot Friction Exercise

  1. Find a bench or a chair to sit in out in nature. You need a seat that’s the right height to be able to run your feet through the grass.
  2. To start, rub your feet back and forth or side to side over the top of the grass.
  3. Get into a good rhythm and continue for 30 seconds or more. Really tune in and listen and feel the grass.
  4. When the time is up, lift your feet and come to an abrupt stop.
  5. Take a moment to feel that sensation. You can still feel that tickly stimulated sensation.

 

This quick exercise serves as a reminder of how receptive our feet are and how pleasure in nature is accessible anywhere, even just outside your work building.

It’s also a different way to experience grounding and the ASMR response at the same time.

This tickly massage:

  • Stimulates the nerves in your feet
  • Awakens your sensory cells
  • Provides a repetitive, rhythmic, meditative quality
  • Causes that positive physical and emotional ASMR response

 

I hope you’ll take 30 seconds out of your day today to experience nature in this quick way. Then tuck this exercise in your back pocket the next time you need a mini break.

I also filmed a video explaining the ASMR Foot Friction Exercise:

Let me know in the comments:

Have you tried getting the ASMR response before? What are other simple ways you enjoy nature?

Tree Stump Drum Set DIY

Tree Stump Drum Set on Forest Bathing Central

*This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. That means I could make a teensy commission for any purchase you make to help keep this site running at no additional cost to you.

 

The Tree that Keeps Giving: Tree Stump Drum Set

 

Did you ever read The Giving Tree when you were a kid?

 

It’s like part of the kid lit canon.

I just picked up a copy for my kids on Amazon. [Click here to peek inside.]

The tree that keeps on giving.

We have one of those…

You see, our country house is heated by a wood-burning stove.

So, we collect wood from people who are getting rid of it during the summer to heat our house through  the winter.

 

 

 

The trees continue to give to us in the form of a toasty home.

I don’t know about you, but a warm winter home helps me stay sane through the long, dark winter.

Anyway,

We happened to have this one really huge, wonky hunk of wood in our backyard.

And a bunch of metal bowls.

An idea was born…

The tree stump drum set!

I have wanted to make a backyard drumming area for the longest time after discovering Soule Mama’s banging wall several years ago, and suddenly the pieces all came together with that hunk of wood.

So, my husband got on the tractor and cleared an area for me.

I had him leave one tree trunk for a seat and I got to work.

I arranged the metal containers where I wanted them to go and pounded in a nail for each of them to hang from. I also pounded two nails into the side to hang the metal spoon “drumsticks.”

 

Then, I revealed the finished tree stump drum set to the kids who proceeded to knock out a jam session.

 

kids tree stump drum set

drum set on a tree stump

tree stump drum set

 

Exactly!

That’s exactly what I wanted to create for them.

A creative outdoor space where they can be as noisy as they want,
like a kid ought.

 

How to Make a DIY Tree Stump Drum Set

If you want to make one of your own, inquire with a local tree-cutting service for the wood. We found ours on Craigslist. Or you could use an existing tree stump in your yard.

Most of the metal “drums” and metal spoons came from the Dollar Store. Two came from the kitchen section, one came from the pet section, and one from the garden section. I added a metal colander and garbage can lid we had lying around.

The thrift store is another great place to collect metal items.

 

 

You can see how this project had me thinking again about The Giving Tree.

This here tree just keeps on giving.

 

By the number of tree rings on the trunk and the heft of the piece, it lived a long and fruitful life in front of a local home.

It must have provided heaps of shade and homes for countless animals. Hundreds of thousands of ants must have scaled its ridges over the years.

And it continues to live on and serve a big purpose in our backyard.

A place to create memories.

A place to encourage creative play.

A place to sit and gather.

[For more nature-based DIY projects, check here]

 

Tell me a story…Do you have a tree that keeps on giving?