Shinrin Yoku

Nature be healing the homies, one trip at a time.

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The Japanese concept of spending mindful time in nature that literally translates to forest bathing. I first stumbled upon this concept back in 2016 when I was doing research on the pacific crest trail. What was I researching? Well if were being honest I was a late college bloomer in a Scholar program that basically allowed me to do grad school level research as an undergraduate… the important part? They were giving me a research stipend so when I asked my PI “What can I use this money on?” He said “well, anything that helps you with your research” I immediately thought of camping gear. Specifically gear that would allow me to hike section A of the PCT thus helping me do research on my “thesis” which was titled, Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail: Nature and the Transformative Self. I wanted to see if and how long distance hiking transforms the experience of the self. How it can help one restructure who they are and who the perceive themselves to be at the very core of your physical and psychological being.

All of that to say Shinrin Yoku was merely a footnote in the research. An interesting trail sign that I should have heeded. Little did I know how much this concept would play a role in the conception of Campthorpology.

There is a lot of information on Shinrin Yoku I highly recommend the audio book by Chi Gong. He is the bleeding edge of research when it comes to the benefits of spending mindful time in nature. Ill sum it up in a way that doesn’t do it justice but may be relatable to a few homies sitting around a campfire sipping on a couple cold ones.

Shinrin Yoku is basically a walking meditation in the outdoors. The research coming out of Japan shows that spending even 20 mindful minuets in nature can significantly lower cortisol levels, the hormone that is responsible to stress. Now this doesn’t have to be deep in the forest miles from any 7/11, this can be a stroll in a city park with a couple trees the key concept seems to be connection. Connection with nature, not even in a deeper spiritual sense that you may associate with some heroic mushroom trip but in a simple noticing of your surroundings. This is where I think the magic lies. The smells, the visual input, the sounds, the music of nature, the feeling of the terrain with or without shoes on. Its feedback, its vibration. I’m not even sure if you have to be walking at this point. I really thing its just about paying attention to the analog, the breeze, the sun and moon, the heat and the cold. As simple as it sounds, there is something more that magic about being outside. Something that calls us at the very core of our being, its a catalyst for change in the most subtle form.

A large part of Campthropology is not only exploring this concept, but also living it, immersing ourselves in the experience and documenting it through a kind of “beer-ethnography.” If you’re unfamiliar with the term ethnography, it refers to a method in anthropology that involves recording raw, first-hand observations in the field. These are the unfiltered notes and impressions, observations about anything and everything that together form a collection of data points. So if you are reading this, there’s a good chance you stumbled on one of my social media posts, probably thought, “Hmm, this dude is a little weird,” and for some reason started to follow along. So, welcome to the beer-ethnography, anything you say can and will be used to help us understand what it means to be and belong outside. I want this to be a conversation. I want us all to learn, to grow, and to explore.

So, if you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing you’ve already felt some of that magic,  at least you’re curious about what happens when you spend more time outside. Maybe you’ve had your own forest bathing moment without even knowing it: that feeling when you leave traffic behind and you start to soak in the trail or scenery, or that first deep breath after your first sip of your favorite camp beverage.

We’ll circle back to Shinrin Yoku plenty of times on this journey, but I wanted to leave you with a small taste for now. Let’s make an effort to simply take note of this stuff. See what happens. See what it tastes like.

And when you’ve had your own moment, big or small, I wanna hear about it. Drop your field notes in the comments so we can piece together our own little trail log of wild, human moments.