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Shinrin-Yoku- Forest Breathing Re-Invent Your Experience

I love the woods!

Did you know that in Japan, there is a term which literally means to bathe mind and body in green space? In Japanese, shinrin means forest, and yoku refers to a “bathing”, showering, taking in- with all of our senses, the forest atmosphere!

I am lucky to live not far away from Walden Pond, I walk or swim there almost everyday. I take myself offline during the day and give myself a chance reset. I go forest breathing for the intention of re-invention- to re-invent the experience of the forest with all of my being. And to re-invent myself, too. Because I realize by slowing down, I’m not doing less, I’m doing more.

I am breathing in the air of the transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Louis May Alcott and more. These places are immersed in the tradition of conscious living and communing with the land. I am reminded that when I breathe, all I need to do is become aware of the preciousness of life and tap into the molecules of genius in the air around me. This is my way to greet the day!

Our aptitude for stillness is all but lost, however, when we deliberately take ourselves to bathe in nature…”it is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon (our) hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that wonderfully changes and renews (our) weary spirit”- Robert Louis Stevenson —so true, right?

We are energy beings. We send out energy according to our feelings, thoughts and moods inside of us. And we take in energy from the environment that surrounds us.

For many, our jobs are killing us. So the days of being unconscious with our thoughts, feelings and behaviors are over. It’s time to re-invent ourselves and eliminate destructive, self-critical patterns.

In 1990, Dr. Yoshifumi Miyazaki of Chiba University conducted a small study in the beautiful forests of Yakushima to test shinrin-yoku. Home of Japan’s most pristine forests, Yakushima contains 1,000 year old cedar trees. Miyazaki showed that 40 minutes of walking in the cedar forest improved mood and feelings of vigor. Further, his findings reported lower levels of stress hormone cortisol in subjects who took a forest walk compared to the control group of subjects who took indoor walks. Miyazaki’s study was the first evidence-based proof that the walk in the forest is not the same as other environmental settings.

It is important to note that a reduction in stress hormones is almost certainly a boost for the immune system. Natural chemicals secreted by evergreen trees, collectively known as phytoncide, have also been associated with the cure for tuberculosis. Since the 1800’s, research physicians in Japan, Bavaria, Germany and the Adirondacks of New York State have studied the beneficial effects of breathing forest air.

There’s something else I want to share with you, it is especially in Springtime that pine trees secrete a healing balm into the air that is magnified! A testament to shinrin-yoku and the preventive benefit of the ancient forest. Therefore, aside from the mental aspects, the physiological benefits of ancient forests stand tall as reason enough to preserve what is left of these beauty-filled, quiet places.

Perhaps, it is my 25 years of experience working with chronic and terminally ill children that has kept me in the service of health promotion and disease prevention for children. I remember the excitement for a bone marrow transplant child patient confined, alone, to a laminar air flow room, coming “alive again” when I’d bring my hikes in the mountains using music and color photos projected on the walls of that tiny room. Much of my training in mind/body techniques evolved from my work at Boston Children’s Hospital and led me to be taken on as research assistant to co-founders of the Mind/Body Clinic, and NY Times Bestselling authors, Harvard cardiologist, Dr. Herbert Benson, The Relaxation Response and Dr. Joan Borysenko, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind.

My doctoral studies in cross-cultural healing taught me that indigenous healing practices place much importance on investigating the underlying thought patterns and emotional disturbances that are the cause beneath the surface symptoms of our illnesses. The many patients who came to the Mind/Body Clinic also began to appreciate this perspective using meditation practice. But another way to get there which requires only a novel bit of awareness, is through solitude in nature.

Now, more than ever, our world needs to prosper. We must learn to enjoy our life and model this for our children. Don’t we want to help our children awaken the power of inner energy?

Start with space— no distractions! When we have space outside, we automatically and naturally clear space inside. Both worlds inspire us, stretch us, inform us. From each reveals the interconnectedness of all living things. Now, consciously add the breath and the forest-air.

Good things come from such a peaceful place as the forest. Let’s start right now. We’ll follow our breathing and “take in” the forest air by turning our attention away from the day and bringing our attention inward. The pathway to the quiet mind is the breath. In the breath is a clearing space.

Whether we know it or not, the forest has its influence on us. The trees are asking us to be present. Nature is trying to capture our attention but most of the time we are too oblivious, we miss the subtle invitation. Even so, part of us does connect! We can leave a green space feeling better than before we got there and never know why.

The invitation from the forest is to commune with its energy. For when we let the forest energy become our energy we receive its power, its strength, its healing. This is a one-way communication. But it really becomes “magic” when we communicate back to the trees; then the connection becomes two-way!

Real magic is impossible unless we are aware. Ask the tree huggers why they hug the tree and say “I love you!” When you are hugging that tree you are connected not only to that tree but to all life in the forest.True magic is expansiveness! When you love, your heart opens, your awareness becomes more and more. You have the revelation that this tree feels me and I feel the life force of these ancient trees. The tree “allows you to be there”. The tree does not judge or criticize you.

In my private practice, I go to the forest with children who have anxieties of all sorts and I encourage them to sit against the tree and ask the tree- “how do you stand there for eons?”

“I’m having trouble focusing and being still?” In this manner, we are asking permission for healing. We are having two-way conversation. It’s like a radio, we have to “tune in” to the station. When we slow down, we get information.

Believe it or not, many of the children that I work with have this knowingness. By using the forest setting, I am cultivating expansive awareness. The tree “knows how to just be”— without self-judgement. This is the magic, you allow the blocks in your body/mind/spirit to be cleared.

Let’s meet all life experiences with the attitude of expecting mind-expanding, heart-opening re-inventions.

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Side Bar-Insert Mini-Meditation:

Forest-air breathing is inspirational! Why? Because to be inspired means to be breathed or to take in breath. In this process, we take in, inhale that which surrounds us. It is natural and automatic.

The breath has three parts: there is a filling, receiving and the exhalation, a letting go, emptying.

But the third aspect of the breath is subtle and sometimes missed or misunderstood. It is the segment of gently holding the breath. The holding of the breath is the most important part. It is the magic now, the choice point between in and out; conscious and unconscious. It is the strategic middle ground between the inhalation and exhalation, the center point of infinity.

This choice point is our moment of awareness. We have a choice, to stress ourselves with our thinking mind or to tap into our inner resources, relax, renew, refresh. We tap infinite possibilities This is the point of rebirth in each breath. You are in the magic now of birthing anew in each breath.

Become aware of this moment and this one too;

it is the forest-air of new life breathing you.

Holding, ever so gently, the breath is holding, reverently, life.

Take three deep breaths- slowly, easily and say to yourself:

As I breath in, I take in the beauty all around me.

As I breath out, I express the beauty within me.

As I hold my breath, I honor the fullness of all that is.

I am the beauty of new life.

I am the peace of the forest-air.

Thank you

“I help stressed, anxious children calm down and reduce their anxiety with natural methods so they can improve their focus and concentration, do better in school and just be happier overall.”

www.drroxannedaleo.com

Side Bar: Inspired by her study of cross-cultural healing practices, Dr. Daleo believes it is possible to weave the ways of ancient people into the fabric of modern life in an effort to help the young claim this wisdom as an essential part of who they are. The most relevant and timeless aspect of ancient practices is the sincere understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things. It is a knowing that everything that is in us is in the atmosphere we breath- the receptacle from which we draw our life energies that nourish and sustain us.

Links:

Dr. Roxie’s website: wwwdrroxannedaleo.com

Stress Reduction/ Relaxation CDs and Books

https://web.shoproute9.com/specvest/mindwork.nsf/Products?OpenView

Mobile App Guided Imagery Relaxation

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/guided-imagery-relaxation/id842985952?mt=8

‘Using Your Energy Wisely” vimeo

Recharge Your Resourcefulness

I started cross-country skiing when I moved to New Hampshire. I was taking a new job. It was my first chance to do play therapy for children at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. After a stressful day’s work, cross-country skiing was a place I could to to recharge myself.

…I heard only the delicate sound of each downy flake as it hit the evergreens on either side of me on that trail through the quiet woods of deep snow…that day, my mind was sharp and focused…my body, steady with physical determination to stay balanced with each glide and to make each push-off count to send me farther and farther along that narrow trail…I remember the feeling of being totally part of all…connected to the natural world around me…and in touch with something sacred and divine…it was powerful yet peaceful…I thought to myself, as I ski, I am living into the feelings New England’s poet Robert Frost expresses.

Try reading Robert Frost “Stopping by a Snowy Evening” illustrated by Susan Jeffers to your child and see if it evokes happiness. Your child can start the good feelings flowing with anything they love—a song, photograph or wonderful experience.

Even today, when I am cross-country skiing or just thinking about it, the experience can reactivate my mind in the time and space of the initial, impressionable experience. I can feel it in my body and relive it in my imagination.

My studies in social psychology and psycho-neuroimmunology introduced me to Harvard Professor Dr. Ellen Langer whose research revealed evidence of the body’s ability to return to a state of health and happiness from an earlier period of life. These reports described the powerful influence of memory to effect improved physiological changes, such as increases in counts of killer cells in the blood that combat disease as well as reduced blood pressure and cortisol levels overall improved perception of vigor. Our cells have memory, it’s proven.

We, ourselves, can bring forth our own state of pleasure and more importantly, resourcefulness when we need more confidence, more courage, more commitment. Here’s how:

STEP 1.   RECALL a time in your life when you were in a state of resourcefulness. It could be cross-country skiing or playing a sport and making a goal or completing successfully a musical performance and hearing the audience rousing applaud. You decide—when did you feel great?

STEP 2.   RE-LIVE it using all of your senses. Hear it (sound of snow falling gently); feel it (cool air through my nose and lungs); see it (beauty all around me); touch it (wet snow on my face).

STEP 3.   RESOLVE yourself to never giving up on yourself. You have within you all the power you need to do what you set out to do. Reactivate your resourceful state—your cellular memory will help you know it is still there within you. It feels like—YES!

The Apple Tree Said to Me

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Benefits of Learning Relaxation Skills

Benefits of Learning Relaxation Skills:

  • Fosters kindness and caring in ourselves and others
  • Gives the body a chance to recharge naturally from the daily everyday hassles
  • Gives your mind the moment to readjust to a more positive attitude
  • Learning relaxation skills is easy and makes you feel good about yourself

TIPS FOR PARENTS – Starting School Positively

Dear Moms and Dads,

This is Dr. Roxanne Daleo with a few helpful reminders for consideration as our children begin the school year. Whatever the grade our children are beginning, their success is crystallized with the full support and involvement of you, the parent. Remember, your own feelings of confidence or apprehension are easily transferred to your children so here is how to start school positively.

Teach our children ways to stay healthy in body, mind, and spirit. The physical body needs to eat good food and have good exercise. The mental body needs to have good meditation, good thinking, and good words. The spirit of the child needs to have fun and be loved.

So much of the focus in the curriculum today is about academic intelligence. The three R’s–reading, writing and arithmetic, the fourth R, relaxation, is also essential for education and it stands for the life skills in stress management and emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a term coined by Dr. Daniel Goleman, which refers to the following skills to help children learn to manage strong feelings and reduce stress: learning relaxation techniques and calming down, identifying feelings, recognizing feelings in others, communicating feelings, reducing the negative effects of strong emotions, and controlling impulses.

In his work, Dr. Daniel Goleman points out the current condition of students as being more depressed, more defiant, more aggressive, more uncontrollable then ever before. Teaching children how to become happier, friendlier, kinder and caring people can not only help them as individuals but also helps produce a healthier society–ultimately.

A fairly accurate predictor of what kind of adult your child will turn out to be is based on what they think of themselves not what we think of them. What a child thinks of himself is a direct result of what kind of messages get reinforced on a daily basis. Your child’s self-image is learned. It is an accumulation of outside influencing messages, events and perceptions. These messages can be positive or negative.

More importantly is a child’s inner dialogue or self-talk which can be unconscious. Self-talk can reinforce the outside messages in a positive or negative direction whether these messages are true or false. Children can be taught to become aware of the inner talk and how to use relaxation and guided imagery to clear their mind and emotions, correct misconceptions, remember their goodness and gifts, and be emotionally intelligent about future outside influences and events.

If we want our children to value themselves, then we should teach them skills in emotional intelligence. The following are techniques to cultivate self-worth and confidence:

A positive mental attitudeGuided imagery relaxationReframing stressful situationsMental rehearsalUsing affirmations

(Side Bar)

Benefits of emotional intelligence skills and stress reduction skills are as follows:

Improved concentrationGreater impulse controlImprove self-awarenessAbility to stay calmIncreased self-esteem and feelings of self-worthGreater empathy

Let’s go through this list using the first day of school as an example of how emotional intelligence can be developed.

1. Set a positive mental tone for starting school.

Your attitude and the atmosphere you create in your home can either help or hinder your child’s ability to cope.

a. In yourself set a positive tone.

Reflect on what starting school was like for you as a child. Are your memories good or bad, or both? Just notice them for yourself before you say anything to your child. Then choose to give your child a positive perspective by sharing your own happy or funny stories rather than feeding their anxiety with your own anxieties.

b. In your home set a positive tone.

Create a daily routine to de-stress and relax, one that is calm, open and accepting. Make it safe and easy for your child to express his feelings. When you take time to listen to your child it makes him or her feel important.  You can create calm versus chaos by playing soft music, lighting a candle at dinner or just slowing down and being still.

2. Use your inner resources for relaxation and stress reduction and teach your child how to use his or her inner resources.

Put your own oxygen mask on first and then help your child put on his. In other words, you stay calm, be still and listen before expecting your child to the same.

a. Practice Relaxation with Guided Imagery

Every afternoon or before bed give your child the opportunity to check in with you about their feelings and stress level.

Take three, deep letting go breaths together with your child.  You can ring a bell or a chime and follow the sound for as long as you can hear it and then listen to the sound of your own breathing. This is a good way to start slowing down and then listening to your body.  What is there for you?

Children can tell where stress is in their bodies.  Often, they tell me they get headaches, butterflies in their stomaches, tightness in their throats or difficulty breathing.  These are all symptoms of stress.  Children can learn to listen to their bodies’warning signs using a guided imagery relaxation audio program or just sitting quietly together without distractions.  Choose a quiet place without distractions such as television, radio, computer, video games, etc.

These body signs warn us we are stressed and need to slow down and calm ourselves.  If you and your child select a theme such as confidence, general relaxation or caring and practice guided imagery once or twice a day for three or four weeks following the guidelines for listening, you should gain benefits with the consistency of this solid start.

(Side bar for Article)

Guidelines for Listening to Guided Imagery Relaxation Journeys

MindWorks are designed for all children 4 years and up.

Use a quiet spaceNo distractions such as TV or radio

Find a comfortable positionSitting or lying down

Just listenAudio program guides, relaxation, imagination and body awareness

Establish regular practiceConsistency is the key

Use your imaginationExplore other ways to use the programs following up with the child’s own story, poems, dance or artwork.

Recommendations for Parents to Take Mini Breaks.

If possible, after dropping your children off at school, plan on parking the car at a nearby waterway, rest area, or farm.  Insert a relaxation program into a CD player to recharge your own energy.  This is a good way to help you rest before letting the day get away.  This practice of just listening, aids you in staying calm throughout the day.

b. Reframe Stressful Situations.

Once you’ve established a time and routine for relaxation and calming the body, take it a step further and help your child learn ways to calm his/her mind and reframe stressful situations.  The inner dialogue or self-talk may be the root cause for his/her stress.  Ask your child what he hears in his head.  Ask,“If you could place a microphone there what discussion would you be able to pick up?”

Once they give you a word or a phrase such as“I don’t think Mary likes me or Mrs. Green, my teacher looked mad at me”reframe it.  Cultivate a friendly personality by teaching your child to see the best in themselves and in others.  Teach your child to be careful of how he/she talks to herself.

Help your child understand the impact of words and messages they say to themselves.  As parents, remember your words can make or break your child’s self-worth.  Tell your child you love them often and you know they are doing their best and they will try even harder to do better.  Tell your child he is bad, lazy or unfocused and he will do even worse because he will feel unworthy and inferior.

There is an age old saying that goes,“the child who lives with criticism learns to condemn.  The child who is given approval and encouragement learns to like himself”.

c. Use Affirmations.

To affirm means to make strong.  Make strong positive statements to your child he can hear and understand such as“you’ve solved problems before so what can you come up with now that will help”?  Or“What could you do to handle this?”Show your confidence in your child’s ability to cope by encouragement and asking the right questions.  They will automatically take those positive statements and start saying powerful messages to themselves.

d. Mental rehearsal.

In the days and weeks before school prepare your child using the technique called mentalrehearsal. Begin with a few deep breaths and imagine the first day going the way you would like it to go.  The Olympic athletes use this technique; they do not waste time imagining themselves failing.  They see themselves performing well over and over again.

e. Story telling.

Story telling is bonding and teaches values and coping strategies.

Tell your child positive or funny stories of when you were a child his age starting school.

In addition, use story books that have a good message for staying connected with

your child during school.The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn is an encouraging tale about a raccoon whose Mom designs a way to stay connected so that the little raccoon can reassure himself once he gets to school.  It is very helpful for children with separation issues.

3. Fortify the Physical Body

a. Nutrition.

Have you planned healthy snacks and meals for your family?  A child’s energy level is directly related to eating healthy foods.  The brain needs protein first thing in the morning to get going and concentrate.  Try breakfasts of eggs, cheese, tuna fish, tofu, beans and rice or an easy protein combination.  Protein shakes are fun too!

b. Exercise.

Exercise is essential for you and your child’s health and is an effective stress reducer.  Try inventing ways to move the body.  Before school it could be quality time with Dad to walk to school.  After school, biking, walking, jumping a trampoline, or raking leaves, walking the dog, washing a car can be energizing.

4. Ignite the Spirit of Your Child with Love

Nothing can replace your attention and love.  Even more, for your child to love him/herself is so important to their balance and well being.  Using new ways to give your child uplifting messages of reassurance assists him in getting ready for school positively.

In short, listening to a guided relaxation program reminds children that they are not alone and promotes their inner resources which they can call upon to remember their own worth and goodness.  The goodness will come in forms of clearing their minds, uplifting their spirits and recharging their body.

It brings a smile to me to bring a smile to them.  This is what makes my spirit and heart sing.

I like hearing from you and your children.  Please e-mail me atdrroxanne@mindworksforchildren.com if you have any questions, concerns or success stories to share.

Trust yourself to try something new and see the positive in your child and in you.

Best wishes for a positive start for the new school year.

Dr. Roxanne☺☺☺