CITY DWELLERS HAVE long sought refuge in urban parks where nature, albeit somewhat tamed, reigns supreme. A simple walk in the park can do wonders for one's psyche, not to mention overall health. "Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction," wrote Edward O. Wilson, noted biologist and author. Today, no matter where one lives, there is a yearning, like never before, for outdoor spaces. And it's no wonder, now that we're firmly planted in the midst of Year Three of the pandemic, that we're seeing green-and if not, we're dreaming of it. Parks, put simply, have become more important to our well-being than ever.
Our desire to be in nature is evident through popular healthful pursuits like forest bathing, a wellness ritual that originated in Japan in the 1980s. You can forest bathe on your own by simply spending more time in nature among the trees or choose to join small groups of forest bathers at numerous spas and wellness centers both here and abroad. (There's something new called cactus bathing, but I'll save that for another time.) In Washington, DC, there's even a doctor who prescribes walks in the park. Dr. Robert Zarr, a pediatrician, helped create a community health initiative called DC Park Rx in an effort to treat chronic disease and promote wellness. And, for those app-obsessed, there's something called NatureDose, a personalized nature prescription mobile app that can monitor, quantify, and evaluate your exposure to nature. In other words, you can now track the time you spend in the great outdoors much like you count your steps.
This story is from the July/August 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.
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This story is from the July/August 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.
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ONE WORD TO BEAT WINTER BLUES: BIOMIMICRY
CREATURELY REFLECTIONS
THINKING ABOUT RESTITUTION
THE HEART OF HAPPINESS
WAITING IN LINE
OUR WALK IN THE WORLD
ENTER THE SAUNA
Journalist Emily O’Kelly shares some uplifting research on the benefits of sweat bathing, a global healing practice not just limited to Northern climes.
the trail of ATONEMENT
One Ashkenazi Jewish family escaped pogroms in Russia and then flourished in South Dakota, but the “free land” of their new homestead had been unfairly taken from the Lakota by the United States. Generations later, a celebrated investigative journalist set out to tell the truth of the Lakota and her family, calculate The Cost of Free Land—and pay it back.
STALKING YOUR Mind
Stalking the Mind is part of an ancient Indigenous American Medicine Way to tame your guilt, fears, and shame. What we’re “stalking” are our thought patterns and beliefs that seem to create the opposite of happiness and wellbeing. It’s a powerful psychotherapeutic journey of healing without the diagnosis or labels.
LEAVING MESA VERDE
After 21 years of service at Mesa Verde National Park, RANGER DAVID FRANKS recently guided his last tour of the pueblos and cliff dwellings. He says he was fortunate to assist the archeologists with a variety of work and never lost his amazement with their ability to figure out how and when things happened. The question he still wrestles with is much deeper: Why they left?
BECOMING YOUR OWN LEAD RESEARCHER IN HEALTHCARE
PEGGY LA CERRA, PHD, downloaded a health app to aggregate her medical records and was stunned to see the phrase \"aortic atherosclerosis.\" What she did next is a helpful model for all of us.
ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY
\"Is astrology true?\" is the wrong question, writes RABBI RAMI SHAPIRO. He suggests that the truth is out there, but out there is really in here.
WELLNESS IN THE WILD
Spa aficionado MARY BEMIS takes the [cold] plunge at Mohonk Mountain House.