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You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
Hey everybody, it's Marielle.
Isn't the forest a magical place?
Like when you really venture into the woods and you see these century-old trees towering over you,
sunlight twinkling through them, and spiders weaving their elaborate webs.
The smell of pine needles is in the air.
Birds are tweeting.
You hear a mysterious sound that you're not going to pay too much attention
to, but you really hope is not a bear.
There is a moment of awe that happens when you step into a forest.
And I think a lot of us can sense that forest bathing
or taking in the forest through your senses makes us feel better and calmer.
I was surprised to learn that there are decades of scientific evidence backing that up.
A lot of the evidence comes from Japan, where the term forest bathing originated in the 1980s.
Over many years, researchers have shown in peer-reviewed studies that time in the forest is a kind of medicine.
Forest bathing helps your immune system by increasing your levels of anti-cancer proteins