My Forest Bathing 
by Andrea Mariotti

It all started for me when a friend took me to a municipal kindergarten in Campogalliano "Il Flauto Magico" near Modena where I live . 

In this kindergarten, families and teachers have built, only with natural materials, a suitable environment for the child to enter the Biophilia, a gateway to connection and Love with nature.

Since adulthood I have always thought that my life mission is to help the new generations to go in the direction of freedom, health and joy but I believe it is from that experience that I began my journey for the creation of the Sector. Forest Bathing CSEN, National Body of which I have chaired its Provincial Committee of Modena since 1994.  

I have always been looking for a life as much as possible in nature, both in games and in the many sports I have practiced, but I had never understood the importance and quality of the benefits that nature has on our health and, above all, of the quality of the relationship until from that day I started looking for better information.

Then, like a seed that comes out of the earth after a long germination, the idea blossomed and to support it I met the texts by Bertolasi, Mancuso, Mercagli, Nieri and then others more properly on Forest Bathing - Shinrin Yoku by _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_Quin Li, Yoshifumi Miyazaki, Annette Lawrijsen, Selene Calloni Williams, Oliver Luke Delorie. Important teachings that have joined those of ecopsychology of the Italian Marcella Danon and Rita Berti and the works of G.Arvay  e P. Wohlleben on trees and forests.

In short, a Universe that was around me and I did not see yet! _Cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_

In recent years I have seen many initiatives that talk about Forest Bathing flourish, including the free text published on the CAI / CNR network, and I have read many other scientific proofs of its benefits on our health.

So I felt strongly about "putting myself at the service" in creating an organized coordination system.

This was to create what could allow a correct diffusion of the practice according to its nature.

In organizing a system for the dissemination of the practice, I also saw how to help the new generations with a training course recognized by the institutions in the hope that Forest Bathing will soon become a subsidiary teaching discipline in schools.

Some doctors are working to recognize in our national medicine the health benefits of Forest Bathing, as already happens in some countries, after the example of Japan, and I hope it can also be seen as good "prevention".

It is well known that universities, with their researchers, are studying the principles, effects and relationships of plants with each other and with our species.

In organized Forest Bathing I can foresee that with a collection of a good number of surveys before and after a Forest Bathing session, validated by protocols of scientific rigor and applicability, a good contribution to research will be produced for an evolutionary purpose towards the well-being of everything. the ecosystem.

Many of us have started meditating thanks to Mindfulness that from American universities has spread as a practice in the West beyond the Eastern culture, making meditation important for psychophysical well-being.

Today, Biophilia, the great diffusion of Yoga, bioenergetics, natural cures and oriental culture, lead me to a clear understanding of how a correct practice of Forest Bathing (immersion in the woods in all senses and with all senses), can certainly lead to a significant improvement in individual and social well-being.

Putting all this together to bring a large number of people to improve the relationship with nature and the forest, in being open to new experiences and knowledge is, today, my goal.

Then I am happy to be able to do it as CSEN and together with those who want to participate in a free and dynamic team, just as a forest has the natural goal of survival, evolution, health, beauty and creativity.

We came out of an existence totally immersed in nature only about 8000 years ago and I have no doubt it is really time to "go home" and remember "who we are".
Returning to nature not to do ... simply to be a loving and integral part of it.

Andrea Mariotti

Email: forestbathing@csen.it