Qing Li Books

The modern practice of shinrin-yoku began in Japan in the early 1980s, a time when the nation faced rising levels of stress, urbanization, and workplace burnout. The Japanese Forestry Agency introduced the term to encourage citizens to spend time in forests, not as exercise or recreation, but as a t...

From Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness

Forest medicine as a discipline emerged from the intersection of environmental science and human physiology. My colleagues and I began studying how time spent in forests affects the human body’s stress response, immune system, and overall biochemical balance. The results startled even us. After a fe...

From Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness

The term shinrin-yoku was coined in Japan in 1982 by the Forestry Agency as a response to rising stress and burnout among city dwellers. The Japanese government created official forest bathing trails and funded studies to determine what actually happens to the human body in the forest. As a physicia...

From Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing

If you stand quietly among trees, you might sense them breathing. This is not poetic fancy. Trees release microscopic chemical messengers, and these invisible aerosols are the forest’s voice to us. Phytoncides are at the center of forest medicine. When we breathe them in, they trigger changes in our...

From Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing