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FREE GIFTS FROM NATURE
Here’s an interactive poster with lots of interesting nature activities. Tap around to find them. Download it here:
Parents, teachers and younger friends can also join Nature Play – a set of 12 magical games to learn life’s most useful skills.
FOREST BATHING GUIDE – WHAT, HOW, WHERE?
Beginner’s guide to forest bathing
https://healingforest.org/2020/01/27/forest-bathing-guide/
SHORT FILM
LEARN
Learn how to combine creativity, mindfulness, and nature to create ripples of positive change in your life.
* Our signature Nature Calm course has 150+ ideas to uplift your mind, body, and relationships.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
In a hyper connected world, our connection with Self and with Nature is deteriorating rapidly. Mental health and environmental health are two big issues of our challenging times. Healing Forest addresses both by bringing people and forests closer to each other in unique, creative ways . A small donation can help us in a big way.
This site is created in the giving spirit of trees. All our material is freely available. Your kind support is like water for the forest. It keeps our work alive.
HEALING FOREST FILMS
Short meditative films from nature. These films will transport you to some exceptional forests around the world. Go on a journey to renew yourself with nature’s wisdom. Do leave a comment if you can.
YouTube Playlist>
DOCUMENTARY (50 min. / English)
Find out the remarkable science behind how forests can heal our body, mind, and spirit as we explore some fascinating forests across India. A country of breathtaking natural beauty, India hides a wealth of ancient knowledge about connecting with nature to create a more meaningful life. Link to the full film.
BOOKS
Your Brain on Nature
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-Nature-Eva-Selhub/dp/1443428086
In Your Brain on Nature, physician Eva Selhub and naturopath Alan Logan examine not only the effects of nature on the brain, but the ubiquitous influence of everyday technology on the brain, and how IT overload and its many distractions may even be changing it. Offering an antidote for the technology-addicted, the book outlines emerging nature-based therapies including ecotherapy, as well as practical strategies for improving your (and your children’s) cognitive functioning, mental health and physical well-being through ecotherapeutic, nutritional and behavioural means. A powerful wake-up call for our tech-immersed society, Your Brain on Nature examines the fascinating effects that exposure to nature can have on the brain.
Nature Fix
http://a.co/51FPc0w
In this informative and entertaining account, Williams investigates cutting-edge research as she travels to fragrant cypress forests in Korea to meet the rangers who administer “forest healing programs,” to the green hills of Scotland and its “ecotherapeutic” approach to caring for the mentally ill, to a river trip in Idaho with Iraqi vets suffering from PTSD, to the West Virginia mountains where she discovers how being outside helps children with ADHD. The Nature Fix demonstrates that our connection to nature is much more important to our cognition than we think and that even small amounts of exposure to the living world can improve our creativity and enhance our mood. In prose that is incisive, witty, and urgent, Williams shows how time in nature is not a luxury but is in fact essential to our humanity. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas―and the answers they yield―are more urgent than ever.
Vitamin N
http://a.co/51FPc0w
From the author of the New York Times bestseller that defined nature-deficit disorder and launched the international children-and-nature movement, Vitamin N (for “nature”) is a complete prescription for connecting with the power and joy of the natural world right now, with 500 activities for children and adults. Dozens of inspiring and thought-provoking essays and scores of informational websites. Richard Louv was the first to bring widespread attention to the alienation of children from the natural world, coining the term nature-deficit disorder and outlining the benefits of a strong nature connection–from boosting mental acuity and creativity to reducing obesity and depression, from promoting health and wellness to simply having fun.
REFERENCES
Links to important articles, research, and scientific papers on the healing benefits of nature.
Short article (BBC)
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160420-how-nature-is-good-for-our-health-and-happiness?ocid=fbert
Long article (National Geographic)
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/call-to-wild-text
List and links of scientific papers categorised on different health benefits of spending time in nature. (See table in the article)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041614001648
Directory of papers from International Society of Forest and Medicine, Japan.
http://infom.org/paperandbooks/
Effect of forest bathing trips on immune system
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793341/
* If you have any other interesting links to articles, books, films please add them in the comment section below.
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