A Shanghai woman has become famous in her home country for promoting the physical and psychological benefits of hugging trees.

Qishishiqi hugged her first tree back in April, while out on the tow with her husband. Feeling a little tipsy, the woman hugged a random tree on an empty street in Shanghai and immediately felt positive effects. A constant ringing in the ears that she claimed was caused by work-related stress ‘magically disappear’ while hugging the thick tree trunk, and this ‘superb’ first experience motivated her to not only look for other trees to hug but also share her story with others so that they may also benefit from it.

Photo: Weibo

In a viral post on Xiaoshomgshu, China’s version of Instagram, Qishishiqi said that she felt relaxed and healed after embracing a thousand-year-old tree in a forest park near Shanghai, adding that it felt like ‘the tree was hugging me,’ and helping relieve all the burdens she was carrying.

The Chinese woman explained that she had always felt nervous when hugging other humans, afraid that they might not be able to bear her negative energy, but trees were very different, as “they will listen to you silently and patiently”.

 

Qishishiqi made it very clear that she does not advise replacing actual medical therapy with tree-hugging, but proponents of Chinese traditional medicine claim that hugging trees is beneficial to physical and mental health. Apparently, by embracing trees, people can acquire qi, which helps them adjust their emotions.

Dr. Stone Kraushaar, a clinical psychologist known as “The Hug Doctor”, claims that people who hug each other for a minimum of 21 seconds benefit from the increased release of oxytocin. Not sure that applies to tree-hugging, though…