Forest bathing in Austria
at the Hotel DAS NEUHAUS

On the new Forest CO2 Wellness Trail on the Reiterkogel in Hinterglemm, we focus on the forest with all its health aspects. Because in this over 200 year old forest at 1,700m above sea level, with picnic area in the optimal altitude for your health, grow 1,000 spruces. 

Let the forest have an effect on you!

Science backs up the positive effect of the forest on our physical well-being. The untamed and lush nature of the forest not only converts the CO₂ from the air we breathe into the purest oxygen, the greenery of the natural paradise has also been proven to have a positive effect on our physical well-being. Researchers have found that a forest bath provides a massive boost to our immune system. A day in the forest increases natural killer cells by 40%, and these killer cells remove diseased cells from the body. The positive effect lasts up to 7 days.

What gives us back calmness, serenity and strength? How can we keep healthy or heal ourselves - without pills or pressure to perform? With Shinrin Yoku, which means "bathing in the atmosphere of the forest". A relaxing stay in the forest is the natural answer to many questions of the modern world.

Shinrin Yoku, Forest Healing or Forest Bathing are terms for a well researched topic and for something we all have the ability and potential to do: to be in the forest. Above all, it's really about being, not doing.

Lean back, let your lungs breathe, let your muscles relax, allow your feelings to be, let your senses wander. Letting go. Release. Letting it happen.

We have become accustomed to move through life as self-appointed life managers. Selfness, fitness & co. are terms that have become established - even when we are out in nature, we are doing something, we are hiking, jogging, mountain biking, climbing and and and.

The forest reduces us to our being without us having to make a willful effort. Our senses adjust themselves to the natural environment. The forest brings out the original in us again, strengthens the senses, the instinctive and original. The forest makes us feel. Feel ourselves. The forest makes us perceive, observe, be attentive. It awakens the most diverse feelings and thoughts in us. Very many of them are positive and prove to be healing. What needs to be awakened today is the right attitude: Go to the forest to be there. Not because it is fashionable or "en vogue" at the moment, but because we were born out of it and are returning to an ancient environment in and with which we lived and from which we evolved until about 10,000 years ago. A bit like doing a little genealogy within ourselves....

Everyone knows this feeling: you go into the forest and the stress instantly subsides. This feeling can also be proven biochemically. The two stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline drop significantly after a day in the forest. Here you can be who you are. This is called Being-Way in psychology. Expectations, worries and stress simply fall away and you become more creative, new solutions simply fly at you. The fascination with nature captivates the mind in a pleasant way and incidentally improves the ability to concentrate.