three years ago I took out a client and
what happened that day completely
transformed how I understood the power
of nature oh it’s a message and this
particular clients name was Val and she
was a 20-year executive with a very
large oil and gas company and
international one and she just been laid
off like hundreds of thousands of people
here in Alberta and despite the fact
that she was really successful and
effective in her life she was having
difficulty pausing long enough to do the
necessary reflection that she needed to
do to reach heart her life so she asked
me if I would take her out into nature
Dalbir get clarity on her path and I
remember this day very clearly I took
her to a local lake and just down the
valley here and it was late September so
the so there was a little bit of snow on
the top of the mountains the air was
crisp there was nobody on the trail and
the leaves were beautiful that day it
was just a perfect day to ponder life
and she came out what I did is I started
with a sense meditation for her to just
to switch gears and then I invited her
to walk slowly through the forest and as
she came out of this dense sort of
mature pine forest she came into this
this scene it was a fairly new burn in
the last 10 years and as she came
through that threshold she just stopped
I was a little ways ahead of her and I
remember looking back and thinking oh
bowels having one of those powerful
nature moments and this is what I want
to talk to you about today is these
powerful nature moments you see those
who are nature wise have an edge in
today’s busy distracted world
but before I tell you the rest of Valis
right I’m gonna back up just a minute
and tell you another story about ten
years ago I started leading these yoga
hiking retreats where I would combine
walking meditation yoga and I would take
these amazing locations in the mountains
I do snowshoe yoga retreats and I call
this eco yoga and after a day or two
people would often say oh my god I so
needed that thank you so much and while
you know I thought great you know of
course they feel good they’ve been
outside for two days and you know what
for me it’s just intuitive and then at
the same time I was leading these
leadership walks where I would combine
walking meditation and reflective
questioning outside and people would
often report these profound insights and
while I’d like to think that I have
superior facilitation and guiding skills
I knew that there was something else
going on but I just I couldn’t put my
finger on it and then the tipping point
happened for me about three years ago
this summer I had executives from all
over the country call me and they all
have the same story and I did wasn’t
that advertising for this and they said
Rana you know I’m going through this
major life transition I I just I think I
need to get into nature and get some
clarity in my life I really like the
sound of that eco yoga program can I do
and so being a small business operator I
said well yes of course you can and I
remember the first fellow who called
he’s from Toronto big business guy and
he wanted to go for two days and I
remember hanging up thinking days I knew
what I did was really effective for the
half-day programs that I delivered but I
wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing
well with what was actually working I
wasn’t gonna be able content but I
figured something out and and he had
this amazing a really powerful
experience that was one of the
executives that I took out and I
remember walking back on the trail with
Val at the end of the day and we were
debriefing and she’s just like rattling
off all these amazing insights that came
to her and how this was a really
important moment for her in her life
and I remember thinking in the back of
my mind going how is this possible I did
the most basic of basic things this
woman and she’s had this amazing
experience and the tipping point was
that I had to figure out what I was
doing well what was I doing right like
why why was this working so well so the
next you know shortly after that I was
guiding private clients and I was
telling him about these these nature
prescriptions I didn’t have a word for
it so I started calling him these nature
prescriptions and and several of them
said oh Rana that sounds like that shoe
from Japan I said pardon me he said was
local from Japan I said one more time
they said that sounds like that shinrin
yoku you know that forest bathing from
Japan I’ve never heard of it so I went
and I looked it up and apparently in the
1980s doctors started to describe a type
of forest therapy for their clients now
Japan is one of the most successful
countries in the world but with that
success comes a price stress anxiety and
depression and so they would send them
out into the forest to this forest
bathing and they were getting fantastic
results but they didn’t know why and so
they started to send research
to find out why is this working and now
there’s 30 years of research to show us
that time in the forest is really good
for you and this is what I want to share
with you today I’m gonna share one more
thing though once I figured out about
the shinrin yoku I decided to take a
course and I knew going to Japan really
wasn’t an option because my Japanese is
terrible and I discovered this
organization called the association of
nature and forest therapy and so I went
and took their course and every day that
it was on this course it’s like light
bulbs went off every day going oh that’s
why that’s working oh I understand it oh
okay right then and so I’m gonna divert
for just a second before I tell you the
three things that you can do to be
nature wise and get an edge because this
is so fascinating and unbelievable I’ve
got to tell it to you so one of the
things that I learned is that dr. Chynn
Lee who is an associate professor at the
nippon school of medicine he did this
research study where they took out
participants into the forest and they
did the shinrin yoku and in japan they
call it shi lin yoku but they they did
this shinrin yoku for two hours a day
for three days in a row and he was
trying to figure out how does this this
activity help your immune system and so
he was looking in this way and what he
discovered after three days is that
their natural killer cells increased
dramatically now your natural killer
cell is the cells that take out your
dead or dying cells they are your cancer
fighting tumor fighting cells they’re
kind of like the Bruce Willis of your
immune system they increased by 56% and
they stayed that way for a month that’s
amazing and he even figured out what was
it in the forest that was causing this
so what he’s determined was that the
trees give off something called fight on
sides this is these are these organic
chemical compounds that the trees give
off it’s kind of like the trees bug
spray and how it protects itself from
its predators and
as we go into the forest and we bathe in
the forest atmosphere those fight on
sides are what’s giving us all these
amazing results that’s amazing so here’s
your three things that you can do to be
nature wise and get edged in today’s
busy distracted world
the first thing that people would always
report to me when they would come out
with me they’d say I feel really good I
haven’t felt this good in years and I’m
wondering if this is how I should
normally I would normally feel if I
wasn’t so stressed out and they’re not
alone stresses m’q in in our culture in
2012 there was a study a Canadian study
that looked at 27,000 workers across
Canada and what they discovered out of
these 20,000 people that they
interviewed is that over 50% of them
were experiencing high levels of stress
the stress can be a good thing high
stress can get you motivated get things
done but if you experience high levels
of stress for long periods of time it
wreaks havoc on your system on your body
your mind your emotions your entire
well-being there’s multiple studies that
show time in the forest will greatly
reduce your stress very quickly and what
it does is it decreases variable heart
rate blood pressure and cortisol
cortisol your stress hormone so here is
your hint go for a walk at lunchtime and
studies have shown that if you go for a
walk for 15 minutes it will in this way
it will reduce your cortisol levels by
12% now that’s not bad for very little
effort 15 minutes the second thing
people would always say to me is they’d
say Rana I feel like I can actually
focus like I can concentrate I feel like
I’m present and we have two different
kinds of focus we have direct focus and
we have involuntary focus so direct
focus is is that feeling when you can
lock into something and you can dig in
move something forward it’s very sad
– spying but you can only have that
focus for so long and then you’ll hit
the wall and if you keep trying to focus
in that way it can actually produce
really negative results inside of you
now the good news is that you have
indirect focus and indirect focus is
when you are aware of the sights and
sounds around you it’s like this light
soft awareness and when you spent time
in this softer awareness it will help
restore your focus and nature is the
perfect place to go to restore this so
here’s your hint when you go outside for
your 15 minute walk to help you manage
your stress be aware of the sounds and
the sights around you the air on your
skin just tune into your senses and this
will help you restore your focus so you
can still be effective for the rest of
your day now the third thing that people
would report is they would come they see
Rana you know I’ve been dealing with
this issue I’ve been trying to figure
this out for a long time and I you know
I’m in the forest for half an hour and I
know what I’ve got to do Oh in the end I
figured out this and this and this all
like that we are so distracted nowadays
with these little devices that go ding
every five seconds that our executive
function is front part of your brain
that is responsible for critical
thinking decision making and empathy
it’s getting tired
it’s fatigued and when it’s fatigued it
doesn’t actually work that well time in
the forest is the perfect remedy dr.
David Strayer of the University of Utah
they did this study where they took up
56 outward-bound
folks into the wilderness for four days
so no devices no phones nothing and
after he did his entrance questionnaires
and those exit questionnaires and after
four days their critical thinking
creativity decision-making abilities
went up by 50% 50% that’s amazing now
the good news is you don’t have to go
outside for 4 days in the wilderness to
relieve this area there’s lots of other
studies that show when you go in to Nate
in this way you know you’re gonna do
this for 15 minutes you have a light
awareness it will start to restore your
executive function so you can think
properly so here’s the good news is it
just just on a regular basis 15 minutes
in a local park or a natural area tuning
into your senses will go a long way in
giving you an edge now you’re probably
thinking okay well what do you mean by
this way Ronna well most people connect
to nature in one or two ways the first
way we usually connect to nature as we
go for a hike we go into these amazing
areas we go with family and friends we
get some exercise we feel great wow this
is a lot of fun you’re not gonna get the
benefits that I’m talking about to this
degree the second way that you will get
that people mostly connect to nature is
they go out with a naturalist and the
naturalist will have amazing stories
they’ll pull up funny things out of
their packs and you’ll come you’ll feel
really inspired and had a great day and
while this is inspiring you’re not gonna
get the effects that I’m talking about
to this degree so I’m talking about a
third way a way where you slow it right
down you don’t actually go very far you
tune in to your senses deeply when you
look at something you actually stand and
look at it for a while or you take the
time to really listen to the birds feel
the sensation of the wind on your skin
be in the atmosphere of the forest and
it’s this Third Way is what is gonna
give you an edge so I’m gonna come back
to Val’s story this is exactly where she
was standing and when Val went through
that threshold into this burnt-out
forest she called me over and said
Rhonda what’s going on here
what’s going on right here in this
forest and I said well Val this is a
fresh burn and when fires come through
it takes out the forest and new growth
can come in at that point she said oh my
god this is what I did to my life is I
just put a fire through my life and now
I realize what’s what I’m not doing I’m
so used to pushing and making things
happen that I’m not allowing
new growth to come forward in my life
which is what I want and as she figured
that out it reframed the rest of her
time as she started to reinvent herself
and she knew what she had to do after
that things got very clear for her she’s
now working at a job she absolutely
loves but this helped her shift gears
she also said that her time in the
forest she felt happy like a way she
hadn’t felt in over a decade that was
after the first 15 minutes of the sense
meditation and then the fog started to
left so this is my wish for you is that
you spend a little bit of time in the
forest in this third way and as you do
so that you get energized focused and
you have clarity of thought thank you [Applause]