{"id":1108,"date":"2023-04-13T03:16:24","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T03:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wellbeings.nz\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2023-06-14T22:06:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T22:06:35","slug":"forest-bathing-wtf-is-it-and-do-you-need-it-in-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellbeings.nz\/forest-bathing-wtf-is-it-and-do-you-need-it-in-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest bathing – WTF is it and do you need it in your life?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This separation from nature is behind many of our modern ailments, Rongo\u0101 M\u0101ori practitioner Donna Kerridge (Ng\u0101ti Tahinga, Ng\u0101ti Mahuta) believes. She talks to Emma Clifton on how we are all either bush people, sea people or mountain people and how getting back into nature can help us our mind, body and soul.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something about the slow and steady way that autumn announces itself that makes it such a beautiful season to live through<\/em><\/a>: the leaves gradually darkening, the way the sunlight changes. In the early days of the pandemic, nature-related headlines ruled the global news; dolphins returning to the Venice canal, the peaks of the Himalayas being visible above parts of India for the first time in decades, due to a reduction in pollution. The human world was taking a break and it seemed the earth was exhaling a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A growing awareness and appreciation of the natural world has occurred hand-in-hand with our knowledge of what we might be losing in 10, 20, 30 years\u2019 time as climate change gets worse. But there\u2019s more to it than that. The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners released a study last year that found that 1 in 4 Kiwis are living with more than one chronic health condition, and this increasing amount of ongoing health problems has meant people are now looking at collaborative health treatments to complement the western medicine model. Our modern way of living has also removed many of us from the elements: we have air conditioning to control the summer humidity, we have heat pumps to keep us cosy in winter. We can move from car to office, then from car to home.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This separation from nature is behind many of our modern ailments, Rongo\u0101 M\u0101ori practitioner Donna Kerridge (Ng\u0101ti Tahinga, Ng\u0101ti Mahuta) believes. \u201cA lot of our illnesses come from disconnection \u2013 disconnection from our community, disconnection from nature. A lot of us are born and bred city folk, and we definitely don\u2019t like mud in our toes and we\u2019ve forgotten how to jump in puddles. We\u2019ve forgotten the vibrancy that comes from jumping into cold water. All of those things that help build our immune system, because reconnecting to nature lifts our immune system for lots of reasons. We feel included and we have hope for a better future, once we start to reconnect to nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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