Why spending time in the woods makes you feel calm

Marielle Segarra· Host0:00

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Allianz Travel Insurance. Your flight, booked. Your lungs, suddenly battling bronchitis. Travel insurance helps protect your travel budget so you can book again once you feel better. Learn more at allianztravelinsurance.com. [upbeat music] You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, everybody. It's Marielle. Isn't the forest a magical place? [birds chirping] Like, when you really venture into the woods and you see these century-old trees towering over you, sunlight twinkling through them, and spiders weaving their elaborate webs, the smell of pine needles is in the air, birds are tweeting. You hear a mysterious sound that you're not gonna pay too much attention to, but you really hope is not a bear. There is a moment of awe that happens when you step into a forest, and I think a lot of us can sense that forest bathing, or taking in the forest through your senses, makes us feel better and calmer. I was surprised to learn that there are decades of scientific evidence backing that up. A lot of the evidence comes from Japan, where the term forest bathing originated in the 1980s. Over many years, researchers have shown in peer-reviewed studies that time in the forest is a kind of medicine. Forest bathing helps your immune system by increasing your levels of anticancer proteins and immune cells that kill tumors. It's been shown to lower blood