Melanie Choukas-Bradley We talk to the author of
THE JOY OF FOREST BATHING
By Claiborne Smith
on November 25, 2018
Read the interview with the Editor in Chief of Kirkus Reviews here.
Forest Bathing: A Retreat
To Nature Can Boost
Immunity And Mood
The aim of forest bathing, Choukas-Bradley explained, is to slow down and become immersed in the natural environment. She helped us tune in to the smells, textures, tastes and sights of the forest. We took in our surroundings by using all our senses.
Click here to read and hear how forest bathing therapy is a stress-reduction strategy, as heard on NPR's
Morning Edition by Allison Aubrey.
Feeling Stressed In The City?
Go Bathe In A Forest.
(It’s Not What You Think)
The Billy Goat Trail at Great Falls
National Park. EHPIEN / FLICKR
Wed., Oct. 17, 2018, 12pm
WAMU 88.5
While “forest bathing” is a relatively new movement in the United States, the Japanese practice of immersing oneself in nature has long been valued in many communities. It’s becoming more popular in the Washington, D.C. region, which has many green spaces despite its urban density.
From wellness trends to longstanding traditions, we’ll talk about our connection to nature, our favorite hikes, trails and parks, and the challenges to outdoor accessibility.
Guests Melanie Choukas-Bradley, Author, "The Joy of Forest Bathing: Reconnect with Wild Places & Rejuvenate Your Life;" "City of Trees" and "A Year in Rock Creek Park;" Naturalist with the Audubon Naturalist Society and Smithsonian Associates, along with other organizations.
Dennis Chestnut, Founder and former Executive Director of Groundwork DC
Lee Cain, Director of Kingman Island, National Capital Region
Shinrin-yoku 101:
Forest Bathing for Wellbeing
"Interest in Shinrin-yoku is now gaining in popularity in the United States as a way to reconnect with nature for health and many other benefits," says Melanie Choukas-Bradley, a forest therapy guide certified with the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy (ANFT), who shares some advice in this piece from the Travel Channel’s Steve Larese.
Into the Woods
Chevy Chase’s Melanie Choukas-Bradley is teaching people
the art of forest bathing
The flute song of the wood thrush—ee-oh-lay, ee-oh-lay—echoes through Rock Creek Park. It is a morning in mid-May: high spring. The forest canopy is rain-soaked, which seems to magnify every sound.
Melanie Choukas-Bradley, author and naturalist, invites the nine women and one man who have followed her into the woods to close their eyes, listen and breathe deeply.
“Really take the air in and let your belly rise,” Choukas-Bradley, 66, says softly. “Keep your eyes closed. Listen to the creek. Listen to the birds. Just feel how wonderful it is to be sitting here together for a few silent moments.
“Now,” she says, “open your eyes and pretend that you are seeing the world for the very first time.”
One of the people gathered is surprised to find that when she opens her eyes they are wet with tears.
Want to go forest bathing?” asked a friend during a recent walk filled with the usual chitchat about kids, travel and politics. Since she’s been to an ashram and dabbles in assorted woo-woo experiences (don’t ask about our Akashic Records session), thoughts of taking a bath in the woods au natural while chanting “ohm” went through my mind, and I wanted no part of it.
Sensing my hesitation, she divulged that it has nothing to do with a bar of soap but everything to do with being immersed in nature to soak up the proven health benefits. It isn’t a hike. It isn’t a jog. It’s all about walking slowly, silently, stopping frequently to focus on the sights, smells and sounds of the outdoors sans cellphones or Fitbits.
Best of D.C. 2018: What Express editors picked as their favorite things in Washington
Bomboland Illustration (For Express)
One of the great things about D.C. is that everyone ends up here for different reasons...That’s part of what makes the annual "Best of D.C." issue so fascinating: much like D.C. itself, it’s always changing. This year the "Best new way to chill out" is all about forest bathing!
Read more here about the benefits and delights of forest bathing experienced by Sadie Dingfelder. (Scroll down to read about forest bathing.)
Blossoms Off The Beaten Path: Where To See The Region’s Flowering Bounty
Melanie was Kojo's guest on
Thursday, March 29, 2018
WAMU 88.5 FM
In the nation’s capital, there’s nothing more synonymous with the arrival of spring than cherry blossoms. But is it really necessary to battle crowds at the Tidal Basin during the official Cherry Blossom Festival? We look beyond the usual spots to see the delicate blooms, and take some time to appreciate the less famous flowering trees among us.
Some D.C. activities never
get old - no matter how many
times you revisit them
Nature trips that will
have you beating a path
Melanie hikes the same path in Rock Creek Park nearly every day, but her experience changes by the days, weeks, and months. Read more in the Washington Post Express article here.
Photo by Toni Genberg
Award-Winning and Newly Released Books
A Year in Rock Creek Park The Wild, Wooded Heart of
Washington, DC
By Melanie Choukas-Bradley Photographs by Susan Austin Roth
Click here to read about the edition
published by George F. Thompson Publishing and distributed by the
University of Virginia Press.
Click here to read about the
limited edition of A Year in Rock Creek Park published
by
George F. Thompson Publishing.
Being present in a forest can produce
mental, emotional, and physical health
benefits; The Joy of Forest Bathing is a simple antidote
to our nature-starved lives.
The Joy of Forest Bathing is both
an invitation to take up the practice,
and an inspiration to
connect with nature to heal
your mind and spirit.
Melanie leads a spring nature walk, April 2018. Photo by Ana Ka’ahanui.
Melanie Choukas-Bradley is a Washington, DC author and naturalist who leads field trips and tree tours for the Audubon Naturalist Society, the United States Botanic Garden, Smithsonian Associates, the Maryland Native Plant Society, the Rock Creek Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy, Casey Trees, Politics & Prose and other organizations. Melanie’s newest book, The Joy of Forest Bathing—Reconnect With Wild Places & Rejuvenate Your Life, was released on August 28, 2018 and is already in its third printing. Amos Clifford, Founder of the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs wrote: "Reading the The Joy of Forest Bathing works a bit of magic: I feel the presence of the forest and of the peace of the wild things who live there. Melanie Choukas-Bradley has given us more than a how-to book; she also inspires us with gentle guidance and her own joy, which illuminates every page. This book is a true delight that should be on the shelf of every nature lover." Dr. Robert Zarr, Founder of Park RX America, wrote this review: “The Joy of Forest Bathing brilliantly melds Melanie Choukas-Bradley’s naturalist detail and her innate and learned observational skills of all that surrounds her. I love that she can’t help but share her fascination with budbreak. I love how she reminds us to engage our senses, and to unplug, unwind, and indulge. Melanie makes the act of forest bathing accessible to us all, regardless of age or ability. Bravo!"
Melanie is the author of the award-winning book, A Year in Rock Creek Park: The Wild, Wooded Heart of Washington, DC, with photographs by Susan Austin Roth. The book was published in two editions in the fall of 2014 by George F. Thompson Publishing. The softcover edition is distributed by the University of Virginia Press.
Melanie is the author of three other critically acclaimed books: City of Trees: The Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Washington, DC, illustrated by Polly Alexander and now in its third edition (2008), An Illustrated Guide to Eastern Woodland Wildflowers and Trees: 350 Plants Observed at Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland, illustrated by Tina Thieme Brown (2004, 2007), and Sugarloaf: The Mountain’s History, Geology, and Natural Lore, illustrated by Tina Thieme Brown (2003), all published by the University of Virginia Press.
Melanie with forest therapy guides Akira and Kouriki in the Japanese Alps, October 2017
Melanie is also a long-time contributor to The Washington Post and other publications, and she has appeared as an author and guest expert on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, The Diane Rehm Show, and WAMU’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show. In 2014, Melanie was awarded one of four inaugural “Canopy Awards” by Casey Trees, for her efforts to educate people about the trees of Washington, DC. Melanie is a Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide (Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides and Programs, Santa Rosa, CA). She is on the Advisory Board of Capital Nature and the Advisory Committee of the Montgomery Countryside Alliance.
"President Obama and family should get to know the beautiful park near their
new home in Kalorama. If he needs a tour guide, there are eager
Politics & Prose staffers happy to be of service!"
In 2017, Resolve to Appreciate D.C. Better
... get outside more.
Be one with the trees
"Thanks to its temperate clime and international citizenry, D.C. is home to about 350 species of trees from around the world, and naturalist Melanie Choukas-Bradley is friends with them all."
Inauguration Day Nature Walk in Rock Creek Park with Congressman Jamie Raskin, Maryland’s 8th District, and Author Melanie Choukas-Bradley
Message from Congressman Raskin: “Join me and my friend, author/ naturalist Melanie Choukas-Bradley, at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, January 20 at Boundary Bridge in Rock Creek Park!”
To read more of Jamie Raskin’s message about the walk, click here.
2017 Review of A Year in Rock Creek Park
by Miriam R. Aczel, Imperial College of London, UK,
Electronic Green Journal, UCLA Library
Review excerpts:
"When I walk through the bottomland forest
and into the upland woods,
I may be deep in solitary reverie but I am never alone."
With its rich descriptions but clear warnings about the fragility of the
author's beloved sanctuary, the book serves as homage to an ecosystem, while demonstrating its fragility.
