School of Shamanism

S2 EP5: Shinrin-Yoku, the path of the forest

• Season 2 • Episode 5

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In this episode of School of Shamanism – Season 2: Many Paths, One Mountain, Giada explores Shinrin-yoku (Forest Bathing), the Japanese practice of immersing yourself in nature through all five senses.

Far beyond a wellness trend, Shinrin-yoku is rooted in the ancient tradition of the Yamabushi, Japan's mountain shamans, whose teachings reveal the forest as a place of healing, wisdom and spiritual transformation.

Giada explores the connection between nature, shamanism and science, explaining how forest bathing helps restore the body, awaken the soul and reconnect us with our original nature. She also introduces the Japanese concept of mono no aware, the beauty of impermanence, and explains why slowing down may be one of the most profound spiritual practices available to us.

Connect with Giada Gaslini:

About the Host

Originally hailing from the vibrant city of Milan, I’ve spent the past two decades traversing the globe in a quest for spiritual and personal growth and combined with 25 years of international corporate work experience. From navigating the vast landscapes of Australia in a campervan to finding tranquility living in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal, my journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Along the way, I’ve delved deep into Buddhist teachings, yoga, and shamanism, becoming Shamanic Teacher,  Forest Therapy Guide, Esoteric Numerologist, Shamanic and Integral Yoga Teacher and Ikigai Coach. In 2013 I settled in Edinburgh, where  I founded the Art and Spirituality Centre, a social enterprise and the School of Shamanism, where I passionately help others on their own transformative journeys.

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CHAPTERS

You Belong to the Forest 

What Is Shinrin-yoku (Forest Bathing)?

The Yamabushi: Japan's Mountain Shamans

The No-Mind State & Martial Arts

Mono no Aware: The Beauty of Impermanence

The Science Behind Forest Bathing

The Forest as a State of Consciousness

How to Practice Shinrin-yoku

The Forest Is Medicine 

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You Belong to the Forest

Giada

You belong to the forest, you belong to nature. We are, we were born in the natural state. And when you immerse yourself in nature, you are not going somewhere foreign, you are coming home.

What Is Shinrin-yoku (Forest Bathing)?

Giada

Welcome back to School of Shamanism and I'm Jada. This is season 2: Many Paths, One Mountain. We've been exploring different paths that lead to the same mountain, the same summit, healing, transformation, and coming home to ourselves. We've talked about Dikigai last time, finding your reason to be alive. And today I want to take you somewhere, just not a concept or a philosophy, but a place, the forest. And specifically a practice called Shinrinoku, forest bathing, which is one of the many paths that I go through. But it's an immersion in nature through all the five senses at the same time. And it's connected to something ancient, which is the path of the Yamabushi, the Japanese shamans of the mountains, from which I share my teachings among, of course, the many traditions. So Shinren Yoko literally means forest bathing, but it's not just being in the forest in the woodland, it's using all five senses simultaneously: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching all at once. And we don't normally do this. We are so uh caught up in our minds that we experience the world through thought and not through sensation. We see something and we immediately we label it, judge it, we file it away, and we have lost the capacity to simply perceive. And this disconnection, of course, has consequences. Using your five senses is actually a way to activate your immune system. Science has proved it. When we immerse ourselves in nature with the full sensory awareness, our bodies heal and we prevent disease and we return to balance. But we have forgotten how. We spend our lives in our minds and we need to get out. We need to experience nature directly, because nature is beauty, and beauty is the way our soul expresses itself. So Shinri Nyko is not something new, it's connected to the ancient tradition of the Yamabushi,

The Yamabushi: Japan's Mountain Shamans

Giada

as I said. And Yamabushi means hidden in the mountain. And these are the Japanese shamans of the mountains. They practice a shugendo, which means the way to spiritual power through discipline and training. And shugendo is a shamanic path that mixes together Buddhism and Shintoism, which is the animistic religion of Japan, where everything in nature has a spirit. And when Taoism reached Japan, it became Zen Buddhism. And all of these streams flow into what we call nowadays Shinrinoku. And so when you practice forest bathing, you are not just doing a wellness activity, you are walking an ancient shamanic path. You are connecting to a lineage that understood the forest as sacred, as medicine, as teacher. And this is why Shinrinoku resonates so deeply with my shamanic work. It's not separate, it's the same mountain approached from a different trail. So Shinrinoku is also related to the martial arts, because in martial arts you win when you don't use your mind. You

The No-Mind State & Martial Arts

Giada

become one with your katana, with your sword, with your body. And the moment the mind wants to win, it creates the ghost of losing. It imagines defeat, it tightens, it separates you from the flow. And the masters call this the known the no-mind experience, and it's exactly what Shinri Nyoko cultivates. So to use your five senses fully, you need awareness. But what kind of awareness? Through your mind or through your soul? So if you are aware through your mind, you judge, you filter reality. You are not actually experiencing the forest, you are experiencing your thoughts about the forest. But when you are aware through your soul, you receive directly. You perceive without filtering. You are in the present moment, not in the commentary about the present moment. And this is what the forest teaches: how to drop the mind and enter reality as it is. For example, mono no aware, it's the beauty of impermanence.

Mono no Aware: The Beauty of Impermanence

Giada

In Shinderen Yoku, there are 10 principles of uh aesthetics, and the first one is mono no aware, which means impermanence, uh evanescence, the poignant beauty of things that don't last. Think of the cherry blossoms, they bloomed for just a few days and then they fall, and that's what makes them so beautiful, not despite their impermanence, but because of their impermanence. And this is the main component of beauty, and beauty is the manifestation of sacredness and love. So when you walk in the forest with this awareness, knowing that everything is passing, that this moment will never come again, then something shifts. The leaves become more vivid, the light becomes more precious, your own life becomes more precious. And one of the most powerful meditations in this tradition is meditating on your own skeleton, for example, on your own death. Not to be morbid, but to wake up, to overcome fear, to remember what matters. And the forest holds these teachings constantly: things are born, grow, decay, die, become soil for new life. The cycle is everywhere. And when you let that in, you stop clinging, you start living. From the scientific point of view, this term Shenrinyoku

The Science Behind Forest Bathing

Giada

was um created in Japan in the 1980s by the director of the Japanese Forestry Authority, and he wanted to describe immersing oneself in nature with all the five senses. And since then, the science has confirmed what the Yamabushi always knew. Immersion in nature has measurable effects. It reduces stress hormones in the body, strengthens the immune system, it regulates blood pressure and heart rate, it lowers cholesterol. Trees release compounds, uh some essential oils that protect the trees from bacteria and insects. And when we breathe them in our natural killer cells, our natural killer cells increase. And so we, of course, improve our immune system. And so science and spirituality can be gathered and elevated through Shinri Nyoko. It's a true therapy, um, empirical and sacred at the same time. The forest is also a state of consciousness, it's not just a place, because it's the condition in which

The Forest as a State of Consciousness

Giada

every desire flows without effort towards its fulfillment. It's the no-mind state, uh, its presence, it's uh being so fully here that the separation between you and life dissolves. And you can be in the forest physically and not be in the state at all. Thinking about work, checking your phone, rushing through, walking with another person and chatting. That's an experience that I don't like doing. Or you can enter the state and carry the forest with you wherever you go. The peace, the presence, the aliveness. So Shinri Nyoko is the practice of entering the state consciously, of letting the forest show you how to be. And the forest has always uh uh known you from a wider point of view. Because it was here before you were born, it will be here after you are gone, and in some deep way it recognizes you. You belong to the forest, you belong to nature. We are, we were born in the natural state. And when you immerse yourself in nature, you are not going somewhere foreign, you are coming home. Your body is made of the same elements as the trees, and your breasts is exchanged with their breasts. You breathe out what they breathe in. The forest nurtures your creativity, and creativity is one of the most useful gifts we have for fulfillment in the world. When you're stuck, when you're blocked, when you can't see the way forward, the forest opens something. It always has. And this is why Shinrinoko is an adventure of deep communion with nature. It's not just relaxation, it's a relationship, a return to our inner natural state. Uh, and how do we practice uh uh Shinrinoko? The most

How to Practice Shinrin-yoku

Giada

traditional way is walking and meditating in the woods, but the key is the quality of attention, not the activity. Slow down radically, you're not going anywhere, you are arriving. And open all five senses at once. Don't just look, don't just see, don't just hear, listen. Uh, feel the air on your skin, smell the earth, uh the bark, the leaves, uh, taste the atmosphere. So drop the mind when thoughts arise, and they will, because they always do, let them pass like clouds, return to sensation, return to the body, return to hear. And let yourself be drawn. If a tree calls you, go to it. If you want to sit, sit. If you want to touch the most or lie on the ground, do it. Trust impulses that arise from the soul, not from the mind. And remember, mono no aware, this moment is passing, this light will never fall exactly this way again. Let that awareness make everything more alive. And so Shinrinyoku taught

The Forest Is Medicine

Giada

me that the forest is medicine, not metaphorically, but literally. It taught me that the five senses are a doorway to the soul, that beauty sacred, that impermanence is not something to fear, but something to embrace. And it connected me to the Yamabushi, to an ancient uh to this ancient lineage of mountain uh shamans, which are actually in their daily activities, they are managers that they become shamans during the weekend, and it's not just like a hobby, it's immersing themselves in what they are originally, and this path is uh wider. Uh the forest uh it's always been there, uh, so it's just basically the time to come back home.