The key to my wellbeing.
I wanted to share with you my why. Why I feel so strongly that Forest Therapy and reconnecting with nature is key to my wellbeing.
It comes down to three concepts - human connection, the abundance of nature and presence within my body through my senses.
Human connection
I think we all instinctively know how important human connection is for our wellbeing. For me, it came down to the type of human connection that I knew I was longing for. I do not care much for small talk — I’m searching for something deeper. I want to know what lights you up? What fills your heart with joy. Or even what weighs on your heart. What is your human experience? What are you noticing in this moment? I want to hear your soul speak.
Something magical can happen on Forest Therapy walk when strangers gather in the welcoming embrace of nature, in a safe and spacious container. When you can share freely with other humans it creates an instant bond and can open a feeling of belonging. Witnessing and being witnessed is powerful. You may not even remember each person’s name at the end of a walk but you are connected deeply by a shared truth. To be seen by nature and by other humans, to share our experience, to share space, to be in the present moment together — that is what deep human connection looks like to me. That connection fills me to the brim and replenishes me. We do not always share joy or pain, laughter or profound insights but what we do share, even if it is silence, is human. Which reverberates throughout the group and flows connection through all of us. And that is what I’m craving now more than ever.
Awakening my senses
This is what truly shifted the way I move through the world. I’m someone who was always in my head. Thinking and overthinking, holding so much information and details for all parts of my life and the people in it. I longed to get out of my head but I simply didn’t know how to exist in any other way. Couple that with my perfectionism and need to be super productive everyday and it left me feeling completely misaligned with my authentic self. I knew I could not keep going at that rate and deep down I knew I didn’t want to operate at the pace society and myself were expecting me to. I started to wonder is this all worth it? Why am I constantly depleting myself?
There were a lot of bread crumbs that led me to Forest Therapy but when I discovered the practice one thing slowly shifted the way I operated on a daily basis — fully dropping into my senses. Being present with each one allowed me for the first time to get out of my head and actually feel like a whole human. I was able to be present. I was awakened on so many levels. It was powerful for me to awaken each sense. It felt different to me than forms of meditation I had tried before. I think it was the ease and comfort I feel in nature that allowed the shift to land within me. I was transforming from always living in my thinking mind to being in my sensing body.
Being present through my senses and slowing down in nature made me feel truly human. I was part of nature at that moment, coexisting in that moment - not in the future, or the past or within a fast paced capitalistic society, I was simply being.
Being present is something I flow in and out of but I know how to come back to my body — to the present moment, to the wind on my skin or the birds chirping in my ears or even to the softness of my sweater as it hugs my shoulders. This resource has freed my mind and opened my wholeness. Learning to become embodied has changed my life.
The abundance of nature
Nature illuminates my soul. Everyday I wake up the sun greets me and I greet her. I trust that everyday she will be there. Spending slow intentional time in nature and cultivating a relationship with nature has allowed me to notice all the abundance around me and to trust that it is always there. To know the sun is always above me and the earth is always beneath my feet supports me, cradles me and brings me comfort. The unconditional love of Mother Earth has helped me through many difficult times. Each day I notice something new, even in what appears to be the lifeless depths of winter there is abundance. I could only come to this knowing by slowing down, noticing and being present. To witness the world around me. All meaningful relationships take time to develop, they take reciprocity, love and lots of truthful moments spent together. I’m so grateful for my relationship with Mother Earth. Forest Therapy reignited and allowed me to cultivate that relationship.
All of these concepts within a Forest Therapy walk lead to one thing — returning to what it is to be human. To be of nature. All I want is to be a human being and be present in all that this experience entails — together with other humans and with all the more than human beings on this planet. If returning to the place of simply being, retuning to your true human nature aligns with you and calls to your heart then I invite you to explore that desire and reconnect with it.
If you are curious to experience Forest Therapy or connect I invite you to explore some offerings I have coming up.
Return to being, return to nature.
Kindly,
Gwen