Getting outside during this ongoing pandemic is more important than ever.
The Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku refers to forest bathing, the act of healing and growing by being out in nature.
Chilliwack General Hospital emergency room physician Dr. Marc Greidanus explains the importance of this for our mental health in the latest YouTube videos created in partnership with the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice and the Chilliwack Economic Recovery Network.
“They have the scientific papers to show that just walking in the forest is actually good for your health,” Greidanus says in the video shot in Chilliwack’s newest park in the Eastern Hillsides, Lexw Qwò:m.
“They would make the claim that it’s good for your physical health but I’d like to emphasize that it’s particularly good for your mental health.”
Greidanus says it’s important to get outside during COVID-19 and it’s great that we are so lucky to live in Chilliwack and have all these wide open spaces to explore.
He says COVID-19 is a physical problem that gets into the lungs, but there’s more.
“It’s causing real mental health distress as well.”
READ MORE: VIDEO: Getting real with Dr. Marc about COVID-19 in Chilliwack
READ MORE: VIDEO: Chilliwack ER doc runs through pros and cons of various masks
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