It is becoming increasingly common to believe that spending time in Nature with your corporate team can bring significant benefits. In fact, even the simple idea of stepping out of your daily routine and immersing yourself in a natural environment immediately begins to generate a sense of well-being.
But what actually happens when we spend time in Nature? How does our body respond? And why is it important to plan your next outdoor team building experience in a natural setting?
In this article, you will find some answers and a few thought-provoking insights.
Business & Nature
The alchemy between Business and Nature is the foundation on which we built the entire Team Building Natura® proposal, integrating our corporate expertise as managers and consultants, our coaching background, and the experience gained through the Forest Bathing Liguria project.
Since 2019, we have been organizing experiential workshops focused on deep connection with Nature, guiding participants to discover and experience Forest Bathing—whose original name is Shinrin-Yoku, meaning “to be immersed in the atmosphere of the forest through the senses.”
Who better than us, then, to help you discover the extraordinary benefits of immersing yourself in Nature with your team, regardless of the objectives you aim to achieve?
The Beneficial Effects of Forest Bathing
Since the early 2000s, countless scientific studies have been conducted on Forest Bathing in order to identify its potential benefits and underlying causes, often revealing truly surprising findings. Contrary to what one might think, practicing Forest Bathing does not merely generate a general sense of physical and mental well-being; it provides a range of significant benefits that involve the entire body.
Today, we would like to share with you some of the most relevant discoveries resulting from research conducted by scholars worldwide, including the significant contributions of Dr. Qing Li, a Japanese immunologist and the world’s leading expert in forest medicine.
A Sense of Relaxation
Let us begin our journey with the most immediate and intuitive aspects.
Immersing yourself in Nature, especially in forest environments, immediately generates a deep sense of relaxation thanks to the sounds, colors, landscapes, and scents typical of woodlands, which act directly on the nervous system.
This condition is one of the key elements we leverage in our outdoor team building programs, both to work on the 5 Team Building Natura® principles and to guide the team toward achieving specific objectives.
Relaxation is essential for slowing down the flow of thoughts and cultivating a state of mental presence that allows team members to open up to listening, activate emotional intelligence and empathy, cultivate authentic relationships, create a climate of trust and psychological safety, and stimulate creativity.
And this is only the beginning.
Phytoncides
There are at least three factors in Nature that have a concrete impact on our body and nervous system when we are immersed in a forest. The most significant are phytoncides—essential oils released by plants to communicate with one another and protect themselves from fungi and bacteria—which also have extraordinary effects on human beings.
Phytoncides stimulate the immune system by increasing the activity and number of Natural Killer cells per microliter of blood. In addition, they influence the nervous system by activating the parasympathetic nervous system—responsible for recovery, rest, calmness, and relaxation—over the sympathetic nervous system. This balance helps lower heart rate and reduce stress levels, significantly decreasing cortisol production in the bloodstream.
These effects are far from secondary when we talk about outdoor team building aimed at achieving more ambitious objectives than simply spending a pleasant day together. Such a condition is essential for opening learning centers, experimenting freely and creatively, engaging in open and unbiased dialogue with other team members, developing new awareness, generating innovative ideas, and discovering new perspectives.
Mycobacterium Vaccae
Another extraordinary element we encounter when immersed in Nature is Mycobacterium vaccae, a small bacterium found in the soil, also known as the “happiness bacterium” for its ability to act as a natural antidepressant.
Over time, studies have highlighted other remarkable properties, such as its ability to stimulate the immune system and naturally reduce stress.
The story of this “happiness bacterium” is truly fascinating, and we invite you to explore it further in the article entirely dedicated to this topic, published on the Forest Bathing Liguria website.
Negative Ions
Last but not least, we find negative ions, which possess energizing properties and are capable of stimulating our creativity.
For team members, replenishing energy and creativity by spending even just one day immersed in Nature can have a highly significant impact—especially considering that, according to some studies, nowadays we spend between 90% and 93% of our time indoors and about 6% in cars.
In other words, we are becoming a species increasingly confined to enclosed spaces, often in front of computer or smartphone screens. A habit that, besides being completely unnatural, has profoundly harmful effects from many perspectives.
Stimulating Your Curiosity
These are only some of the beneficial effects that Nature can offer. Our aim is to spark your curiosity and encourage you to explore these topics independently, perhaps starting with the blog on the Forest Bathing Liguria website.
For us, the well-being generated by immersion in Nature represents a unique value added of our outdoor team building proposal. Through our formats, we can guide your team toward achieving any objective you wish to pursue.
Contact us for more information about our tailor-made corporate team building experiences.
