Research

INTRODUCTION

We can only love the kind of nature that we become familiar with (Orr 1993). The value we attribute to nature and our ability to perceive such value often emerge from our mundane nature routines (Giusti et al. 2014, Masterson et al. 2017, 2019, Giusti 2019), often directly from childhood (Chawla 1998, Vining and Merrick 2012). Unless our everyday context changes, we seldom expand our range of nature activities and our relationship with nature adapts to the surrounding spatial and social norms (Kahn 2002, Farrow et al. 2017, Linder et al. 2021).

The Japanese practice of forest bathing is a relatively new nature-based activity in Western countries that is intentionally curated to promote well-being benefits (Hansen et al. 2017). It has been studied as a guided immersive practice to improve well-being (Song et al. 2016), but how meaningful forest bathing is to develop a relationship with nature has not yet been examined. In this paper, we analyze the attributes of guided forest bathing sessions that make them meaningful in deepening people’s connection with nature and promoting participants’ well-being.

An overview of forest bathing and therapy

Forest bathing, known as Shinrin-Yoku in Japan, refers to the practice of immersing oneself in a forest environment, mindfully engaging all senses to establish a holistic and sensorial connection with nature. Originating in the early 1980s, it was developed as part of a national public health program aimed at combating the increasing levels of stress and lifestyle-related illnesses in Japan (Hansen et al. 2017). A small but growing body of research supports the health and well-being benefits of forest bathing (Song et al. 2016, Kotera et al. 2021). Increasingly, guided forest bathing, sometimes known as forest therapy, is seen as a preventive, low-cost and effective intervention for stress management (Rajoo et al. 2020), depression (Lee et al. 2017, Furuyashiki et al. 2019), immune function (Chae et al. 2021), and disease prevention (Li 2018). Despite the evidence of promising improvements of forest bathing on physical and psychological health (Wen et al. 2019), forest therapy is not a mainstream part of clinical medical treatments in most countries (Zhang and Ye 2022).

In 2017, forest bathing was officially recognized in the Swedish national vocabulary (skogsbad in Swedish). In Sweden, the practice of forest bathing combines the Japanese legacy and North American influences and it is mainly a guided group event. Nordic approaches to forest bathing seamlessly merge with the concept of friluftsliv, a deeply rooted tradition that emphasizes well-being and relaxation through outdoor living. In 2019 the Scandinavian Nature and Forest Therapy Institute (SNFTI) was founded to offer science-based forest bathing certification programs for guiding groups. This certification is a standardized program that lasts four months and focuses on personal connection with nature, academic insights from environmental psychology, leadership skills, and the design of guided forest bathing sessions. All SNFTI guides receive the same training from the same head instructor.

Growing human-nature relationships

Much of the literature that attempts to evaluate human-nature relationships (HNR) has focused on causal relationships between psychological attributes (e.g., environmental concern, environmental awareness, nature connectedness, or even love for nature) and single pro-environmental behaviors (Schultz and Tabanico 2007, Cheng and Monroe 2012, Tam 2013). However, a systematic review of the literature of 475 peer-reviewed publications has suggested that our connection with nature is a complex construct that includes psychological, as well as social and spatial dimensions (Ives et al. 2017). In interdisciplinary studies more typical in sustainability science, our connection with nature not only grows but changes. The value that people attribute to nature shifts in meaning (West et al. 2018, Giusti 2019); it is linked to specific natural landscapes (Duffy and Verges 2010, Giusti et al. 2014, Masterson et al. 2017, Riechers et al. 2020), and it relates to the social surroundings (Giusti 2019, Pascual et al. 2023, Bennett and Reyers 2024). Ultimately, our connection with nature is a representation of a complex relationship that we form with nature over time, in a social context. Developing a relationship with nature is thus similar to developing relationships with people (Lengieza et al. 2023). It is a journey that includes a range of connections and requires a diversity of experiences that must be explored (Giusti et al. 2018).

Guided forest bathing for human-nature relationships

Unlike other nature-based recreational activities such as hiking or trekking, forest bathing involves a guided, slow-paced, contemplative walk through the woods, allowing individuals to absorb the sights, sounds, and smells offered by the forest (Hansen et al. 2017). Existing studies indicate that sensory engagement and contemplative reflection during forest bathing sessions facilitate mindfulness, which amplifies the therapeutic effects of forest bathing, contributing to an overall sense of well-being (McEwan et al. 2022). However, although forest bathing has been studied for its well-being outcomes, there remains a gap in understanding how these activities can promote HNR.

METHODS

Case study

We collected data on guided forest bathing sessions during a Swedish forest bathing day (20 March 2021), followed up with surveys immediately after, and with interviews the following week. Ten certified guides from SNFTI guided 10 forest bathing sessions in nine different forests around the cities of Stockholm, Malmö, Lund, and Västerås. These forests are representative of a common deciduous forest landscape type in Sweden characterized by minimal elevation, the presence of rocky grounds, conifers (mainly spruce and pine), and wetlands. Although in different locations, the ecological context of these nine landscapes was very similar. Meteorological conditions during the sessions were also similar across all sites: mostly cloudy, no precipitation, temperatures between 2 °C and 6 °C, and minimal wind. All sessions (two to three hours long) allowed a maximum of five participants and took place between 9 am and 2 pm. The sessions followed the SNFTI routine consisting of slow walking and a sequence of guided sensory activating exercises to progressively activate one sense at a time (e.g., touching moss, or lying down in the woods). These individual activities followed a short group sharing and a closing tea ceremony. All guides carefully planned the intervention choosing safe and pleasant nature areas with easy access to avoid difficult terrain, heavy rain, wind, and cold. All guided sessions were conducted in Swedish.

Participants

The study recruited participants who had already signed up to join the 10 guided forest bathing sessions included in the study. These participants received a written plain language statement to enroll in the study. They were over 18 years old, signed the consent form, and were accepted as study participants. The incentive to participate in the study was a 50 SEK discount on the guided forest bathing session fee (original value 350 SEK). A total of 26 participants were recruited. Of these participants, 16 were randomly selected to be interviewed after the forest bathing session and each received an additional 200 SEK.

Materials

This study used a sequential mixed methods design combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Participants were asked to answer two Likert-based surveys before (pre-session) and after (post-session). The first pre-session and post-session surveys evaluated participants’ relationships with nature operationalizing the ACHUNAS framework (Giusti et al. 2018). ACHUNAS (i.e., Assessment Framework for Children’s Human Nature Situations) is a transdisciplinary assessment framework grounded in relational values (Chan et al. 2016, 2018) and embodied ecosystems (Chemero 2009, Raymond et al. 2018) that has integrated the academic insights of a multidisciplinary literature review on HNR (Ives et al. 2017) with the input of 275 professionals in connecting children with nature (Giusti et al. 2018). This framework suggests that a relationship with nature advances via reaching 10 milestones categorized in three progressive phases of development (being in nature, being with nature, being for nature; see Table 1). Although this progression was developed from insights investigating the first 18 years of people’s lives, ACHUNAS is not linked to phases of childhood development. The capacity to develop these key competencies is a process that can begin at any point in one’s life, unfolding and deepening throughout life. These milestones are competencies that participants learn to develop in their social and ecological contexts. Each of the 10 items in the survey was deductively created to correspond to each of these 10 milestones (see Appendix 1 for the full survey).

The second pre-session and post-session surveys evaluated participants’ environmental attitudes using the 8-item version of the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP; Dunlap and Van Liere 1978, Dunlap et al. 2000; see Appendix 2 for the full survey). Different from ACHUNAS, NEP provides a relatively abstract and static assessment of one’s environmental worldview. Its inclusion is valuable to understand if non-relational tools can offer insights into the dynamic processes of how relationships with nature evolve through lived experiences.

Only after the session, participants were asked to complete a third Likert-based survey to evaluate the forest bathing experience and its potential to promote HNR (see Appendix 3 for the full survey). The survey used the 16 attributes that were previously shown to be markers of meaningful nature experiences in the ACHUNAS framework (see Table 2).

All surveys were answered using 10-point Likert scales, ranging from 1 (“Do not agree at all”) to 10 (“Agree completely”). For convenience and simplicity, all surveys were developed using Google Forms and were available in both English and Swedish to ease the comprehension of the participants. No personal data was collected from the participants and anonymity was ensured throughout the process. The ethical protocol for this study was carried out following the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the ethics committee of the Stockholm Resilience Centre (see Vårhammar 2021 for complete ethical review).

In addition to the quantitative surveys, a random selection of 16 participants participated in one-on-one interviews. The interviews included semi-structured and open-ended questions that covered the experience of forest bathing and allowed participants to openly express any insights or lasting impressions learned during the session (see Appendix 4 for the interview guide). The interviews were conducted in Swedish (the mother tongue of all interviewees and the interviewer).

Procedure

The quantitative pre-session survey was sent to study participants one day before the forest bathing session, and the post-session survey was sent on the same day of the session. Within a week of the session, the selected 16 participants were interviewed. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. The quantitative and qualitative data sets were then analyzed separately, and their insights were combined during interpretation.

Analysis

All statistical analyses of the survey results were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 27. Independent samples t-tests were used to test any baseline differences and paired samples t-tests to determine significant differences between pre- and post-session. The attributes of the forest bathing sessions were first analyzed descriptively and graphically. Afterwards, a stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to determine which attributes of the forest bathing experience had the highest predictive power to influence the relationship of the participants with nature.

All interviews were transcribed and then coded and analyzed using MAXQDA Plus 2020. The analysis followed the six-phase process of thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke (2006): familiarization, initial coding, iterative theme identification, review, definition and categorization, and reporting. The initial inductive coding approach identified themes in the interviews that were aligned with the abilities and phases described in the ACHUNAS framework. The final coding further supports the categorization promoted in the ACHUNAS framework, and we adopted this framework as a structure to report the insights of the participants in this paper.

RESULTS

Descriptive analysis

The participants (n = 26) were 24 women and 2 men, 56% between the age of 46 and 65 years and 31% between 30 and 45 years, all living in or near urban environments. Of these, nine had had a previous forest bathing experience, while 17 had not. The pre-session survey indicates that the study sample had a relatively high baseline for HNR (M = 8.2 out of max 10). Independent samples t-tests indicated that participants without previous forest bathing experience had significantly higher baseline HNR than those with previous experience (t (9.65) = -0.995, p = 0.002, d = 0.515). There were no significant differences in baseline scores for NEP between the two groups (p = 0.81).

The reliability of the surveys based on the ACHUNAS framework was also tested. The 10-item evaluation of the relationship of the participants with nature and the 16-attribute survey used to evaluate the forest bathing session had both high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.9 and 0.84, respectively), suggesting an overall high reliability of the framework. Principal component analysis (PCA) and a scree plot (see Fig.1) were conducted on the 10 items assessing participants’ relationship with nature. This analysis reveals that a single factor explains the largest amount of variance (55.1%), suggesting that all items measure one cohesive construct. A three-component solution explains 79.1% of the total variance.

Changes in HNR before and after forest bathing

For participants with previous experience in guided forest bathing, there were no significant increases in HNR (p > 0.1), in each of its three phases (p > 0.05), or any of its specific abilities (p > 0.05). However, for participants without previous experience in guided forest bathing, a paired sample t-test showed that their HNR increased significantly after the session (t(16) = -3.417, p = 0.0035), despite having already had a significantly higher baseline. The effect size of this increment was large (d = 0.829). The increase was significant in the ability of the participants to be with (t(16) = -3.558, p = 0.003, d = 0.863) and for nature (t(16) = -2.167, p = 0.046, d = 0.526). Specifically, people’s answers showed an increase in meaningful memories with nature (t(16) = -2.864, p = 0.011, d = 0.695), a higher ability to read natural spaces (t(16) = -1.426, p = 0.027, d = 0.588), and a more profound and holistic connection with nature (t(16) = -2.293, p = 0.029, d = 0.580). The change in the quality and depth of the connection with nature is illustrated by these two participants:

You feel extra closeness with nature and how important nature is and how can I nurture it, and so on. And what can it give me and what should I give it? It [the guided forest bathing session] definitely reinforces that. [P.03e]

It has become ... closer to me, through this forest bathing session. Nature has come closer, the forest has come closer ... It’s weird that it can be like that but ... yes, it actually has. It has become a stronger love in some way. [P.10n]

Interestingly, the t-tests of the paired samples indicated that NEP was not affected by guided forest bathing (p > 0.1). This is true for participants with and without prior experience of guided forest bathing (p > 0.1).

Attributes of guided forest bathing

Most attributes that characterized significant nature experiences were used to describe guided forest bathing sessions. Participants without previous forest bathing experience consistently report a higher intensity for all attributes of the experience (see Fig. 2) and, although not a dominant attribute, they significantly described forest bathing as more “challenging” than participants with previous forest bathing experience (t(24) = -2.208, p = 0.001, d = 0.91). However, in both groups, “sensorial engagement,” “restoration,” and “mindfulness” were the attributes that dominated the forest bathing experience (average rating higher than 9 out of 10). Interviews independently confirmed these attributes. The themes most reported were sensorily-rich, restorative, and triggering mindfulness. For example, participants reported:

You take in the forest in a better way, by engaging all the senses ... not just by looking for mushrooms! [P.08n]

It was very relaxing and wonderful to take these moments to lie down or sit ... and be in silence in solitude for a while. You were not supposed to talk to each other ... I think that was good and helped me see nature in a different way. [P.15n]

To be in the present moment can also be to actually notice a much larger part of the stimulus that your mind gets from the environment you are in ... To stop and let the impressions come just as they are and open up to all impressions. [P.12e]

During the forest bathing session, participants were guided to progressively activate one sense at a time and reported that this process directly led to calmness, relaxation, restoration, and mindfulness. Stepwise multiple regression analysis suggested that the attributes of forest bathing surveyed predicted 25% of the variance in HNR (F(1,24) = 7.961, p = 0.009, R² = 0.249). Only mindfulness consistently emerged as a positive predictor across the phases of nature connection for all participants (B = 0.26, t = 2.82, p = 0.009), although sensory engagement and restoration were also significant predictors in some instances (see Table 3). There were notable differences between the two groups in the various phases of HNR development. For participants with previous experience, the structured aspect of the session was a negative predictor (B = -0.252, t = -2.719, p = 0.03), explaining 51.4% of the variance in their HNR scores. In contrast, for participants without prior experience, structure was a positive predictor (B = 0.196, t = 2.901, p = 0.011), accounting for 36% of the variance. This distinction is particularly evident in the “being with nature” phase of development for HNR.

The novelty of forest bathing

Participants report that the structured and guided characteristics of the experience created a safe and comfortable space for engaging in unique interactions with nature. For instance, during the session, participants were asked to lie down in the woods or smell the trees. These interactions would normally have been avoided or considered strange. However, these were the unusual interactions with nature that meaningfully impacted participants’ personal relationships with nature. For example, participants reported:

Lying down in the woods ... you don’t do that otherwise. And above all not in a smaller area like this where people run past you, then they would think you are crazy. It is easier to do it in a group, because then [people running by] understand that there is a purpose to lying there. [P.09n]

I found a mountain that had this amazing moss! ... It was a fantastic moss that you could kind of pat on that was a bit like ... hairy ... with a cool sound when you hit it. God, I would never have discovered that if I had not been to a guided forest bathing session. [P.16e]

The novelty of these natural experiences challenged the conventional perception of the forest as a mere space to pass through, highlighting the forest and its trees as living entities that directly contributed to people’s well-being. Participants remarked that the trees were living and worth their own life. Many participants noted that the novelty element was not in the forest itself, but in how they learned to perceive the forest in a new way. That is, novelty was not in the geographical space, but in how the participants learned to establish a new relationship with it. In fact, some participants with previous forest bathing experiences had a different reaction to experiencing the same spaces, as this participant explained:

This was just so basic to me. I do not know ... Running your hands over the moss. I have already done that before. [P.08n]

The quantitative results corroborated these results, by showing that the structure of the session was meaningful only when novel (Table 3). These novel interpretations of the forest were interpreted as a meaningful experience that extended their relationship with nature as these participants describe:

The forest is something you just walk in and have coffee in and then leave. That this became a new experience in itself, to sit in the forest and just breathe. [P.11n]

What made the biggest impression on me really, was that [our guide] said ... that we should think of the trees as living beings ... they are still growing. It is easy to not think of them as living beings. [P.06n].

Lastly, the social endorsement and support received from the guide and the surrounding group of participants further intensified the effect of this process of discovering new relationships with nature as this one participant explained:

It’s always cool to like ... Someone discovers this and someone else thinks about this and a third thinks like this. To take part in other people’s thoughts and reflections that I do not think about at all. [P.06n]

DISCUSSION

Mindful forest bathing is a rich nature experience

The guided forest bathing sessions of this study were rich nature experiences. The results show that these sessions were highly meaningful to promote HNR in our participants. Participants report that the most characteristic HNR attributes of the sessions were sensorial, restoration, and mindfulness. These findings resonate with the existing literature that identifies engagement with natural environments as a holistic sensory activity, often with restorative mental health benefits (Bowler et al. 2010, Hartig et al. 2014, Bratman et al. 2019).

Mindfulness as a quality of these experiences that is critical to enriching people’s relationship with nature is particularly intriguing. As highlighted in the regression model, mindfulness can contribute significantly to people’s relationship with nature. Unsworth et al. (2016) showed that being mindful in nature had larger significant effects on HNR than simply being in nature. A systematic review and meta-analysis also showed a positive impact on HNR of mindfulness practices (Djernis et al. 2019), however with a caveat. Informal mindfulness, especially in the wild, seems to be more restorative than exercises of formal mindfulness (Djernis et al. 2019). This suggests that the benefits of nature-based mindfulness may be derived from the ability to be contextually and sensorially present with the surrounding biodiversity, rather than from the practice of being self-aware. In so doing, the outward focus of mindfulness in forest bathing is inevitably linked to its sensorial and perceived restorative dimension, as our results suggested. The connection between environmental identity and its ability to sensorially connect with the surrounding nature is worth further investigation (Truong et al. 2020). Much like the perception of aesthetic qualities (Qiu et al. 2023), the restorative effects of nature interactions may be a function of ecological properties and people’s engagement with it (Giusti and Samuelsson 2020).

The restoration derived from the engagement in nature-rich experiences complements the restorative benefits derived from the effortless disengagement from thoughts and compulsions explained by the Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan 1995). Assuming that there is sufficient ecological richness to be experienced, the ability of the participants to be present in the moment may open the possibility of sensory-rich experiences to further its restorative potential.

Novel nature experiences expand people’s relationships with nature

A three-hour guided forest bathing session had a significant influence on the relationship of our participants with nature, particularly for individuals without prior experience in forest bathing. Although our research design does not ensure a definite numerical cause-effect mechanism, integrating our quantitative and qualitative insights supports this statement. The statistical influence of the forest bathing session on the HNR is noteworthy considering the relatively high baseline and the fact that the participants already committed to the forest bathing session.

The forest bathing session had a strong impression on the memories of the participants, their ability to interact with nature, and touched their spiritual connection with nature. This is especially true when the experience was new to the participants. This aligns with another study showing that an urban forest bathing intervention improved nature connection and well-being in adolescents (McEwan et al. 2022). However, forest bathing experiences, their sensorial attributes, and their effects on people’s relationship with nature have hardly been analyzed in academia. Our study illustrates the potential of this connection and makes the case for further studies addressing this research gap.

Overcoming the challenge of novel nature experiences with guidance

The results of this study underscore two critical elements that contribute to how natural experiences can promote both psychological restoration and deepen HNR: first, the skillful guidance provided by the session guides and, second, the novelty of the mindful nature experiences that they promote. Indeed, the uniqueness of these forest bathing experiences does not come from being in a new or unusual natural setting. All forest bathing sessions were in a common Swedish landscape with ecological characteristics familiar to most who reside in Sweden. Instead, it is the nuanced facilitation by session guides that elevated these landscapes into something meaningful and memorable for the participants. Participants would normally consider the ways of interacting with nature suggested by the guides odd, and they would have avoided these activities. However, when guided by the session guides, our participants felt at ease outside their comfort zone and engaged in these novel nature experiences. Laying down in the woods (despite having runners passing by) and smelling trees were activities that defied conventional nature interactions and would normally be perceived as socially awkward or uncomfortable. The skillful promotion by the guides to create a socially supportive atmosphere facilitated the full immersion of participants into these experiences and allowed them to overcome this challenge. Participants engaged in these strange and unusual interactions with nature and managed to identify, perceive, and treasure the value in them. To an extent, this process is the ability to learn to be children again; to be in an investigation mode, curious, mindfully present, and constantly seeking to understand the value of new experiences. This insight brings further evidence that the process of developing a relationship with nature, as implicit in ACHUNAS, is an ageless process occurring at all stages of life.

Novel pathways to value our relationship with nature

Novel ways of engaging nature made the forest sessions not only memorable but also meaningful in developing participants’ relationships with nature. A different study on salamander conservation has shown that children had to overcome the “yuck barrier” to interact with the salamanders and fully benefit from the novel nature experience (Giusti 2019). Overcoming this challenging threshold had a long-lasting effect on their relationship with nature (Barthel et al. 2018). In this study, overcoming the barrier of engaging in interactions with nature viewed as novel or strange by participants followed a similar process. In both situations, an emotional threshold kept participants from engaging deeper with nature. The role of the session guides in facilitating this emotional transition was pivotal. They enabled participants to step out of their comfort zones and engage more deeply with nature. In both studies, overcoming a psychological barrier triggered processes that allowed new actions and emotions linked to the surrounding natural context to emerge. These experiences established entirely new pathways for participants to perceive and treasure the value in the surrounding ecosystem. Our results show that this is indeed particularly true with participants who had no previous experience of forest bathing. Recognizing and internalizing novel pathways to identify the values of our interdependence with nature is the essence of how people’s relationships with nature deepen and evolve (Giusti et al. 2018).

The challenging and novel elements of the forest sessions may have been crucial in transforming a meaningful nature experience into an “environmental epiphany,” shaping a memory that becomes integral to the individual’s identity (Vining and Merrick 2012). The final group sharing offered the opportunity to solidify this process of self-discovery into tangible social memories. Once the new value of a tree, animal, or landscape is discovered, recognized, and shared, it cannot be unlearned, and it can become an unforgettable part of what defines our identity.

Guided forest bathing as a sustainable intervention

Our insights suggest that forest bathing can enrich participants’ ability to perceive value in nature, integrate such value into their personal relationship with nature, while promoting synergistic benefits with health and well-being. Although it is imperative to note that our study does not produce clinically measurable effects as in other studies (Hansen et al. 2017, Wen et al. 2019), our participants report that the forest bathing experience had a considerable restorative impact.

As an educational tool, a standalone forest bathing session cannot be considered an effective plan to directly promote sustainability education. The most effective programs in environmental education occur over an extended period; participants usually learn about environmental issues directly and practice action skills to resolve them, they experience and take ownership of the environmental issue, and have exemplary role models, more than merely providing guidance (Chawla and Cushing 2007). However, guided forest bathing has the potential to reshape conventional interactions with nature by allowing participants to discover and value novel interactions and relationships with nature. Such discovery of new value should not be overlooked. New relationships, new assumptions, and the recognition of novel value in our relationship with nature are the essence of transformative and structural changes toward sustainable systems (Abson et al. 2017, Horcea-Milcu et al. 2019). In our study, forest bathing sessions offered innovative ways of engaging the natural world and provided the opportunity for novel nature experiences to be discovered, valued, and assimilated into the participants’ relationship with nature. Ultimately, this newly recognized value will then be brought into everyday participants’ routines and may have systemic ripple effects on the mental models they use in their daily lives.

Nature-rich routines that include forest bathing have the potential to synergistically foster more sustainable and healthier societies (Giusti et al. 2014, Giusti 2019, Colding et al. 2020, Giusti and Samuelsson 2020, Linder et al. 2021, Giusti et al. 2023). Guided activities of sensorial mindfulness in natural areas would have immediate therapeutic benefits while functioning as low-cost, highly accessible practices that are conducive to systemic changes in people’s relationships with nature. Guided forest bathing could function as an indirect but practical educational tool to encourage environmental stewardship while simultaneously improving mental and physical health.

Methodological considerations

The ACHUNAS framework used in this study allowed us to understand and validate which properties of forest bathing are the most meaningful to participants, and what kind of effects guided forest bathing has on their relationship with nature. Statistical analysis showed that the framework is consistent and reliable on several fronts. Statistically, a high Cronbach’s alpha and a single factor solution from PCA together suggest that the items likely measure a single, cohesive construct. Yet, high cumulative variance (79.1%) was better by a three-factor solution, supporting the idea of a multi-phase progression of people’s relationship with nature.

The existing attributes of meaningful nature experiences listed in the framework explained 25% of the variance identified. The inductive analysis performed confirmed many of the properties of significant nature experiences already present in the framework (e.g., sensorial engagement, restoration, sensorial engagement, guidance, endorsement, mind-expanding, etc.) without highlighting any potential missing attributes, confirming the good degree of comprehensiveness for these attributes already seen (Giusti et al. 2018).

The results also further validate the progression of phases for HNR existing in ACHUNAS. Participants primarily improved their ability to act with and for nature, rather than their ability to simply be in nature. This is expected from participants having autonomously chosen to attend the forest bathing session and reporting high HNR baselines.

At the same time, the differences in interpreting the sessions found between participants with and without previous guided forest bathing experiences further suggested that the relationship with nature that people developed was inherently embodied and subjective. The same novelty that shaped the relationship with nature of so many other participants made others feel uncomfortable or silly. The structured aspect of the session was positively interpreted by those without previous forest bathing experience, but negatively perceived by those who had already participated in these sessions before. Different attributes contributed to different phases of HNR and affected participants differently. These results further confirmed the need to investigate meaningful nature experiences and people’s relationships with nature using relational and multidimensional approaches.

These results suggested that the ACHUNAS framework was comprehensive and appropriate for use in older adults, although originally designed from the insights of professionals working with children and young adults. The relational foundation of the framework allowed for increased transferability across ages. The process of growing a relationship with nature seemed to not be embedded in age-specific development, but related to the development of psychological and physical competencies actualized in the spatial and social context.

Unlike NEP, the ACHUNAS framework was able to distinguish the reactions of people with and without previous experience in forest bathing. This finding aligns with previous research (Barthel et al. 2018, Giusti 2019, Giusti et al. 2025), which stresses the limitations of decontextualized psychometric measurements in capturing meaningful nature experiences. In practice, this suggests that commonly used psychometric tests cannot reliably be used to distinguish between successful and unsuccessful nature-based activities, making it challenging to validate their true impact on participants. Consequently, this limitation undermines their usefulness for practitioners seeking to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of their interventions, as well as for policy makers in need of concrete and contextualized evidence to address the growing extinction of nature experiences. The insights gained through this study and several others allowed us to adapt, modify, and update the framework to ensure its usability across contexts, enhancing its generalizability and applicability. We term the updated version of this framework BeNature! (see Appendix 5).

Practical implications

Our results added support for the suitability of ACHUNAS as a sensitive framework to be used for academic or practical assessments of human-nature relationships and meaningful nature experiences (Charles et al. 2018, Salazar et al. 2021). ACHUNAS can describe fundamental pathways in which humans engage and create meaning with nature. At the same time, it can detect the progression of a multitude of competencies linked to a richer and stronger connection with nature. By beginning with the analysis of meaningful nature experiences, ACHUNAS can be used to investigate both spatial and social attributes promoting or limiting such experiences (Giusti et al. 2025). By pivoting the evaluation around the actualized experiences of participants, ACHUNAS provides ground for a systemic analysis of the contextual drivers and barriers of HNR. One in which the most dominant factors can be distinguished and their impact practically evaluated on various dimensions of one personal relationship with nature. Considering this and other empirical evidence this framework has been further updated to improve its validity and use in research and practice (see Appendix 5).

These results also offer valuable insights for improving forest bathing activities. Tailoring the sensory aspects of the experience and adjusting the level of structure can be particularly beneficial. For newcomers, a more structured approach may help guide their initial engagement with nature, while more experienced participants may benefit from a less structured, self-driven format.

Limitations of our study

All these insights must be considered within the limitations of the study. First, it is critical to acknowledge that this framework is the product of a synthesis of interdisciplinary knowledge and professional synthesis that exist within Western societies. Indigenous knowledge and non-Western perspectives must be integrated to create a truly transdisciplinary and comprehensive account of what sustainable relationships with nature ought to be. Second, the predominance of women in our sample limits the generalizability of the results, although reflecting a common trend of participation in SNFTI activities (Wetterholm, personal communication). This means that we cannot determine if the observed HNR trends are gender-related, or if other expressions of gender identities may affect responses to forest bathing or our research instruments. The validity of the statistical results was also constrained by the small sample size. Studies with larger groups of participants over longer periods are central to assessing the long-term effects of repeated forest bathing sessions on HNR and determining their optimal schedules and structure. Although broad ecological conditions across sites were similar, we acknowledge that variations in the local ecological context and condition of forests may affect the experience of forest bathing, and should be explored in future studies. Finally, our study suggests that participants’ established nature routines may considerably influence their responses to nature-based activities, potentially acting as a mediating factor. This limitation underscores the need for future research to systematically account for pre-existing nature engagement when assessing the effects of forest bathing.

CONCLUSION

Not all walking in nature is restorative (Gatersleben and Andrews 2013). Some health benefits that we receive from interacting with nature are unavoidable because of our evolutionary development in natural settings. Other well-being benefits are mediated or facilitated through our cognitive and emotional ability to relate with nature (Giusti and Samuelsson 2020). In this study, the session guides act as catalysts, piloting novel and strange experiences in nature that can meaningfully enrich the way people relate to the natural world. Sensory engagement, guidance, and the supporting social context acted as synergistic preconditions for a mindful and restorative nature experience. Thanks to the guidance of trained forest bathing guides, participants could transcend their usual comfort zones and engage with nature in unconventional but meaningful ways.

Our findings suggest that heightened sensory mindfulness acted as a pathway to perceive and then treasure novel value in the surrounding ecosystem. Discovering and internalizing new values in our interdependence with surrounding ecosystems is the essence of how people’s relationships with nature deepen and progress (Giusti et al. 2018). This research supports the notion that challenging conventional nature routines can produce benefits for both well-being and sustainability.

Interdisciplinary research focusing on HNR and forest bathing is in its infancy. The insights from this study suggest three promising avenues for future development. First, enriching human-nature relationships should take into consideration novel and mindful nature experiences. Second, nature-based professionals are an indispensable element to guide these novel interactions and to ensure effects on restoration and well-being. Third, relational approaches like the framework used here can facilitate this process in both research and practice.

LITERATURE CITED

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