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Accepted Paper:
Forest bathing as an embodied practice for multi-species relationality amidst polycrisis
Daillen Culver
(SOAS)
Shinrin yoku or forest bathing has become a popular wellbeing practice. As a forest bathing facilitator, I propose forest bathing as an embodied practice for cultivating multi-species kinship and ensuring that non-human beings are represented in moments of ecological transition.
Paper Abstract:
Shinrin yoku, also known as forest bathing, has become a popular alternative wellbeing practice. Developed by Japanese researcher Yoshifumi Miyazaki to address the public health polycrisis in post-war Japan, it has grown to encompass a heterogenous set of eco-therapy practices and mindfulness-based techniques. Beyond its physiological health benefits, forest bathing is designed to bring humans into harmony with the ecosystems they inhabit (Miyazaki 2018). Practitioners are invited to develop networks of multi-species kinship with the non-human beings they encounter during a forest bathing session, creating micro-opportunities for a gradual ontological shift away from dualism and towards an ethos of interconnectedness. Drawing on my training as an anthropologist and experience as a certified forest bathing facilitator, I will introduce the practice of forest bathing as a pathway to multi-species kinship and assert its potential as an embodied, transformational practice for cross-species representation in this moment of polycrisis.