Following on from my posts in July about National Parks Week, I thought it rather fitting to introduce you to Holistic Healing Therapy LTD (HHT), established in April 2016 by Gary Evans and Olga Terebenina. HHT combines a variety of disciplines from Forest Bathing & Nature Therapy, to yoga.
Gary and Olga have brought their combined skills together to create a company built on strong foundations and principles. Their focus is to improve overall wellbeing in the community, and they work with Surrey Wildlife Trust by conducting events on their properties. Gary & Olga have given demonstrations of their work to leading academic experts from around the world, their Forest Bathing & Nature Therapy sessions are now part of a university study!
Forest Bathing is the English translation of the Japanese term Shinrin-yoku which means “spending quality time, under the canopy of trees, in a forest, for health and wellbeing”
HHT has gathered research from Dr. Qing Li (Japanese Nippon Medical School) and the Wood Wide Web research of Professor Suzanne Simard (The University of British Columbia) to create a number of deeply relaxing and therapeutic events run mainly on Surrey Wildlife Trust properties.
Studies by the Nippon medical school have shown 50% of the beneficial health effects of Forest Bathing come from the chemistry of forest air such as higher oxygen content and trees expelling chemicals that help them fight off diseases and boost our immune system.
Dr. Qing Li recently published a book, “Shinrin-yoku, The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing” and explains these reasons for getting out into the forest:
The good news is that even a small amount of time in nature can have an impact on our health. A two-hour forest bathe 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-yoku can: Reduce blood pressure; Lower stress; Improve cardiovascular and metabolic health; Lower blood-sugar levels; Improve concentration and memory; Lift depression; Improve pain thresholds; Improve energy; Boost the immune system with an increase in the count of the body’s natural killer (NK) cells; Increase anti-cancer protein production; Help you to lose weight.
I’d like to invite you to like their Facebook page and read about the amazing work they do.
