So You Think You Can Tell?

Why forestbathing is important

From the confines of four walls, I might not be able to philosophise, or even to waste precious minutes quibbling about whether or not mild philosophy is as important as the mild mayo my 30-minute lunch is spread with. Mayonnaise may give me the illusion that my short lunch break nourished me. When I walk in my forest there are no illusions.

We can often be separated into two groups, generally:

— those motivated intrinsically

— those motivated extrinsically

In a forest, both are spurred onwards. Grandiose thoughts come with grandiose trees, and ideas develop, too, when undisturbed by an often frantic modern world.

So how would we focus on real, universal values through trees? I am focusing on a proper walk in the woods, long enough to let the shackles of the day’s successes, conquests and almosts fade far into the background, and certainly far from where you stand among trees. Values are too often institutionalised, and indoctrinated to us from a pastor, mullah, monk or DJ. Despite the longetivity of our church, mosque or temple, our current duty towards our religious institution is one of consumer. That is no place to learn about universal values, and we may have moved on, a lot, from where we were a few hundred years…