Could hugging a tree really boost your health?

Now, however, getting close and personal for some serious tree hugging is emerging as the latest nature-based therapy to help the over-worked and highly-strung find some much-needed inner peace.

Shuna Mercer and Vicki Dale, organisers of Glasgow's first tree hugging tournament (Image: Shuna Mercer/Vicki Dale)

Next month, around 30 tree huggers will gather at Dams to Darnley Country Park on the Glasgow’s southside for what is billed as the city’s first ever tree hugging tournament.

Inspired by the world tree hugging championships held in Finland every year and a recent Scottish tournament in the Highlands, the Glasgow event will see adults and juniors take part in three rounds of competitive tree hugging.

Intended to highlight the benefits nature can bring to health and wellbeing, the tournament will involve a round of frantic ‘speed hugging’ as participants race against the clock to embrace as many trees as possible.

They then progress to a ‘dedicated hugging’ round, when participants are encouraged to express personal devotion to a particular tree of their choice, potentially through song, poem or ‘love letter’.

For onlookers who happen to venture down to the woods that particular day, the ‘freestyle hugging’ round may be most likely to stop them in their tracks.

Tournaments elsewhere have seen participants clinging to trees using all four limbs, locked in lingering embraces and in a near meditative state.

Judges will mark participants’ efforts with the one judged best given the opportunity to enter the mother of all tree hugging events, the world championships held in Finland's HaliPuu Forest, located around 170km north of the Arctic Circle.

According to the Glasgow tournament’s co-organiser Shuna Mercer, an outdoor play therapist, while tree hugging in the past may have been quickly dismissed as a bit wacky, new understanding of the benefits of nature on physical and mental health mean more people are willing to try it.

Places for the event, she adds, were snapped up almost as soon as it was advertised with demand so high that a waiting list for spaces has been introduced.

“We have been amazed by how interested people are in it,” she says.

“Tickets sold so quickly that we had to put a cap on numbers and create a waiting list.

“People have been asking if we can put on tournaments in other places too.”

The Glasgow event, on Sunday, October 6, was inspired by the Scottish Annual Tree Hugging Championships, which gathered in the Ariundle ancient oak woodlands in Sunart in July.

Although rain-lashed and with participants having to field off midges and ticks, the event - the third time the championships have been held - attracted more than 20 competitors and a crowd of spectators.  

Shuna Mercer, left, and Vicki Dale at right pictured in woodland at the Dams to Darnley country park (Image: Newsquest)

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“It gave me a ‘eureka’ moment and thought a tournament raising awareness of the benefits in an urban setting, in Glasgow, the ‘dear green place’, would be amazing,” says Shuna.

“It’s a chance to raise awareness of the natural world around us and how we can use it and tap into it in our busy lives, because it’s right there, on our doorsteps.”

Having grown up with a 35-acres forest on her doorstep and with her father, Hugh Fife, having authored three books relating to trees and advocating their mental health benefits, she believes science has simply taken time to catch up.

“Science now shows there are social, emotional and mental health benefits. It can lower the heart rate, and simply by being out in nature it has a very calming effect.

“In our fast society, it’s hard to just be present in the moment when we’re constantly working, there’s all-hours access to phones and computers you are working all hours.

Glasgow's first tree hugging tournament aims to highlight the health benefits of nature (Image: Shuna Mercer/Vicki Dale)

“It’s important to give ourselves these times to rest and relax.”

While simply going for a walk can be a boost, she says pausing to hug a tree brings a deeper connection with the natural world, even tapping into the so-called wood-wide web, the network of roots and fungus underground which share nutrients and, some believe, even communicate.

“You are rooting your feet in ground connecting with the tree and its roots in the ground. It’s a lovely thing,” she adds.

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Various studies have shown being close to trees can have a range of benefits. One study explored how trees exude volatile essential oils called phytoncides that have antimicrobial properties and may influence immunity.

Another study that explored the behaviour of children showed those living near a green space demonstrated less hyperactive behaviour and scored more highly on attention and visual memory testing measures compared with children who did not.

In Finland, the tree hugging tournament was devised by Riitta Raekallio-Wunderink and her husband Steffan, after they realised the pandemic lockdowns ignited a craving among people to reconnect with nature.

It takes place in a forest owned by the family which, having reached a stage where it was ready to be harvested, they realised they could not bear to see it chopped down.

(Image: Sebastian Haw)

Instead, it is now used for nature events and the central point for a growing international network of tree hugging tournaments.

Co-organiser of the Glasgow event, Vicki Dale, a ‘happiness facilitator’ who specialises in forest bathing, a Japanese process of easing stress and boosting mood by spending time immersed in nature, says: “People have started to connect with nature a lot more since covid and they are starting to realise that there are benefits.

“It slows us down. But even if people spend time in nature, they don’t always ‘connect’ with it.

“That’s what’s important about the tournament, we are inviting people to connect with nature through the various events and also to think about how they want to connect with it.

“For the dedication and freestyle section, there’s a lot of thought goes into how they want to connect with that particular tree and to show their creativity.”

And, she adds, hugging a tree is no longer a laughing matter…

“When there’s a collective hugging going on and everyone is doing it, no-one is going to feel silly.

“And on a personal level, once connected to a tree, you do just blank out everything else.

Some research suggest nature can have beneficial impacts on health and wellbeing (Image: Shuna Mercer/Vicki Dale)

“I sometimes think that there are probably people who will think I’m a bit weird, but I come away from hugging a tree feeling so much better.”

For those who feel self-conscious hugging a tree, Shuna says that quickly subsides.

“The first time someone might feel a little bit nervous and apprehensive and a bit silly because of the bad rap that tree huggers have had over the years.

“But there’s a definite feeling of being grounded, serenity and peace after they have done it. They say it’s actually really nice.

“People think they’re not that type of person, they don’t hug trees and then find they actually enjoy it.”

The first Glasgow Tree Hugging Tournament is at Dams to Darnley Country Park on Sunday, October 6