How going for a walk in the woods can improve your life

Police sirens, traffic lights and mobile phone alerts – city folk are accustomed to hearing and seeing these city sights and sounds.

Sarah Ivens, whose new book Forest Therapy hits the shelves today, tells Healthista how escaping oppressive city life and taking a walk in the woods can benefit our health:

When I was a child, trying to understand my parents’ divorce or forget about bullies in the school playground, I found solace in the green spaces around my London home.

I’d naturally seek peace and quiet, and use free time to explore and create in the nearby forest or by a pond I frequented with my grandmother.

Then as an adult, I shut myself into grey offices, Underground tunnels and smoky bars, staring at my phone.

My green spirit turned into a dull charcoal and I let stress and lethargy get the better of me.

The powerful and of-the-moment movement of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing as we call it in the UK, began in the 1980s in Japan.

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