It’s time to connect with our primal state in this penultimate mission of the Tree of Life, with one of the easiest yet most important lessons.

Often, the most valuable things in life are the simplest as well, but we overlook them may be due to complexity bias. We have already seen simple yet powerful habits like breathing and drinking water earlier and it is time for the final step: walking.

As learned in the mission on exercise, with around 600 muscles and 360 joints, our bodies are made to move but our modern lifestyles are quite the opposite. Things have gone so bad that, according to an EPA study, Americans spend around 90% time indoors.

Walking Against Nature

We are all animals, but today we try to enclose ourselves within walls, glass, and screens, living a “box” lifestyle. In the end, they pay the price with their health and quality of life. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb put it:

“They are born, put in a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes; they go to what is called "work" in a box, where they sit in their cubicle box; they drive to the grocery store in a box to buy food in a box; they talk about thinking "outside the box"; and when they die they are put in a box.”

To make things worse, being “busy” has become a status symbol today. Long back it used to be just money, but as money became abundant, it appears that people went for the rarest of things – time. The less time available with someone, the more important they feel. This illusion pushes people to fill up even the smallest free slots of their calendars with meetings and tasks, leaving almost no free time.

Naturally, this dead-ended road leads to burnout. But people still go on, willing to take any amount of medication and therapy to keep going but never considering the option to reduce work. What have we become?

The Price We Pay

It’s remarkable how quickly the island nation of Japan rebounded after World War 2 to regain its status as one of the significant economic and innovation hubs of the world. And unarguably, this is owed to the blood and sweat of its people. But this devotion came at a high cost.

Japanese people are famous all over the world for their work ethic. With a corporate culture where loyalty is considered the highest virtue, people often sacrifice their whole lives to prove their devotion to the employer. Stretching for 10-12 hours is considered a matter of pride and finishing work early is a shame. Sounds familiar? Yes, most of the world is on the same ride now.

But Japan has faced the brunt of this work culture long back towards the end of the 20th century itself, with work-related deaths and stress rates highest in the whole world. This pushed them to try different solutions to the problem, and this gave way to Shinrin-Yoku (translated to “Forest Bathing” in English).

Return to Home

Ecologist John Muir once said:

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity, and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life. Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature and to get rid of rust and disease.”

Do these words resonate with you? You’ll be surprised to know that Muir’s words are almost two centuries old. This was a period when people’s lives had been disrupted by Industrial Revolution for the first time, and work stress was still a new thing. Sadly, things have only gone worse since then and his words are even more relevant today than ever before.

Today, we have a modern version of Muir’s philosophy, “Forest Bathing.” The idea is simple: if we just take a relaxed walk in nature, it soothes us with rejuvenating and restorative effects. We return to our natural state, detoxed from the stresses of modern life.

It only makes sense, since humans grew up in the cradle of nature for thousands of years it is encoded in our DNA to feel at home whenever we go on a hike or walk in the wild. In fact, it is for this same reason why green is the most soothing color for the human eye. In fact, a short 20-minute walk can often induce flow state in us, unleashing creative imagination and aspiration, awakening a part of ours that is usually suppressed by a totalitarian work environment. New ideas start to pop up out of nowhere and seemingly different concepts start connecting.

It’s time we return to nature, our true home.