Each of us needs to decompress, and find a little peace and calm

By Nalini Nadkarni | The Olympian's Board of Contributors • Published February 11, 2009

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I recline as far back as I can in the cramped seat of my red-eye airplane flight, on the final stretch home from a scientific conference on the East Coast. I feel jet lagged, grubby and weary — the state that inevitably accompanies the jumping of time zones and stretching of awake-time to maximize the information and conversations at gatherings of my tribe.

But my mind is wide awake. It jumps among the ideas that were exchanged and the connections coalesced through common interests. Mine was a gathering of ecologists, but I don't doubt that mine is a kindred state to a professional truck driver returning from the annual meeting of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters or my poodle-loving neighbor coming home from her American Dog Owners Association conference.

There is something vital about leaving the familiar routine. This sharing of insights and the connection with peers is part of what makes humans human. The encounters themselves are short-lived, but when we return to our familiar office, truck stop and dog-walking route, some of those fresh insights and reconnections remain to sustain us through to the next communal encounter.

Similarly, getting away on vacation recharges us, often in the realms of the body and the spirit instead of exclusively the mind. The word vacation comes from the Latin vacatio, which means freedom. Our jaunts to explore the seaside or the mountains or an entirely different city deliver a sense of freedom from the daily routine that renews us.

But today's busy and financially troubled and carbon-stressed world presents increasing obstacles to attend faraway meetings and hideaways. The direction is shifting toward "attending" virtual meetings, and making do with conference calls to conduct our business. We are beginning to resort to hometown nonresort alternatives for our holidays.

What alternative actions might help satisfy this critical need to renew ourselves that travel to meetings and retreats have provided? One potential partial replacement that costs neither dollars nor carbon came from a recent visitor to Olympia. A Japanese forest ecologist, Dr. Shoji Takimoto, stayed briefly at my forest ecology research lab at The Evergreen State College. His visit coincided with our weekly lab lunch, and he joined my students and me as we each described the progress on our projects for that week.

In his quiet-voiced English, Takimoto told us about a Japanese custom called "shin-rin yoku," which literally translates to "tree shower" or "forest air-breathing." When a person feels anxious or tense, he simply goes outside, walks up to a tree, raises his arms above his head for a minute or so, and then receives that which the tree provides: a sense of calm, serenity, well-being, and — freedom. He said that its practice — walking in forests in order to promote health — is a major form of relaxation in Japan.

Ever since Takimoto's visit, the phrase "You should go take a shin-rin yoku!" has been frequently voiced in our lab. In the presence of a tree for even that short time, we are reminded of the nature's reliable cycles of life, its quiet silent beauty, and the satisfying forms of its branching patterns. It sure beats jet lag and lost luggage.

Dr. Nalini M. Nadkarni studies forest canopies as a member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College. A member of The Olympian's Board of Contributors, she can be reached at nadkarnn@evergreen.edu.