Episode 10 Hi this is Verla Fortier from Your Outside Mindset Show where I shine a light on aging adults who may have a chronic illness, and who are taking back their outside mindset by looking or going outside to spend time close to trees, shrubs, and plants. I started this podcast for 2 reasons: I help people to recognize that going outside is not just a nice thing to do, but it can save your life. And that by going outside you will live longer, prevent dementia and control your chronic illness.

Today it my pleasure to introduce to you Dr. Cyndi Gilbert, a naturopathic doctor, author and speaker. Dr Cyndi Gilbert is a faculty member at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, and sees patients at her clinical practice in downtown Toronto, Canada.

Cyndi is the author of Forest Bathing: A Start Here Guide For Beginners.   I found Dr. Cyndi Gilbert on Amazon – those people that bought her book Forest Bathing bought my book Take Back Your Outside Mindset. So I ordered her book. It is terrific.   I reached out to Dr Gilbert  on Linked In and here she is - with us today.  Thank you again for joining us Dr Cyndi Gilbert. 

Cindy would please start by tell us your story why you wrote your book called Forest Bathing? 

Many of my first memories as a small child were of just lying in the grass and looking up and smelling the cedar heges that lined my property. These had a big impression on me. I always found comfort, safety, and care in nature. I didn’t really think about those things. And many of us don’t .. we go through our lives. It was not until I started to spend a lot of time outside starting community gardens, studying community herbalism  for fun – this was all before I knew what  naturopathic medicine was. And then I moved to China for a year. The city I was living in was really different than anything that I had lived in before. I realized that I had taken for granted so much green space that we have in Canada. In this medium sized city in China (very large in Canadian standards) there was just so much concrete and so many buildings, and little access to green space. For the first time I noticed what I was missing. So I had to change my habits and go out of my way to find gardens to visit. This was new. My visits to green space had to become intentional. I needed to make time in my schedule to make sure I had that visit. And so I became conscious of this need for contact with nature for the first time in my life. 

When I came back to North America it was to study naturopathic medicine. When I got to the school it was early 2000’s and there was a lot of research coming out at that time looking at the health benefits of nature. And I became particularly interested in the benefits of nature on non-communicable disease. I threw myself into the research starting with

For peer reviewed research on how your time spent in green space can change your mindset, balance your nervous system and your heart rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com and check out my books Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space