Forest bathing lowers cortisol, and you don't need to leave the city. What it is, how long it takes, and six places to look for trees near you.
The past few weeks have been crazy around here, and I was overwhelmed. I know how much moving my body matters for my sanity, but a couple of those days the gym was too much to even think about.
Walking is what I leaned on. This time of year you can just go outside, and that's the whole barrier gone.
Not my usual walk, though. I went to the ravine in my city and paid attention to the trees and the birds, and it took me right out of my everyday.
What I was doing has a name, and it isn't new to me. It's called forest bathing, I do it regularly, and there's a pile of research behind it. The finding is about trees, not wilderness, which is why a city ravine counts.
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What is forest bathing, exactly?
Forest bathing means getting into nature and paying attention to it on purpose. The name comes from the Japanese shinrin-yoku, coined in 1982, and it's a recognized preventive health practice there.
It isn't a hike and it isn't a workout. There's no distance to cover and nothing to track.
You're looking at the trees, listening for the birds, noticing what's flowering. When I'm in the ravine I feel like I've stepped out of the city, and I'm five minutes from my house.
You don't have to be out there long for it to work, which is what makes it possible on the worst weeks.
Does it actually do anything?
Yes, and the effect shows up in cortisol, the hormone your body pumps out when it's under pressure. A 2019 review in the International Journal of Biometeorology pooled 22 studies and found cortisol significantly lower in forest groups than in urban comparison groups.
Field research backs it up outside a lab. Bum-Jin Park's team measured people across 24 forests in Japan and found lower cortisol, pulse rate and blood pressure than in city settings.
I've known this research for years and I still needed the reminder. It calms the vibration of everyday life when things get really crazy, and I felt that every time I went.
How long does a forest bathing walk need to be?
About twenty minutes is the number most of the research lands on. Studies have found lower cortisol, blood pressure and heart rate after roughly twenty minutes among trees, and the Japanese field protocol was about fifteen minutes walking followed by fifteen minutes sitting and taking it in.
Your heart rate shifts faster than that. Some of it is measurable within the first ten minutes.
I had a full hour on one of those days and took all of it, because once I was in there I didn't want to leave. But twenty will do, and twenty is the number that matters.
This isn't a big outing. You go, you enjoy it, you calm down, you come back. If it turns into a project you'll stop doing it.
Why does forest bathing hit different in midlife?
Because it's the one thing that isn't for anyone else. In midlife you're pulled at from both directions, and twenty minutes among trees is time nobody has a claim on.
You don't have to book it. You don't have to pay for anyone. You might have to drive there, and that's the extent of the planning.
I go alone most of the time, and sometimes with my husband or one of my kids, which is its own good thing.
There's research pointing the same way. Jenny Roe and Catharine Ward Thompson measured cortisol in 106 adults aged 35 to 55 and found the benefit of more local green space showed up in the women and not the men.
That's a single study, and everyone in it was out of work at the time, so it isn't a clean match for a woman running a job and a household. But it lines up with what I see in the women I work with.
Can you do this if you live in a city?
Absolutely, and most people are closer to trees than they think. Nearly every city has parks, ravines or paths, and a lot of municipalities require new developments to set aside green space, so the newer areas often have more than the old ones.
There's a beautiful cemetery near me that's lovely to walk through. Look at the trees and set the cemetery part aside.
Nothing about this requires a cottage, a car trip or a weekend. It's free, it's close by, and you can go in whatever you're already wearing.
Six places to look near you
You need trees, a bit of distance from traffic, and room to walk slowly. Here's where to look.
- A park. The obvious one, and worth checking whether there's a wooded edge you've never walked into.
- A ravine. Any city built on a river has them, and they're often invisible from the road.
- An old rail line turned pathway. These are all over now, and they're usually lined with mature trees.
- A cemetery. The old ones have the biggest trees and they're quiet by design.
- A university or college campus. Usually open to the public and beautifully planted.
- The waterfront, if your city has one. Water and trees together is the best of both.
How do you find one?
Google it, honestly. Search your city or county name plus "parks and trails map," because most municipalities publish one on both sides of the border with the trails marked.
The search trick: in Google Maps, skip "park" and try "ravine," "greenway," "conservation area" or "nature preserve." Park returns playgrounds and soccer fields. The others return trees.
Keep it close to home. The point is to go easily, not to plan an expedition.
How do you actually do it?
Just go out. It doesn't need to be nice weather and you don't need the right outfit, which is most of what stops people.
- Leave the headphones at home and put your phone on silent. This is the whole practice, really.
- Walk slower than feels natural. You're not going anywhere.
- Pay attention to what's around you. The trees, the birds, whatever's flowering.
- Breathe it in. Autumn especially, when you can smell it.
- Stack it onto something you already do. Make it your after dinner walk, which also helps steady your blood sugar.
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Every season gives you something different. I still shuffle my feet through the leaves in the fall the way I did as a kid, and I find that as relaxing as anything.
How is this different from a regular walk?
| Regular walk | Forest bathing | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Distance, steps, pace | None |
| Attention | Podcast, phone, planning | Trees, birds, what you can smell |
| Time | 30 to 60 minutes | About 20 minutes |
| Measured effect | Cardiovascular fitness | Lower cortisol and blood pressure |
| Where | Anywhere | Anywhere with trees |
Both are worth doing. On a week when you've got nothing left, the slow one asks less of you.
FAQs: Forest Bathing
Q: Is forest bathing the same as grounding or earthing? A: No. Grounding means bare skin on the earth, usually feet on grass or soil. Forest bathing is sensory attention among trees with your shoes on. They're separate practices with separate research, and forest bathing has considerably more published evidence behind it.
Q: Can you forest bathe in winter? A: Yes, and bare trees still count. Winter solves a problem too, because the paths are quieter and you'll often have the place to yourself. Dress for standing still rather than for walking hard, since you'll be moving slowly.
Q: Do you need a guide or a certified program? A: No. Guided forest therapy programs exist and some people like the structure, but nothing in the research requires one. A quiet path, twenty unhurried minutes and your phone in your pocket is the whole thing.
Q: Does it help with sleep? A: There's some evidence pointing that way through the stress pathway, since lower cortisol tends to make falling asleep easier. It's supportive rather than a fix. If 3am wakeups are the main problem, a wind-down practice does more direct work.
The takeaway
There's a method here that costs nothing, that you don't sign up for and don't schedule ahead. You just go out and have a little walk.
Pay attention to where you are. No headphones, phone on silent, notice what's around you, and breathe it in.
Find your closest patch of trees this week and give it twenty minutes.
Stephanie Valentine is a holistic nutritionist, clinical hypnotist and wellness coach, and the author of the cookbook Love What's On Your Plate. She writes The Slice, a weekly newsletter for midlife women who are tired of wellness advice that doesn't fit a real life.
Last updated: September 2026
