Why is forest bathing a great overall holistic practice to add to your routine? How can forest bathing provide you with a chance to fully get out of your head and into your body? Can you practice forest bathing to rejuvenate your spirit and connection to the world around you?
In this podcast episode, Lisa Lewis speaks about optimizing your mind and body with the Forest Therapy Guide where Ben Page reveals nature’s healing secrets.
Meet Ben Page
Ben Page is a Forest Therapy Guide, a global advocate for the practice, and the author of Healing Trees: A Pocket Guide to Forest Bathing. He is the founder of Shinrin Yoku LA and Integral Forest Bathing and has been guiding Forest Therapy walks since 2015. During his tenure as a trainer and mentor of guides, Ben has trained hundreds of guides around the world.
From 2017-2020, he also served as the Director of Training for the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs, specializing in curriculum and pedagogical design. Since his practice began, Ben has been featured in such publications as Women’s Health, USA TODAY, Good Morning America, The Washington Post, and WebMD. Ben is also a co-founder of The Open School, Southern California’s only free democratic school. He holds a B.A. in religious studies from Carleton College and an M.A. in human development and social change from Pacific Oaks College.
Visit Integral Forest Healing and connect on Instagram.
FREEBIE: Sign up for Ben’s mailing list to receive a free digital copy of his first “children’s book for adults”, The Wild Garden
IN THIS PODCAST:
- What is forest bathing?
- Forest bathing as a holistic health practice
- What a basic forest bathing session looks like
- You don’t need to “earn” being present
What is forest bathing?
There are many different definitions of what forest bathing is.
I feel like in some ways it’s part of the gift of the work that it’s kind of open to interpretation and it doesn’t have a singular definition. But if you ask me, I think forest bathing is basically a practice of coming home to this moment and recognizing that relationships exist … that are mediated through the intelligence of the body.
Ben Page
What Ben does with his clients is to help them get out of their heads, into their bodies, and slow down.
By doing this in nature, people are often more able to rest and appreciate different beings of life in nature, like trees and plants, that are usually difficult to perceive or to make time for when people are rushing around, completely in their heads.
Forest bathing is therefore not a mental process. It’s not a process that relies on thinking but rather on feeling.
That’s probably the big difference for me between something like ecopsychology and forest bathing … [In forest bathing] we’re not having an analytical experience of our interaction with the forest. We’re not focused on, “Well what does it mean?” We’re focused on just the raw phenomenon of the experience of being here … and the somatic and emotional experience of being in that relationship.
Ben Page
Of course, afterward, there is a time for discussing and meaning-making of the experience to integrate it into your daily life routine.
However, in that moment, forest bathing is about being fully present and with the body, feeling the moment, instead of in the mind and thinking about feeling the moment.
Forest bathing as a holistic health practice
There’s an unbelievable amount of research on why [forest bathing] is good for our bodies. A big springboard for this practice that came out of Japan was the research demonstrating that spending time in nature is very good for our immune system. Then of course, there is the mental health side of it … and a lot of that comes not only from the time being in nature but [also] the process of slowing down and getting out of our heads.
Ben Page
Forest bathing and being in nature is a holistic health practice that you can incorporate into your general routine because it has a vast amount of benefits, for both your body and mind.
It offers a space for you to step out of your thoughts and into your body, allowing you to let your mind rest and just experience the present moment instead of being stuck thinking about the past or the future.
Apart from that, the fresh air and being immersed in nature have significant health benefits for your body and immune system. Additionally, forest bathing could also be spiritual, philosophical, and relationally healthy for you, although that is dependent on the person.
What a basic forest bathing session looks like
The standard sequence:
- Somatic meditation: the idea is to first awaken the senses
Forest bathing is really a very sensory process. It’s through our senses that we form these relationships with the more than human world … It’s not intellectual or discursive.
Ben Page
So clients are encouraged to get into their bodies and out of their heads and this is achieved through a 15-20 minute somatic meditation where the guide prompts the client to focus their attention on certain sensory phenomena.
- To take a slow walk through the forest: when you slow down you notice much more because your body is able to absorb it more easily.
- Engaging in invitations: invitations are similar to exercise or activities but left to the client as a more intuitive decision. There’s a framework for exploration for clients to engage with at whichever level they feel comfortable or interested in doing them.
- Encouraging connections: through deepening sensory experiences, clients are allowed and encouraged to form connections or relationships with the other beings present in the forest, like the trees, river, or sky.
- Final tea ceremony: the guide will show the participants how to forage in the forest. They gather some leaves or flowers to make tea for a closing ceremony.
That’s where we have a little bit of conversation about, “What are you taking home with you?” We call this “incorporation” … The first is literally taking the forest into our bodies through the tea, but then this metaphorical corporation of what are you bringing home with you [from this experience?] What is the medicine or this experience or the wisdom of this experience?
Ben Page
Even though this entire experience is seemingly “simple” the type of learning that can happen is powerful because small shifts in perspective can make a huge difference in someone’s life or attitude toward themselves.
For a lot of people, the wisdom of the experience can feel almost unbelievably simple but I think there’s a lot of power in those simple experiences … Despite being simple, I think those are really powerful, incredible learnings. Or maybe I should say rememberings.
Ben Page
You don’t need to “earn” being present
In a world that is driven by ambition, accomplishment, and success, and has saturated itself with dopamine-chasers at a fast pace, sitting in a forest doing nothing might initially sound strange.
However, it is an incredibly powerful and altering experience because it reminds you of what is truly important, of what really matters.
Forest bathing might even make you address the ways in which you have been living and how they are out of alignment with what you truly feel and desire from this life.
It reminds you that you don’t need to “earn” your life. You don’t need to earn being present. You can just be, and it is always available to you. Living life intimately is always available to you.
It may seem daunting but that’s because it makes you shed what’s not actually important, and lets you connect with what is meaningful again, and that may require you to rethink some of your life choices. There’s no bad time to change your life for the better.
The world is inviting us to be alive all the time, but maybe we have a hard time admitting that to ourselves because we think that has to be something you earn … I think that’s really beautiful, that aliveness is just waiting for you at every turn.
Ben Page
RESOURCES MENTIONED AND USEFUL LINKS
BOOK | Ben Page – Healing Trees: A Pocket Guide to Forest Bathing
Visit Integral Forest Healing and connect on Instagram.
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ABOUT THE SENSITIVE IN NATURE PODCAST
So you’ve been told that you’re “too sensitive” and perhaps you replay situations in your head. Wondering if you said something wrong? You’re like a sponge, taking in every word, reading all situations. Internalizing different energies, but you’re not sure what to do with all of this information. You’re also not the only one asking yourself, “am I ok?” Lisa Lewis is here to tell you, “It’s totally ok to feel this way.”
Join Lisa, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, as she hosts her, Am I Ok? Podcast. With over 20 years of education, training, and life experience, she specializes in helping individuals with issues related to being an empath and a highly sensitive person.
Society, and possibly your own experiences, may have turned your thinking of yourself as being a highly sensitive person into something negative. Yet, in reality, it is something that you can – and should – take ownership of. It’s the sixth sense to fully embrace, which you can harness to make positive changes in your life and in the lives of others.
This may all sound somewhat abstract, but on the Am I Ok? Podcast, Lisa shares practical tips and advice you can easily apply to your own life. Lisa has worked with adults from various backgrounds and different kinds of empaths, and she’s excited to help you better connect with yourself. Are you ready to start your journey?