Forest therapy viable option to deal with pandemic stress, guide says

After a year of spending more time than usual cooped up indoors, some doctors are now writing nature prescriptions.

They aim to get their patients to experience a range of mental and physical benefits that come from spending time outdoors.

Andrea Prazmowski, Ottawa's first certified forest therapy guide, said that doctors are looking at evidence and seeing just how powerful an antidote a few hours in nature can be. The effects, Prazmowski said, can last for weeks.

"Researchers have been studying this question, measuring what happens," Prazmowski told Up North CBC's Jonathan Pinto.

"They found that our stress hormones decrease, the levels of cortisol and our blood pressure drops, our heart rate functioning is supported, and even our immune systems gets a boost."

People also report they feel more creative, and that fuzzy brain feeling goes away, leading to more problem solving, Prazmowski said.  

"And there's this pattern of thought we have that goes with anxiety, which is called rumination," Prazmowski said.

"Just sort of spinning old things over and over. And studies show that we spend time in nature and that just puts a pause on that, the rumination that can be so negative."

What does a forest therapy guide do?

"We gently guide people to shift from a place of stress to a place of calm and a place of healing," Prazmowski said.

"It's a gently guided walk. It's almost a meditative-type walk. We invite people into the present moment and to awaken their senses and just become aware of our experience of being in nature.

"And that proves to be really uplifting and healing and supportive for people in so many ways."

The overarching goal, Prazmowski said, is to get people to take a step back from their harried lives.

"I love to encourage people to slow down and not feel obliged to be doing anything, but to allow ourselves to be and just to be receptive to the movement of the air and the birdsong and the sensation of being bathed in nature," she said. 

And if getting to a nearby green space isn't possible or practical, Prazmowski said even virtual forest walks can help out.

"Being guided in this way and being connected in this virtual circle is also helpful," she said.

"I've been guiding walks through the pandemic and virtually and some people are even indoors, they've been in lockdown. They've had to stay indoors.

"But if they can see the clouds moving out their window, if they can see a bird going by, even if they have house plants nearby, the same sequence that we go through outdoors can be so supportive to people indoors."