It began as a passion and a weekend hobby. Milena and Pin love to explore the forest. As expats living and working in Kyoto, we spent our weekends picnicking in the woods, exploring Japan’s many off-the-beaten forested paths and searching for the quietest places on earth. Friends kept asking if they could come along and soon we were organizing trips for a wider circle of friends from Instagram, Facebook, blogs and all over the world.

From these trips, we realized that many of the people we guided were suffering from stress, burnout, work-related health issues, modern lifestyle health complaints or even emotional and psychological traumas. However, we noticed that people who participated in Forest Bathing trips with us on a regular basis experienced better physical health, improved mood and overall better sense of well-being and vitality.

With our backgrounds in Wellness, Holistic Health and Psychology, we became very interested, so we did an extensive research on how trees and spending time in nature can help you find health and happiness. From our own experience and experiment, we found that Forest Bathing is also a great complementary practice to other holistic wellness modalities. For these reasons, we start to share our expertise and passion in Forest Bathing and founded The Mindful Tourist and The Mindful Space where one can deepen their knowledge about the healing powers of nature and get certified in Shinrin Yoku or Forest Bathing.