It's often very difficult to fully relax in cities, with sensory overload caused by all the traffic, dense populations and long hours spent indoors, in offices.
Visiting a forest and paying attention to our surroundings stimulates the senses enough to ease the drive to do something, yet is calming enough to allow us a moment of peace.
Local people of Latvia are often visitors to the forests. We love our forests for the goods that they give us - mushrooms, blueberries, wild strawberries, lingonberries, raspberries etc. But besides the healthy plants, forests are also wonderful place to take a deep breath, relax and allow nature to help us mentally and physically.
After spending much time in the city a return to nature rejuvenates and charges our inner batteries. Forests can do wonders to physical and mental well-being that can experience a lot of stress in the busy life rhythm of the cities.
In 1980's Japanese gave recreation in the woods a name - shinrin-yoku. This means forest bathing and it's all about simply being in nature, connecting with it through our senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.
Constant motion of the city is left behind and we can peacefully soak in the sights of the textured ground, tree bark and also the shapes of the trees up in the sky.
To make most of the day out in the woodland, visit to forest is divided into two parts:
- slow walk through the forest where we can see different plants, mushrooms and trees
- laying back into the hammock and firing up our senses of vision, hearing and sense of smell.
