Gentle. Peaceful. Joyful. That's the spirit of the three nature-inspired wellness modalities that I've had the good fortune to explore this summer. Each one is an invitation to greater ease and calm, and a reminder that the simplest elements of nature are some of our most powerful health allies. Forest bathing is where nature and mindfulness meet, clearing the mind, opening the senses, and sending stress packing. Flower elixirs offer a fragrant way to relieve our afflictions and help us blossom into our fully realized selves. And salt therapy is the beach brought indoors—a crystalized health salve that bids you to breathe deep. All three pursuits are in vogue just now (Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City recently opened a mini salt room to lure shoppers). Consider this a Whitman's sampler of soft therapies designed to root you in nature and plant the seeds of wellbeing...just before summer slips away.
In the Forest, a Trail of Wonder
One recent day at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, along the edge of a woodland path, I crouch to peer into the smiling face of a small white daisy. Time holds its breath as my eyes trace the petals. Next to me—modeling pure, unmediated absorption in the flower and all its floweriness—is Nina Smiley, PhD, Director of Mindfulness Programming at the Victorian-castle resort and coauthor with her brother David Harp of Mindfulness in Nature (Hatherleigh Press, 2017) and The Three Minute Meditator (minds i press, 2007). It crosses my mind that the two of us might look very odd to passersby en route to the tennis courts or horse stables. But Smiley draws my attention back to the flower with a kind of unapologetic devotion—the very essence of forest bathing.
"'Forest bathing' is from the Japanese phrase shinrin-yoku, which is 'immersion in nature' or 'taking in the forest atmosphere,'" says Smiley, whose husband is the great grand-nephew of Albert Smiley, the founder of Mohonk Mountain House. "It's about adding the power of mindfulness to a slow, gentle walk in the woods. The focus is on being fully aware of your senses and clearing the mind of thoughts, which allows you to be present in a deep and healing way."
Smiley is quick to qualify that forest bathing is something you do fully clothed (no soap required). It is not a nature walk in which you reference the names of trees and wildflowers. Nor is it a walking meditation with a focus on each slow step. Rather, forest bathing happens at an even slower pace and calls upon all five senses—with plenty of room to dedicate your awareness to anything that crosses your path. After the encounter with the daisy, Smiley and I zoom in on a centipede, a shrub's sticky seedpods, and the shimmer of wind on water. At one point, we spend several minutes by a tree, running our hands over the moss and lichen that cling to its bark. (Again, my mind wanders: Are we really petting a tree? Yes, we are petting a tree. But thoughts like this are exactly what we wish to quiet while forest bathing.)
Tree stroking aside, forest bathing has science behind it. "The practice was introduced in Japan in the early 1980s, when scientists called out the therapeutic effect of spending time in forests," says Smiley. "Research documented reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and an enhanced immune system." More recently, a small study in 2009 homed in on phytoncides—the antimicrobial organic compounds that plants and trees emit. Breathing in phytoncides, the study found, reduced stress hormone levels and increased the activity of immune-boosting natural killer cells for more than seven days after trips to the forest in both male and female subjects. When we inhale what the forest exhales, we can't help but benefit.
Mohonk Mountain House, with its 85 miles of trails, is not the only place to forest bathe. Smiley points out that you can do it in your own backyard—and that we need practices like this more than ever. "There's an edge of uncertainty and increased stress right now, because it feels like our culture is moving fast-forward into increased fragmentation," she says. "We need ways to calm, center, and find resilience. I think we crave the spaciousness, clarity, and simplicity that come with mindfulness practices like forest bathing."
Propagating Joy with Flower Elixirs
Whether you want to have more creativity and focus, sleep better, or improve your relationships, Katie Hess has a flower for you. Her company, Lotus Wei, produces flower elixirs made with everything from jasmine and water lilies to rare orchids—each aligned with a healing purpose or activating agent of change. "Our mission and joy is to seek out the flowers from amazing places around the world that people can most benefit from today," says Hess. On collection trips to places from Minneapolis to Seattle, and in Iceland, British Columbia, and Ireland, she and her team gather wild blooming flowers, steep them like sun tea, and craft the essences into honey-sweetened elixirs, aura mists, and multi-flower elixir blends with names like Boundless Wisdom, Wild Abundance, and Inspired Action. Each drop is akin to nectar, putting you in the company of butterflies and bees.
A kind of bible for flower healing, Hess's book Flowerevolution: Blooming into Your Full Potential with the Magic of Flowers (Hay House, 2016) is a colorful compendium of blossoms and their properties, with luscious photography by Louis Schwartzberg. Rather than read it in a linear way, Hess invites you to flip through and see which flowers arrest your attention before reading further. "The flowers you're most drawn to are what you need the most." Then there are those flowers that Hess believes everyone in the world can benefit from right now—such as re-energizing yarrow, which she says helps counteract the fatigue we feel from interacting incessantly with our electronic devices. Fireweed is another favorite: "It helps with forgiveness, healing the heart, and not being so hard on yourself," she says.
If it all sounds a little far-fetched, Hess has an answer to that. "Healthy skepticism is a very good thing. Yet there's a way to be skeptical and still maintain a little openness. The key is your personal experience. Why let someone else tell you what works and what doesn't? Try something and know for yourself." Hess's Flowerevolution book includes many anecdotes from people who have used flower elixirs successfully for a range of reasons—from awakening joy and enhancing confidence and magnetism, to assuaging fear and dissolving limiting self-beliefs. "We get stories all the time from people in our community about how incredibly transformative the flower elixirs have been in their life."
Hess also notes that people have been using flower elixirs for centuries, starting with drinking dew. The early-20th-century British physician Dr. Edward Bach "discovered" 38 flower essences that each correspond with an emotional state; he also developed the Rescue Remedy stress relief blend that remains a staple at health food stores and herbal apothecaries. Yet our best advocates might come into bloom just outside our doorstep. "We get into our doing mode and we forget that there are tremendous amounts of magic everywhere," says Hess. "Notice what springs up in your backyard unexpectedly, because it might be blooming for you."
Rather than treat a medical condition, these elixirs aim to treat the ailing spirit—and they can also amplify our best qualities and accelerate self-growth, suggests Hess. "By the simple habit of using flower elixirs, we are reconnecting with our own power. We awaken or strengthen the most juicy, vital, gorgeous pieces of ourselves so that we can live into them and be in our full potential."
The Salty Route to Health
Some seek wellbeing from the forest. Others in a flowery meadow. And yet others, from the salt of the earth and sea. Salt therapy, or halotherapy, is catching on right now, with personal salt chambers the size of telephone booths turning up in department stores like Saks, and salt "caves" popping up in wellness destinations nationwide. Relaxing and atmospheric, the caves are basically rooms covered head to toe in pink Himalayan salt—with a deep layer of salt on the floor like sand, salt-crystal panels lining the walls, salt lamps glowing throughout, and salted air piped in through a halogenerator. People who salt (yes, that's a verb) say the negative ions improve their health and mood—and a few studies out of Europe and Russia find that salt therapy can help relieve respiratory conditions, as well as some skin ailments.
"One salt session is the equivalent of spending three or four days at the beach," says Vicki Thompson, who together with her family opened Salt & Soul—a salt cave and yoga studio—in Saugerties last winter. "The cave is powerful and magical, and salting is an incredible boost to our energy and immune system." Thompson, 31, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 2, discovered salt therapy through a family friend, who sent her a brochure from a facility in Florida. Intrigued to hear that it might help her condition, she flew down to the Sunshine State with her mother to get a firsthand feel for the experience, visiting several different salt caves. "We ended up having a salt booth shipped to our house, where we used salt therapy daily for months." The entire family benefited: her mother's eczema began to clear up, her brother (who also has cystic fibrosis) found relief from seasonal allergies, and Thompson herself found that her lung capacity increased by 10 percent.
In creating Salt & Soul, Thompson and her family hope to help others the way they've helped themselves. The studio has an individual salt chamber where you can get a quickie 15-minute session, in addition to the salt cave with zero-gravity chairs arranged around a salt lamp "fire pit." Experiences in the cave—complete with twinkly fairy lights and spacey music on the sound system—last for 45 minutes, during which guests can relax, meditate, or even fall asleep. "People like it when we hold events in the cave," adds Thompson's mother, Darlene Colandrea. "We've had meditation, Reiki, reflexology." Salt-cave yoga is another frequent draw, in addition to the regularly scheduled yoga classes that take place in the studio room adjacent to the cave. For Thompson, combining salt therapy and yoga—with its focus on the breath—feels like a natural fit. "Following a yoga class with a salt session helps to increase the effects of the salt."
Proponents of salt therapy say it can help with a range of conditions, from asthma and ear infections to psoriasis and emphysema. But it's not a cure-all. Thompson's cystic fibrosis has been challenging over the past couple of months, and when lung conditions like this become severe, dry salt therapy can become an irritant rather than an advocate. Yet she will return to the salt cave when she's ready. "Throughout the eight months we've been open, I've watched salt (and yoga) transform lives," she says. "I can't wait to see it help more."
RESOURCES
Mohonk Mountain House Mohonk.com
Katie Hess Lotuswei.com
Salt & Soul Saltandsoulny.com