Happy hormones and childhood memories: Why Chizuru turned to forest bathing in Lane Cove

Dressed for spring in yellow and pink, Chizuru Sammut stopped to listen to the birds in Sydney’s Lane Cove National Park on Sunday morning.

She paused to smell some crushed myrtle leaves, which research shows boost immunity and reduce stress. “Nature is amazing,” Sammut, 59, said.

It was her dying wish to experience forest bathing, shinrin-yoku, a Japanese practice she remembered from her childhood in Japan before moving to Australia.

Now in a wheelchair, Sammut was diagnosed with bowel cancer four years ago. Before she got ill, she said she had enjoyed her garden in Carlingford and walks in the Blue Mountains with her husband Steve, and adult children, Alicia and Marcus.

She is one of 92 people in the past 10 months who have participated in aged care operator HammondCare’s Dreams program. Like the Make-A-Wish program but for older people, it has helped hundreds since it started 15 years ago.

Sammut, who is receiving palliative care from HammondCare at home, is the first to ask for forest bathing.

Her guide, Mayu Kataoka, a Japanese-Australian accredited forest therapy guide living in Sydney, says a slow mindful walk to smell, hear, feel and experience the bush can reduce discomfort and stress for people at the end of their lives.

With Sammut and her family, Kataoka stopped in front of a tree that dwarfed those below to discuss the power of the underground mycelium network that connects the bush.

Sometimes, Kataoka can hear a popping noise from deep inside the tree. “It is the sound of the universe, a massive life force. When we contact trees, our bodies start producing happy hormones. Trees are our lifeguards,” she said.

There is evidence forest bathing – including tree hugging – does produce benefits. Kataoka said: “No hippy stuff.”

Research shows that phytoncides, an organic compound found in plants such as lemon myrtle and at increased levels in the Australian eucalypts, boost the white blood cells that fight disease.

Kataoka said shinrin-yoku demonstrates that people are not separate from the natural world, but part of it. This knowledge can help people put aside concerns about the cycle of life.

“The beginning becomes the end, and the end becomes the beginning,” she said.

The co-ordinator of the Dreams program, Antoine Casgrain, a pyschologist, said many people wanted to marry before they die, including a mother of eight who fulfilled her dream.

A grandmother wanted to buy a star, so her grandchildren could look at the sky. They got the naming rights, Amanda and Steve Forever.

In contrast to bucket lists – which tend to be very material, such as a trip to Disneyland – most people’s last wishes were spiritual and emotional.

They often wanted to reconnect with an estranged uncle or child. “I weave some magic to make it happen,” Casgrain said.

Trying to find a time when the person is well enough and the family is ready is tricky. Of the 92 people who have participated in the past 10 months, a dozen died before the wish had been fulfilled.

Sometimes it allows people to let go, Casgrain said. He recalled a woman who had chosen voluntary assisted dying and wanted to see her childhood home again and visit Paris before she died. “Let’s see the Eiffel Tower,” she asked.

She couldn’t travel, so Casgrain organised a virtual trip. They finished the trip to Paris on a Wednesday at 4pm.

“It was just awesome,” she told him. “She said, ‘Oh, I can go to bed now, so I can think and replay all of this.’

“And the next morning she said, ‘I had such a great sleep’. She slept peacefully, and at 9am, she died.”

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