WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE TRIED IT?
When I told my sister Abbi I was taking her forest bathing, her first question was, “Will it be like when the sisters in Fleabag go to a retreat?” Well, yes and no.
After meeting Jen, our instructor, she encouraged us to start by “walking mindfully”. In other words, really, really, really slowly. As we caught each other’s eyes while struggling with our balance, we couldn’t help having mini-giggles.
However, after 10 minutes, we were listening intently to the leaves crunching beneath our trainers and getting lost in our own worlds. It was when “feeling-up” trees, and describing them as “soft, with hard bits”, that we snickered like kids.
At the end of each “activity”, which included looking around, smelling the plants, collecting objects we enjoyed and listening to the rainfall, we were invited to a sharing circle to discuss things. Doing this in the rain sounds hellish but
I actually found it enjoyable (I was just glad I hadn’t washed my hair that morning or I’d have been fuming).
When Abbi said looking up at the sun through the trees was like seeing a “kaleidoscope of the forest”, she was praised. I was jealous.
Being positively encouraged to touch and smell whatever intrigued us was a strange experience after being told to do the exact opposite during the pandemic. It was even weirder when a couple walked past as I showed Jen my rock collection.
At the end of the session, we spent half an hour sitting by a lake in peaceful silence. I felt so blissful, I probably couldn’t even have told you my job title, let alone what I was stressed about earlier that day. I was reminded that the world is bigger than me as boats floated by on the water. No matter what’s going on in my life, nature will continue to do its thing and it will be there for me when I need time out. That’s a comforting thought.
As I continued with my day, I felt positively lighter from my experience in the forest and made a vow to force myself away from my laptop and into my local park during lunchtimes.
The great thing about forest bathing is you can do it anywhere and you don’t need to fork out for an instructor if you don’t want to. Just leave your phone at home and take a walk in a green space – but instead of having a destination, take time to explore anything you want to with your senses (although we don’t recommend biting into bark).
It’ll never be boring, as each time you go you’ll spot different things and even the weather can change the experience.