Finger Lakes Forest Therapy offers fun, gentle, shinrin yoku inspired forest walks for health, wellness and happiness.
Forests are the original antidote to stress and stress-related illness.
Our species evolved in forests. We spent the first several million years of our existence in them. Then, a couple of millenia ago - in evolutionary time scale, only yesterday - our adventurous spirits inspired a global exploration. This morning we invented cities. A bit before the noonday break we became industrialized civilizations. Suddenly, while our genes are still living in the forest, our bodies live in the busy, stressful conditions of modern civilization.
The problem: According to the World Health Organization, stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century and is responsible for many forms of chronic illness. Add to that separation from nature and the wisdom we learn when we are intimate with nature's ways.
The solution: Forest therapy, also known as shinrin-yoku and forest bathing. In the 1980’s, Japan recognized the physiological and psychological dangers of stress and sought out a new way to combat it. This was the beginning of Shinrin-Yoku, roughly translated as ‘taking in the forest atmosphere’ or ‘forest bathing.’
Over 30 years of research later, pioneering physicians and other health care providers are prescribing Forest Therapy for its proven benefits, including: reduced stress, enhanced immune response, improved and stabilized moods, sharper cognition, increased creativity, sense of belonging, and more. That’s right, time in Nature makes you happier, healthier, and smarter!
Not uniquely Japanese, nature connection is the way of all of our ancestors...
Whether you are in Nature all the time or are reluctant to walk in the wild by yourself, on a Shinrin-Yoku Forest Therapy walk you will be skillfully guided into a gentle, quiet, enjoyable, full sensory experience of our natural world. Your mind can rest as you sink into invitations that engage your senses...taking in the images, sounds, aromas, breath, touch and wisdom of the forest. Insights received are often profound. Walks are concluded with a tea ceremony of wild, forest plants.
Shinrin-Yoku Forest Therapy walks are not only effective but FUN! Walks are available for individuals or groups. 3 hours is optimal. ADA accessible trails, too.
We offer walks for individuals, families, organizational and corporate wellness events, outdoor recreation and conservation clubs, those living with or recovering from illness or disability, caregivers and anyone who feels drawn to come.
We are inspired by the vision of a health care system that incorporates healthful, gentle visits to forests as a core strategy for wellness, as it already is in Japan.
Our Certified Forest Therapy Guides, Deborah Denome and Teresa Benoit Keyes, look forward to seeing you in the forest!
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