On the Trish stratus puts becky lynch shirt What’s more,I will buy this other hand, it’s not as easy as that might sound. Our lives are humming with a tantalizing array of technology and distractions, and the space between humans and nature has become a chasm. Alyssa Benjamin, my guide from the forest walk who is also the host of a podcast called Our Nature, reminds me, “It’s brave to step towards this type of work. It goes against the rhythms of society and culture.” That’s where the structure of a forest therapy walk comes in: “People can simply show up, and as a guide, I hold that container to help them make the space,” she tells me. So what exactly is a forest therapy walk? Like yoga or any other healing modality, forest therapy guides each have their own unique style, but the basic ingredients are the same: Intention, connecting to your senses, engaging with nature, and sharing that experience with others. Maybe you’ll meet in a city park, a local botanical garden, or an arboretum. You might even be able to do a virtual forest therapy walk in your backyard or around your neighborhood. A core principle of forest therapy is the insistence that you do not need to go to the middle of a remote forest or have any special skills to cultivate a deep relationship with the natural world. It is enough to show up and see—and smell and feel—what there is to see, smell, and feel.
Over the Trish stratus puts becky lynch shirt What’s more,I will buy this course of the walk, you could be invited to follow your curiosity and explore something in the natural environment that catches your eye, or to follow your nose and give plants, leaves, or the dirt beneath your feet a sniff. You might be invited to observe what’s in motion or to befriend a tree. After 10 or 15 minutes of self-guided exploration—a longer-than-it-sounds span of time to vibe out on the breeze or the birdsong filling the air—you rejoin the group, and are invited to share what you noticed. If you’re thinking this all sounds a bit like kid stuff, well, that’s kind of the point. “I see people transform into their childlike selves during forest therapy,” Benjamin shares. “But, it’s not like they’re reverting to some earlier stage of their lives. It’s more a realization that their capacity for wonder has been there all along, and that a bit of presence in the natural world can bring it forward.”