Long before “forest bathing” had a name, humans lived in woodlands. For most of our evolutionary history, green space wasn’t a retreat from daily life — it was daily life.
The modern world has pulled us indoors, onto screens and into offices, at a pace our human biology hasn’t caught up with. This “mismatch” between how we evolved to live, and how we now live, explains why forest bathing is an established, and respected, healthcare and wellbeing practice (in Japan and the Netherlands).
The Science behind Forest Bathing
Much of the modern evidence base comes from Japan, where research has shown measurable physiological changes after time spent in forest environments, including significant reductions in stress hormones and other inflammatory markers.
The research undertaken by UK based neuroscientist, Dr Joseph Jebelli, points to the fact that a human brain’s “circuitry” functions at its’ optimum level in green space. This is the key reason why time in green space reduces stress, anxiety and mental fatigue.
Why This Matters to Companies
For companies, the business case for including forest bathing as part of a preventative and proactive healthcare policy in the workplace, is strong.
In short, whether a company’s board is considering the merits of forest bathing from a ruthless “what’s in it for the business?” perspective, or from a purpose led perspective, namely: “what is the right thing to do for our employees in order to keep them well and productive? The business case for forest bathing is irrefutable.
To give context to this bold assertion, stress-related absence remains one of the largest hidden costs to UK employers — around £85 billion a year — and burnout rarely announces itself before it arrives.
The government’s “Keep Britain Working review” (published in June this year and supported by over 250 UK companies), concludes that current healthcare policies and procedures need an overhaul to make them “preventative” rather than “reactive”. This conclusion has set in train the need for a new “Healthy Working Lifecycle standard” (“HWLS”).
“HWLS” will be a voluntary standard but all UK companies (including SMEs like ours) will be expected to meet it. Failure to do so could result in adverse social media publicity and, at worst, litigation (including class action by employees and former employees) on the basis that failure to comply with “HWLS” would amount to a breach of the employer duty of care in the workplace, resulting in employee ill health.
On the positive side, it is expected that most UK employers will want to adopt the new standard because upfront investment in new policies and procedures for healthcare and wellbeing in the workplace, should be countered by increased productivity and higher profit due to lower levels of absenteeism on the part of employees.
Structured time in green space offers a rare healthcare intervention which is preventative rather than reactive.
Hawk and Heath is here to help companies (including SMEs) with this new standard
At Hawk and Heath, our business purpose is to enable people to stay well.
Our guided sessions, which are run from Broughton Sanctuary near Skipton, provide preventative healthcare for company employees. Our practices therefore comply with what we expect the new “Healthy Working Lifecycle Standard” to require of UK companies.
The “Hawk and Heath Method” blends slow sensory immersion with the science behind it. In practice, this means we can successfully address the causes of employee disengagement and fatigue “at root level”, before symptoms develop, and manifest as sick days.
This is also the rationale behind our corporate wellbeing work:
In summary:
“Shinrin Yorkshire”, is our medically guided nature reset, which combines clinical assessment with guided forest immersion, and
“Future Ready Wellbeing”, which is delivered with Emotional First Aid.
In each case, our methods are evidence-based interventions; they are grounded in Broughton Sanctuary’s landscape, and built on the same research that underpins forest bathing in Japan and the Netherlands.
Why Should Companies choose Hawk and Heath as a healthcare provider?
Our preventative healthcare methods provide employees with what the new “Healthy Working Lifecycle Standard” is expected to require of UK companies.
This is because our methods are all about early intervention and addressing wellbeing at its’ physiological root (so that employees stay well during their working lifecycle).
We enable employees to slow down in green space, thereby improving wellbeing and productivity in the workplace. Our methods are backed by science not sentiment.
As the pressures of modern working life increase year by year, our preventative healthcare methods offer something rare and crucially important to people’s long term health: namely healthcare methods which enable everyone to function at their optimum level; thus enabling everyone to live well in the modern world.