Today's Heartlift with Janell
Sometimes the story we tell ourselves is not really true. Sometimes the story others tell about us is not really true. On "Today's Heartlift with Janell," Author, Trauma-informed, board-certified marriage and family specialist, and Professional Heartlifter, Janell Rardon, opens conversations about how emotional health and mental fitness effects absolutely every area of our lives. When we possess and practice healthy, strong, resilient emotional health practices, life is so much better. Read Janell's newest book, "Stronger Every Day: 9 Tools for an Emotionally Healthy You."
Today's Heartlift with Janell
273. Nurturing the Soul with Forest Whispers
Ever wondered how simply walking through a forest can soothe your soul and rejuvenate your body? Our latest episode unwraps the profound connection between well-being and the natural world, as we celebrate Earth Month with a deep dive into the biophilia hypothesis and the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. E.O. Wilson's insights lay the groundwork for our discussion, while Dr. Qing Li's expertise on forest bathing illuminates a path for not just physical health, but also spiritual growth and emotional resilience. We reminisce about personal nature encounters and reflect on the tranquil power of green spaces that often go unnoticed in our daily grind.
In a heartfelt narrative, I open up about my own health challenges with a rare esophageal disease, Achalasia, and how embracing the rhythms of the natural world has been a cornerstone of my healing journey. We also explore how simple practices like controlled breathing can amplify joy and contribute to a longer, healthier life. Learn about the POMS test and assess your current "mood status." Whether you're seeking solace in the serenity of nature or looking for practical advice to boost your well-being, this episode promises to be a breath of fresh air. Join us and reconnect with your true self, one step at a time, on the forest floor.
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In his book Forest Bathing how Trees Can Help you Find Health and Happiness, dr Ching Lee writes this about biophilia hypothesis. The concept that humans have a biological need to connect with nature has been called biophilia from the Greek meaning love of life and the living world. The concept was made popular by the American biologist EO Wilson in 1984. He believed that because we evolved in nature and, we would add, we were created to be in a garden, we have a biological need to connect with it. Be in a garden, we have a biological need to connect with it. We love nature because we learned to love the things that helped us to survive. We feel comfortable in nature because that is where we have lived for most of our life on earth. We are genetically determined to love the natural world. It is in our DNA and this affinity for the natural world is fundamental to our health. Contact with nature is as vital to our well-being as regular exercise and a healthy diet. Our existence depends on this propensity. Our spirit is woven from it. Hope rises on its currents, wrote Wilson. We are hardwired to affiliate with the natural world and just as our health improves when we are in it, so our health suffers when we are divorced from it. Dr Lee writes Shinrin-yoku which I am sure I am mispronouncing is like a bridge. By opening our senses, it bridges the gap between us and the natural world. We are part of the natural world. Our rhythms are the rhythms of nature. As we walk slowly through the forest seeing, listening, smelling, tasting and touching, we bring our rhythms into step with nature. When we are in harmony with the natural world, we begin to heal. Our nervous system can reset itself. Our bodies and minds can go back to how they ought to be. Let me repeat Our nervous system can reset itself. Our bodies and minds can go back to how they ought to be, no longer out of kilter with nature, but once again in tune with it. We are refreshed and restored. We may not travel very far on our forest walk, but in connecting us with nature, shinrin Yoku takes us all the way home to our true selves.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to today's Heart Lift with Janelle. I'm so thankful that you're part of this conversation. It is Earth Month. We are having this conversation during April. This past week we celebrated Earth Day and it has just awakened my senses. That is what talking about nature does for me, and it really helps to ground not only my emotional and mental health, but it also helps ground my spiritual journey. I consider being in nature a very important part of my spiritual formation.
Speaker 1:I wrote about the incredible Gary Thomas book where he talks about the nine different ways that we approach God, and one of those is nature. And much like my fictional character self, anne of Green Gables nature. I feel closer to God in nature. She says nature is my cathedral. Well, last week we began a conversation Well, actually I thought it was going to be just a one-episode conversation, but I can't get away from it about forest bathing, and so I ordered Dr Ching Lee's book and have been reading through it, and one of the astounding things he says about Japanese culture even goes into the way that they construct their homes.
Speaker 1:Culture even goes into the way that they construct their homes. And he writes nature is not separate from mankind. In Japanese culture, it is part of us, and the need to keep the two in harmony can be seen in every aspect of life, from the design of gardens that incorporate the natural landscape to the design of houses that blur inside and outside by means of translucent paper screens. In traditional Japanese houses, you can close the door without shutting out the sound of the birds singing or the rustle of the breeze. Shizen S-H-I-Z-E-N, which translates as nature or naturalness, is one of the seven principles of Zen aesthetics. The idea behind Shizen is that we are all connected to nature emotionally, spiritually and physically, and that the more closely something relates to nature, the more pleasing it is, whether it's a spoon or a piece of furniture or the way a house is decorated. The patterns on a kimono are often of the natural world, so that you can literally be wrapped in peonies or wisteria, cherry blossom or chrysanthemums, even whole landscapes. I always have, it seems. Even in college we did a beautiful folkloric tribute to Japanese dance and we wore the full, full kimono headdress make everything.
Speaker 1:It took, if I'm remembering correctly, a whole lot of time to prepare for that number. I wish I had pictures, but we didn't have iPhones back then, so pictures are scarce. But instead of rushing to the next episode, the next conversation or interview, I personally just needed a little bit more time to dwell. I think dwell is the right word in the idea of spending more time with my God, the creator of the universe, in the universe that he created and, most importantly, paying attention to it. Where I live here in North America. I am in the spring season and everything's blooming, everything is green again and luscious, and it is bringing me life and, as Dr Ching Lee says, it will bring healing and wholeness. And that is our goal here, isn't it? Heartlifters To become wholehearted women and men who create wholehearted families, who then can move through their communities from a place of wholeheartedness, spirit, soul, mind and body. And I felt this so clearly.
Speaker 1:This past Monday, I had to go to the University of Virginia for yet another test that relates to my achalasia. Achalasia is a rare esophageal disease where your esophagus just stops working, the peristalis just quits and therefore you can't eat or swallow. So in late 2014, I felt this coming on, in a way where I just couldn't swallow. I was choking, and then it got to a point where I couldn't even swallow water. And then it got to a point where I couldn't even swallow water, and so, thankfully, god directed as he does, he's so incredibly inclined to our lives he led me to this doctor, who led me to another doctor, who led me to a incredible surgeon at the University of Virginia who was doing experimental surgeries to help people that had achalasia. So I was the third person in Virginia to undergo this POEM surgery, p-o-e-m. I will put links to this in our show notes this week because perhaps you might know someone or perhaps like me. Back in late 2014, I needed someone to help me and hopefully this might help you. So I had to go for a fluoroscopy, which is a barium swallow. I once again, I'm just having a little bit more trouble swallowing again.
Speaker 1:There's no rhyme or reason for this disease. It's invisible. It's part of those invisible diseases. If you saw me, you wouldn't even know that anything was wrong with me in that way. But it is very complicated, and social eating becomes complicated, and so, therefore, I have noticed I have noticed that when I am under undue stress, when I have placed myself really under undue stress or overworking, the condition gets worse.
Speaker 1:I think maybe you could relate to that that when you are in a time of dire stress whether it's self-imposed or whether life has just put some hard obstacles in your way that are basically out of your control, such as caregiving for an elderly mother, like I had to do I had no choice, honestly. Of course, I had a choice, but I would never choose to not honor my mother. I saw the condition get worse. So I do think that undue stress does complicate our health matters and, as we know, in this community the body keeps the score. So I'm just talking from my heart today, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:A calm life is a strong life and it is absolutely the antithesis of the culture that we live in. And being an ambitious person like myself, being someone who really has an aversion to rest, who does not really know how to relax for sure, I have seen the value in my own life of slowing down and particularly adding in this spiritual formation practice of being in nature. Dr Ching Lee writes never have we been so far from merging with the natural world and so divorced from nature. 78% of Japanese now live in the city, most of us in Tokyo, osaka and Nagoya. Japan ranks highest in the world for population density and has become well-known for its extremely crowded daily life. Pavements are jammed with pedestrians and bicycles and there are rules and routines everywhere to help us stay out of each other's way of each other's way. 11 million passengers ride the subway in Tokyo, which is packed to the brim, from first light to late morning, and again on the return commute.
Speaker 1:The World Health Organization WHO calls stress the health epidemic of the 21st century, and finding ways to manage stress, not just for our own health, but for the health of our communities at home and in the workplace, is the most significant health challenge of the future. The good news, which is what we love here, is that even a small amount of time in nature can have an impact on our health. A two-hour forest bath will help you to unplug from technology and slow down. It will bring you into the present moment and de-stress and relax you. When you connect to nature through all five of your senses, you begin to draw on the vast array of benefits the natural world provides. There is now a wealth of data that proves that Shinrin-yaku can reduce blood pressure, lower stress, improve cardiovascular and metabolic health, lower blood sugar levels, improve concentration and memory, lift depression, improve pain thresholds oh, yes, please. Improve energy Double, yes, please. Boost the immune system with an increase in the count of the body's natural killer cells those are those white blood cells we talked about last week Increase anti-cancer protein production and help you to lose weight. Well, can we just give that a round of applause?
Speaker 1:Dr Lee brings to the table a conversation about something called our sixth sense. Nature feeds our souls and brings us joy. Many people think we have more than five senses, some people think we have eight or twelve, but most of us agree on some ineffable extra sense, a sixth sense which we connect with the world beyond ourselves. Perhaps this is our sense for happiness or, as I've been calling it, joy building, and in Stronger Every Day. We spoke of the Greek eudaimonia the search for meaning in our life. He continues. This is what we feel in nature that can be so hard to describe a feeling of wonder and excitement, transcendence and even ecstasy. And the more trees there are, the more likely we are to feel it. Indeed, studies have shown that the greater the scenic beauty, greater the scenic beauty, the more happiness we feel.
Speaker 1:Nature takes our breath away and breathes new life into us. Well, that is exactly what that ancient Haller-Bosch festival did for me. The bluebells among the beaches took my breath away and breathed new life into me, took my breath away and breathed new life into me. It is when we connect to nature with all our senses that the magic happens and our lives can be transformed. Immersed in the natural world, we can experience the miracle of life and connect to something larger than ourselves.
Speaker 1:Nature takes our breath away, as I said, and breathes new life into us. In fact, the sense of connectedness with nature not only floods us with joy in the moment, it can teach us to be happy in the future. Researchers in Canada have shown that our sense of connectedness to nature can enhance our capacity for happiness. Connectedness to nature can even predict how happy we can feel. In other words, if you have been happy in the forest today, you will find happiness tomorrow. I love that. There is something in nature that can make us happy that is separate from the happiness we get from other things like friends, family, music. Our relationship with nature is unique, and I will Adam and Eve in a garden.
Speaker 1:When you can feel that joy in nature, then Dr Lee writes, you are truly forest bathing. So here is an exercise he offers, which I will offer to you Finding your feelings in the forest. Offer to you Finding your feelings in the forest. When you are in the forest, notice your emotional response to being there. Start by closing your eyes. See if you can feel, which way you want to walk, which path right you want to take. Use your intuition you want to take Use your intuition. Notice all the sensual pleasures of the forest. What do you feel yes, feel when you hear the breeze and the trees and the songs of the birds.
Speaker 1:What do you feel when you look at the trees around you? Oh, I just have to say, on my way home from Charlottesville yesterday, the interstate was lined by just a forest of trees on the left and a forest of trees on the right. That's why I love my state. We have beaches and we have the mountains and I, just, I couldn't stop dwelling in it and looking at it. Yes, I kept my eyes on the road, but it was just the all the colors of green. There was every color, every hue of green present in these forests on my left and forest on my right. And with this really revival of being in nature in my life and forest bathing, it's just. I, just I came alive. I don't know what else to say. Usually I get really tired on the rides home or the rides there, but I don't know. It was so energizing. So what do you feel when you look at the trees around you? What do you feel when you smell the forest fragrance? What do you feel when the sun warms your face or you lie on the ground? When the sun warms your face or you lie on the ground. What do you feel when you taste the fresh air? Let time drop away. I think that's his most critical advice to me. Let time drop away. Let all your worldly worries fade. May the trees around you absorb them. And finally he says what do you feel now?
Speaker 1:He gives top tips for forest bathing. An optimum time to spend in the forest is around four hours, during which time you should aim to walk about 5 kilometers, which is about 3.10 miles, but shorter bursts work too. If you only have the morning, why not try a 2-hour walk of about 2.5 kilometers? So maybe a mile, mile and a half. If you feel tired, you can take a rest anywhere and anytime you like, which I definitely did in the Halibose with the Blue Bells. We were there a very long time and we found logs, like I said, to sit on and have a little picnic. We packed snacks, we packed fuel, water, hydration If you feel thirsty. He also says you can drink water or tea anywhere, anytime you like you. Here's the beauty. I'm adding this You're in charge. Of course, there will be a time frame, right, but whatever time frame you have, you're in charge of that Finding a place in the forest you like is essential. Then you can sit for a while and read or just enjoy the beautiful scenery. Choose the forest bathing path that suits your needs. If you want, this is a goal perhaps for the future. If you want, this is a goal perhaps for the future.
Speaker 1:If you want to give your immune system a powerful boost, go for a three-day, two-night force bathing trip. I must admit I will be looking some of those up. Force bathing is a preventive measure against disease. If you come down with an illness, of course, of course see your doctor. So why all this time? Why, janelle, are you spending so much time? Yes, it's April, it's Earth Month. But second to that is because this is a prescription for preventive medicine.
Speaker 1:And I have seen I will be celebrating 13 years in private practice I can't believe it this June and I've taken copious notes in these 12 and a half years of the behavior of people. Yes, it's a novice study, of course it is. I'm just one person with perceptions of my own, but the commonality that I have seen in this 12 years, 12 and a half years, is a resistance to simple measures of emotional, mental, relational and even spiritual healing. You know my work with essential oils therapeutic grade and using them to clear out stored trauma, negative obstacles to our life, and I've had so many of my clients experience tremendous breakthrough, I've witnessed it. But yet they will not continue that practice on their own and even come back and say I really kind of think it's ridiculous, but I didn't want to hurt your feelings. Well, you're not hurting my feelings at all, because I know there's scientific evidence of the power of using therapeutic grade essential oils to clear our amygdala and help us live live from a place of peace, not a place of alarm.
Speaker 1:And so I just am taking a shift, I suppose because I also need this in my own life. My body has kept the score of the last few years and is saying no, more enough, I can't do this anymore. I just can't live the way you are asking me to live, almost forcing me to live through overwork or overcare, over helping. Yeah, it's a thing, and of course, that's what drew me to this vocation in mental health, coaching, emotional health healing, trauma therapy. I love it. I love it, I do, and I believe I'm good at it. But when your body is saying no, not good for me, it's not good for me, janelle. Now it's not good for you either.
Speaker 1:So I've had to listen, I've had to pause, I've had to take some personal inventory and I'm now taking a sabbatical, a writing sabbatical, so that I can dig deeper into real helpful solutions for myself, for everyone. I love my clients, my readers and you, my beautiful, beautiful community Heartlifters. I want us to have a deep love of life and of the living world so that we have longevity and we have health and we have that wellness that the Greeks talk about called avexia. I want that for you and I want that for me. So at the end of his book, dr Lee offers the POMS test, p-o-m-s Profile of Moods Test New to me. There's always something new in this realm of behavioral science and I did find a free one. It is modified, it's abbreviated, it's not as thorough. But if you want to buy Dr Lee's book, I downloaded it on Kindle. It is a feast for the eyes and the soul.
Speaker 1:I took it with me to Charlottesville and I experienced some beautiful moments there of not so much being in a forest but the place that I was staying. Oh, my goodness. If you ever go to Charlottesville, virginia, follow the link in the show notes to stay at the beautiful Oakhurst Inn. It was not even 24 hours, but I drove home feeling so renewed, revived, actually. The trees that were in this little circle where the Oakhurst Inn is, the pathways leading down to a beautiful cafe, oh, my goodness, just the beautiful flowers and plants that were blooming around the pool. It was just a respite, a haven, and I cannot tell you how revitalized I feel. It was just amazing, it was anecdotal, it was what I needed after a day of testing, and so I'm so glad I took the time, and I will just say that taking these respites, these havens, like my one day trip to Bruges in Belgium, are not easy for me to do, and that might seem really weird to you, but, as I said, I'm a helping professional, I overcare, I help, I just I don't know how to truly just help myself or spend time with myself, or or or treat myself.
Speaker 1:I do when I'm away, when I'm on a journey or on a trip or a vacation, but in the day to day I find it difficult because there are just so many hurting people around me and I just feel, I just feel. What's the word? Yeah, guilty, guilty, guilty is the word. But I have been practicing these beautiful moments of joy. When I got home from Charlottesville after the drive, I just sat on my front porch because it was a perfect day. It was just a slight little chill in the air, but the sun was baking and the green, everything was green and gorgeous, and my lovely calla lilies are bursting through the contrasting dark earth around them and my peonies are getting ready to bloom. And I just sat there, I just took off my glasses, I just turned my face upwards and I soaked it all in that's forest bathing on your front porch. You don't have to go to a forest, you can do it right where you are.
Speaker 1:So I leave you with this question how can you, how can you, implement strategically, with grand intention, a few minutes, if not even an hour, in nature? Is there a local botanical garden near you? Is there just a beautiful walking trail? Do you have a front porch you can sit on or a back porch? Maybe you just need to lay in the grass for a while, take your shoes off, walk around in it? How can you implement this If you already are?
Speaker 1:I want to hear from you. Tell us, tell us. We want to know how we can add these things into our life to maximize joy and to increase longevity, because I want to live a very long, healthy life, to play with my grins, take the palms test. I encourage you to do that. And finally, I'm asking you from the deepest part of my heart if you would help me by either donating to Heart Lift International or just donating right here on our show notes there's a place for you to do that to help this podcast grow and expand its reach farther than it is doing today. And to stay ad free, because I just love that. It would be a great honor for you to do that, to become a Circle of Trust member at Heart Lift International. All the links are right here for you.
Speaker 1:Then I am just asking from a deeper part of my heart if you would take a few moments and leave a review. You have no idea what difference that makes to the expansion of our listening audience. So leave a review anywhere where you're listening Apple, I mean, google, spotify, there's all kinds of podcast platforms. Just leave a review, easy, easy, easy, easy peasy, and rate the podcast and subscribe. And with that I say take a big, deep breath, make sure your exhale is longer than your inhale. Make sure your exhale is longer than your inhale, because that will have a psychological effect on you. That will reap great benefits.
