The forest around me is very still, as if slowly, gently returning more inwards.
Raindrops of this morning’s shower are quietly dropping down through the branches of the trees, painting everything they touch on their journey with a vibrant, silver glow.
Beams of sunlight are shining on just some specific parts of the trees and forest floor, leaving other hidden parts in the dark. Like bright spotlights on an artist during a performance.
I deeply inhale the earthy, humid, crisp smell of Spring, noticing a palette of fresh green leaves, flowers and baby trees popping up all around me, contrasting with the red and brown leaves of last year covering the forest floor.
Slowly, I arrange the tea cups and place them in a circle between the roots of the ancient beech tree. Four for the participants, one for me, and one for the Forest.
Under the big trees nearby, the participants of this morning’s Shinrin-Yoku workshop are doing a ‘sit-spot’, a restful moment for themselves, taking in the atmosphere of the forest.
I linger a bit, fully absorbing this special quiet slow time together in the forest, sensing the change in season that’s already so much more present here than in Amsterdam nature yet.
I silently thank this wonderful place for hosting us and giving us such a restful, deeply nourishing nature break, and the participants for their precious time they chose to spend with me in the forest – while there would have been thousands of other things they could have been doing this Friday morning in busy March.
Then I use my singing bowl, and let the sound waves merge with the silence of the forest. It’s time for the final part of the workshop!
“As a sailboat we must take into account the currents – which are our unconscious motivations, our desires and emotions, our patterns of actions… The winds that fill our sails are the force of time and climate and season; the tides of the planets, the moon and the sun. Sometimes all the forces are with us; we simply open our sail and run before the wind. At other times, the wind may run against the current, or both run counter our direction, and we may be forced to tack back and forth, or furl the sail and wait.”
~ Starhawk, ‘The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess’, 1979.
Shinrin-yoku invitation
“This invitation is called: ‘The journey of the wind’. The wind is coming from far-away. Where is it coming from and where is it heading to? Feel, listen, smell, taste and watch the presence of the wind in your surroundings – on its journey spiraling the earth. Perhaps it carries a message for you, or you have a message to give to the wind?”
A shinrin-yoku (forest therapy/bathing) walk guided by a certified ANFT-guide consists of several ‘invitations’. These assist you in slowing down, relaxing, and finding your own way of being in relationship with nature, the land, and all its inhabitants.
One day when you wake up, you will find that you’ve become a forest. You’ve grown roots and found strength in them that no one thought you had. You have become stronger and more beautiful full of life giving qualities. You have learned to take all the negativity around you and turn it into oxygen for easy breathing. A host of wild creatures live inside you and you call them stories. A variety of beautiful birds nest inside your mind and you call them memories. You have become an incredible self-sustaining thing of epic proportions. And you should be so proud of yourself, Of how far you have come from the seeds of who you used to be.
“Door het bosbaden is bij mij ergens een raampje opengegaan. Van een idyllisch koepeltje midden in het bos met een prachtig uitzicht, net als je vroeger in de film Bambi zag. Ik keek door dit raampje het bos in; de grond was bedekt met mos en overal stonden prachtige bomen, verwilderd, en dacht: “Die wereld is mooi – hier voel ik mij thuis!” In dit interview van Inside Forest Bathing praat ik met bosbadgids op de Utrechtse Heuvelrug Stefanie Boomsma. Zij geeft bosbaden in o.a. het Nationaal Bomenmuseum Gimborn in Doorn en verbindt onder meer studenten weer met de natuur. “Voor mij is bosbaden thuiskomen in het bos. Het is ruimte geven aan waar ik met mijn hele lijf, lichaam en geest behoefte aan heb. Weer die verbinding te voelen. En delen met anderen.”
Ik spreek haar op een regenachtige middag in november. Zij vanuit haar thuis op de groene Utrechtse Heuvelrug, ik vanuit de Amsterdamse Pijp, waar de herfstbladeren door de lucht dwarrelen en de regen zachtjes tegen het raam tikt. Ze draagt een warme, mosgroene coltrui. Aan de muur achter haar, geverfd in een iets diepere tint groen, hangt een grote foto van een prachtige boom, omringd door geel-bruine Zuid-Afrikaanse savanne. Stefanie Boomsma, bosbad gids bij Thuis in het Bos: “Bij aankomst in zuidelijk Afrika krijgen veel mensen het gevoel dat zij thuiskomen, zo had ik dat ook. De roots van onze mensheid liggen daar.”
Hier wil ik iets mee Bosbaden kwam op Stefanie’s pad toen zij, samen met haar team van product markt managers Nature & Recreatie van IVN in de Cremertuin zelf aan een bosbad deelnam. Stefanie: “Een stukje tuin midden in Utrecht. Aan het eind van de sessie lag ik tussen een paar bomen, naast het spoor en ik was compleet ontspannen. Eigenlijk alleen maar bezig met wat er boven mij gebeurde.” Overweldigd door haar mentale en fysieke reactie op het relatief korte bosbad in een drukke omgeving besloot Stefanie: “Hier wil ik iets mee.”
Enige tijd later schreef ze zich in voor de opleiding tot bosbadgids bij de Forest Bathing Academy – hoofddocent Güdrun Feldkamp had Stefanie en haar collega’s het bosbad in de Cremertuin gegeven. Dat de opleiding in Rotterdam was, vond Stefanie wel een beetje spannend. “Ik dacht, ik woon hier zo prachtig op de Heuvelrug, en dan ga ik naar Rotterdam om te bosbaden?” Toch bleek het juist waardevol om vanuit de stad naar de natuur te kijken. En vonden de bosbad-sessies ook op andere plekken plaats.
Stefanie twijfelde nog wel even of ze de opleiding kon starten. Na de Covid-periode had ze door gebrek aan energie een time-out van haar werk genomen. Maar haar werkgever IVN Natuureducatie moedigde haar aan. “Het lijkt ons juist heel verstandig dat jij veel de natuur in gaat.” Met alle ruimte voor haar eigen herstel liet ze de verbinding met de natuur in eerste instantie vooral heel veel op zichzelf inwerken. Stefanie: “Het zelf echt ervaren. En daarna kwam ik er steeds meer bovenop en kon ik het ook echt gaan uitdragen. Dat was een heel mooi proces.”
Bosbaden is thuiskomen Stefanie: “Door het bosbaden is bij mij ergens een raampje opengegaan. Van een idyllisch koepeltje midden in het bos, net als je vroeger in een Bambi filmpje zag.” Ze lacht. “Ik keek door dit raampje het bos in, met allemaal mos op de grond en prachtige bomen, een beetje een kerstachtige sfeer en dacht: “Die wereld is mooi!” En daar sta ik nu in. Ik ben alles daar aan het verkennen en ontmoeten. Die relatie is zo sterk geworden en ook heel natuurlijk.”
Voor Stefanie is bosbaden echt thuiskomen. Ze lacht. “Misschien een cliché antwoord, want mijn bedrijf heet ook ‘Thuis in het Bos’. Het is ruimte geven aan waar ik met mijn hele lijf, lichaam en geest behoefte aan heb. Weer die verbinding te voelen.” Inmiddels kan ze dit gevoel van thuiskomen bij zichzelf vanuit huis ook veel beter voelen, maar fysiek in het bos aanwezig zijn is voor haar nog steeds erg belangrijk.
Stefanie: “Tijdens het bosbaden kan ik op het juiste moment weer ademhalen, in plaats van dat ik hier thuis om mij heen kijk en van alles moet.” In het bos komt ze tot rust en kan ze alles even laten voor wat het is. In de natuur vertraagt ze direct haar pas. En verhoogt haar aandacht. Ze kijkt veel bewuster omhoog, om de wereld daar ook te zien, niet alleen het pad onder haar voeten. Al haar zintuigen gaan open, ze gaat voelen, bekijkt regendruppels, kijkt naar de kleine dingen om haar heen. En doet regelmatig een Sit spot, waardoor ze zich nauw verbonden voelt met de plek. En dankbaar. Het bosbaden bracht Stefanie weer terug bij haar eigen relatie met de natuur. “Als kind al bouwde ik hutten en speelde ik veel buiten. Elk jaar gingen we kamperen in Zuid-Frankrijk, waar ik veel tijd doorbracht op het strand en in mijn hangmat, starend naar de boomtoppen.”
Bomenknuffelaar Stefanie: “Vriendinnen weten inmiddels dat als ze mij uitnodigen voor een wandeling, ze dat ook doen omdat ze zelf graag willen vertragen. En omdat ze weten dat ik hen naar dingen kan laten kijken waar ze zelf eigenlijk nooit naar keken. Ik geef hen de ruimte en de mogelijkheid ervoor. Een vriendin stuurt me nu foto’s van de minimale dingen die ze in de natuur ziet.” Ze lacht. “Ik ben eigenlijk ook altijd wel met de bomen in contact, ook fysiek. Als ik ze aanraak, dan voel ik gelijk die vertraging in mijn lijf: “Sta maar even stil.” Die bomen bewegen ook niet, dus waarom moet ik altijd in beweging zijn? Ik ben eigenlijk wel zo’n bomenknuffelaar geworden, als ik mijzelf zo hoor.”
Stefanie start haar werkweek in het bos. “Als ik maandag gelijk achter de laptop begin, dan doe ik alles wat moet, een lijstje dat eigenlijk alleen maar langer wordt. In het bos kan ik de juiste prioriteiten stellen. Ik kan heel goed aanvoelen wat ik nu nodig heb. Zo ga ik nu de week in, met overzicht in wat ik doe en wil. Tien keer meer rustiger en ontspannen.” Stefanie’s achternaam, Boomsma, past prachtig bij haar werk. Ze lacht. “Boomsma is een merk van de Friese kruidenbitter Beerenburg. Vroeger associeerde ik mijn naam vooral met een alcohol merk. Maar nu ik steeds meer het groene pad bewandel, merk ik dat ik er af en toe echt mee kan pronken.” Natuurverbinding de sleutel tot een groenere, duurzame toekomst Inmiddels is Stefanie’s relatie met de natuur zo sterk dat zij zich gesterkt voelt om het bosbaden uit te dragen, om veel meer mensen die verbinding te laten voelen. Met zichzelf. Met elkaar. Met hun omgeving. En hen te laten ervaren wat dit voor hen kan betekenen. “Voor mij is dit de sleutel tot een duurzame toekomst. Een groenere toekomst, waarin we veel meer in balans leven met onszelf en wat de aarde nodig heeft. Wij zijn natuur, maar we leven nu zo ver van de natuur en van onszelf af, dat we het gevoel hebben dat we van alles nodig hebben, maar we komen altijd tijd te kort. We zijn eigenlijk nooit helemaal blij. Pas als we echt weer tot rust komen, voelen we weer wat meer onszelf en waar we werkelijk behoefte aan hebben.” Stefanie hoopt dat als we veel meer in verbinding met onszelf en de aarde leven, we duurzamer gedrag gaan vertonen. “Dat is echt de sleutel voor onze toekomst hier op aarde.”
Missie om mensen de verbinding weer te laten voelen Samen met collega bosbadgids Mirjam de Boer van The Art of Forest Bathing begeleidt Stefanie maandelijks een bosbad-sessie in het Nationaal Bomenmuseum in Doorn. “Er worden enorme afstanden afgelegd om hier te kunnen bosbaden. Gisteren kwamen er mensen uit Eindhoven, een paar weken geleden uit Winterswijk.”
Stefanie gaat ook met zakelijke teams het bos in. “Ook heel leuk en waanzinnig interessant. Er is dan een manager of collega die een bosbad “een goed idee” vindt. Waarbij je dan een team krijgt waarvan 18 van de 20 collega’s er misschien niet persé voor hadden gekozen.” Ze lacht. “Een deelnemer vroeg mij: “Misschien een rare vraag, maar ik heb dus mijn zwembroek mee, maar ik moest ook regenkleding meenemen? Ik snap het eigenlijk niet zo.” Toen zei ik dat hij zijn zwembroek wel weer even terug mocht leggen in de auto.”
Stefanie probeert altijd aan te voelen wat passende ‘uitnodigingen’ zijn (vrijwillige oefeningen die tijdens het bosbad door de gids worden aangeboden om de deelnemers zich met al hun zintuigen met het moment en de natuur te laten verbinden). “Een hele spirituele groep vindt het leuk om echt de energieën van bomen te gaan voelen. Maar bij zo’n zakelijk uitje gaan we ook gewoon wat luchtige oefeningen doen, zoals in tweetallen met een persoon geblinddoekt naar een plek toelopen en deze dan de plek te laten ontdekken. Of elkaar een cadeautje uit het bos geven, en dit met je ogen gesloten verkennen. Juist om te laten voelen dat die verbinding met de natuur er voor iedereen is, op een manier die past bij jou.”
Tijdens de Sit-spot aan het eind van de sessie ziet ze haar deelnemers altijd ontspannen bij een boom zitten. Stefanie: “Dat sterkt mijn gevoel dat stiekem iedereen dit wel wil. Ons lijf voelt het, ons hoofd weet het. We zijn geconditioneerd door hoe we opgeleid zijn, door onze opvoeding, of waar het dan ook vandaan komt, waardoor we eigenlijk altijd een beetje in de vooruit stand zitten. Maar laat iemand bij een boom zitten en er komen de meest bijzondere inzichten, of juist even gewoon helemaal niets.”
Door verwondering weer ‘aan’ gaan Ze vind het altijd mooi als er geuit wordt dat het vertragen in de natuur haar deelnemers dichter bij zichzelf brengt. Dat men zich kwetsbaar durft op te stellen en deelt wat het bosbad met hen doet, zich steeds meer naar andere deelnemers toe openen, details in de natuur om zich heen opmerken, zoals mos dat op de bomen groeit of hun verwondering uiten over het geluid van de regen. Stefanie: “Echt symbolisch voor hoe dat af en toe in de maatschappij ook gaat, je kwetsbaar opstellen, dichter bij jezelf willen komen. Als je die connectie eenmaal voelt, kan dat zoveel met je doen en dit mag je ook uitdragen. Dit gesprek gun ik mensen zo. Om door die verwondering weer ‘aan’ te gaan.”
Sinds enige tijd geeft Stefanie ook bosbad-sessies aan studenten: tijdens de introductieweek van de Universiteit Utrecht; en bij de Master Tourism, Society and Environment van Wageningen University & Research, waar zij zelf ook student was.
Stefanie: “Tijdens die opleiding wordt ook aandacht aan de natuur besteed, maar alleen vanuit het klaslokaal. De docent vroeg zich af hoe de natuur veel meer een plaats in het onderwijs zou kunnen krijgen.” Ze besloot zijn studenten de natuur te laten ervaren tijdens een bosbad. “In hun directe omgeving, zodat ze zich uitgenodigd voelen om de natuur veel meer in hun studentenleven te gaan integreren.” Het liefst zou Stefanie aan nog veel meer studenten een bosbad-sessie geven. “Het is de generatie die het niet makkelijk heeft en de natuur geeft hen inspiratie en rust te midden van alle stress die ze ervaren. En het zorgt voor een ontspannen verbinding tussen studenten. Ze kunnen wel op de universiteit of in de kroeg afspreken, maar in de natuur is er veel meer ruimte om andere gesprekken met elkaar aan te gaan.”
Lijntje met de natuur nog kort Stefanie was verrast hoe snel de studenten met al hun zintuigen in het moment kwamen. Zich overgaven. “Bij andere groepen duurt dit soms even, voelen sommige deelnemers zich ongemakkelijk als ze de ogen mogen sluiten.” Toen Stefanie de studenten vroeg om een stukje te wandelen of ergens te gaan zitten en te kijken naar wat er beweegt, hadden ze al snel hun schoenen uit en liepen ze het bos of park in. “Echt heel mooi om te zien.” Ze merkt dat het lijntje tussen de studenten en de natuur eigenlijk nog heel kort is. En ook dat er een enorme behoefte is om de natuur weer in het hart te mogen sluiten. Stefanie: “Het is eigenlijk niet eens een kennismaking, want de meeste studenten weten vanuit vroeger echt wel hoe het was om in contact te zijn met de natuur. Maar sommige studenten zijn in omgevingen opgegroeid met weinig natuur, soms niet eens uitzicht op een boom.”
Kinderbosbad Stefanie geeft ook bosbaden speciaal gericht op kinderen. Bij haar eigen kinderen, die net naar school zijn gegaan en veel binnen moeten zitten, voelde ze deze behoefte. “Wij wonen in een vrij groene omgeving. Deze bosbaden richten zich op stadskinderen die niet altijd naar buiten kunnen, of niet weten waar ze dan naar toe moeten.”
Natuurlijk ritme Inmiddels fietst Stefanie naar een plek, gaat er staan, voelen, wandelt er rond en geeft er een bosbad. “Ik ben er onwijs blij mee dat dit nu zo sterk is, dat intuïtieve.” De uitdaging voor haar zit in het gewone leven, dat ze zo graag in lijn brengt met het ritme van de natuur.
“Ik ben me enorm aan het verdiepen en verrijken door het bosbaden, zwem wekelijks buiten in natuur water en probeer steeds meer te leven in het ritme van de seizoenen, maar tegelijkertijd sta ik ook in het leven waarin mijn kinderen op tijd naar school moeten, er boodschappen nodig zijn en werk deadlines gehaald. Dat voelt soms een beetje als een mis-match.” Ze lacht. “Een thema voor de komende jaren, om daar echt aandacht aan te geven en ook bewust te voelen waar ik in mee wil gaan, en waarin niet meer. Hoe kan ik er zo in meegaan dat dit ook nog natuurlijk voor mij voelt en ik de verbinding blijf voelen?
Stefanie ziet dat iedereen, inclusief zijzelf, misschien in hun privé tijd wel ontspannen, maar tijdens hun werk vaak doordenderen. “Dat vind ik zonde. Herfst en winter zijn hele drukke perioden, terwijl als je energetisch met de seizoenen zou werken die periode er een zou zijn om af te schalen. Daardoor creëer je ruimte, om in het voorjaar weer te ontkiemen. Een betere afstemming op de seizoenen en met zijn allen meer de ontspanning opzoeken en de relatie met de natuur weer aangaan, zou echt heel veel aan stress en burn-out klachten gerelateerd ziekteverzuim kunnen voorkomen.” Stefanie probeert hier op haar eigen manier en via haar bosbaden verandering in te brengen en hoopt dat dit deel van een grotere beweging is. “Er zijn veel meer mensen die hier al mee bezig zijn en het is fijn om elkaar daar ook in te kunnen vinden.”
Verdieping op het bosbaden Samen met bosbad collega Mirjam start Stefanie in 2024 een cursus, als verdieping op het bosbaden. “Het bosbaden is een hele fijne, warme, eerste ontmoeting, maar we merken dat er bij veel deelnemers de behoefte bestaat om meer te willen weten. Over de maan, het ritme van de seizoenen, de elementen, Keltische tradities.” De cursus richt zich op professionals, zoals buitenpsychologen, buitenfysio, natuurcoaches, die met hun cliënten de natuur in gaan en op mensen die graag meer verdieping willen na een bosbad. Stefanie: “Hoe mooi is het als je jezelf nog meer kunt belichamen doordat de relatie met de natuur zo sterk is? Samen met een groep gelijkgestemden verdiepen we de persoonlijke relatie met de natuurlijke wereld met de beoefening van Shinrin-yoku, Deep Ecology & Sjamanisme van de Lage Landen. Een diepe duik in de natuur.”
Stefanie ook actief als bestuurslid voor de onlangs opgerichte Branchevereniging Bosbadgidsen Nederland. Ze hoopt dat bosbaden en verbinding met de natuur weer heel natuurlijk wordt voor iedereen.
Stefanie: “Als mijn groepen vertrekken merk ik dat ze eigenlijk willen blijven.” In augustus had ze een volle maan bosbad. “Het was allemaal zo mooi samen, zo idyllisch. Na de theeceremonie werd het op een gegeven moment heel donker en de poort zou bijna dichtgaan. Ik stond op en iedereen kwam me een knuffel geven. Omdat ze het zo ontzettend fijn vonden dat dit hier kon, die ruimte voelen. Ik droom van een wereld waarin die ruimte er altijd is, weer verweven met ons leven.”
Je kunt hier meer over Stefanie Boomsma en haar werk vinden.
“I suddenly started seeing it, like: Wow, it’s everywhere. Even in the parking lot! It made me fall in love with the nature in Belgium.” In this Inside Forest Bathing interview, Finnish Forest Mind trainer and researcher Katriina Kilpi, with glittering eyes and using a waterfall of words, only interrupted at times by laughter or a short moment of contemplative silence, takes me on a winding journey. Crossing various continents, taking me to the indigenous people of Hawaii; introducing me to the Finnish well-being method of Metsämieli-Forest Mind; sharing insights from her passion project International Forest Therapy Days and research in the field of nature and health. Katriina: “It’s really all inter-connected. Perhaps we should not talk about connecting with nature, but about connecting with life. Life on Earth.”
Falling in love with the Earth Katriina: “For some reason, until about my twenties, I was just in love with the Earth. I was a lucky kid that, unlike many of my peers at that time in Finland where I come from, got to travel a lot. I got to see the Victoria Falls, the city-nature of Singapore, and a lot of other places, and just fell in love with the Earth. I guess my parents were not really aware of the environmental disaster that was already happening, and neither was I. In fact, I was fascinated by earthquakes and tsunamis!” Nobody had told me After a number of twists and turns, Katriina ended up at a Finnish Polytechnic to study Environmental Management. For the entrance exams, she had to study the report ‘The State of the World’. Katriina: “It just completely kicked my ass. I felt like a big secret had been kept from me. Nobody had told me! What’s happening on this Earth?” Katriina’s adoration turned into slight panic and an urge for humans to take action.
It daunted on her that while we humans are concerned about trivial things, what truly matters was nature. “Looking at my little brother, who is 15 years younger than I, made me wonder how much time do kids actually get to spend in nature?” The field of environmental education then really got her interest. Katriina: “It introduced me to the idea of nature connection.”
Indigenous people knew of it all along During her studies in Finland and while conducting field research for her Master’s thesis in Urban Planning in Hawaii, Katriina became interested in indigenous people and their relation to nature. Contact with the Sámi in the European North, the First Nations people in Canada and Native Hawaiians in Hawaii, had her trying to understand what nature connection means to them. Katriina: “The concepts of education for sustainable development that I was being taught at university were anything but new. I realized that indigenous people knew all of if all along.” Doing ‘something with nature’ Life took her to places, but the questions around nature connectedness were always at the back of Katriina’s mind. However, it was only years later in 2015, when after some years in social media and technology research, when Katriina was laid off and got the opportunity to continue on the path of nature. Katriina: “The golden cage door opened and I flew right towards my passion. I did not know how or what, but I felt that my next steps had to have ‘something’ to do with nature”.
First, Katriina trained as a nature guide through the Belgian Flemish organisation Natuurpunt CVN. However, nature guiding was never her goal. “For me, it’s always stressful to be in those type of guided nature walks, in which you feel you want to remember all the different species and their functions.” But something pulled her into that training, very intuitively. “It made me fall in love with the nature here in Flanders”, she recalls.
It’s everywhere: even in the parking lot Until that, Katriina had been bashing the lack of nature in Belgium, saying that unlike in Finland or Hawaii, there’s no real nature in Belgium. Katriina: “But of course there is! It’s just fragmented and under pressure.” She adds that, as a result of intense wood production, the Finnish forests are practically all fields of trees. Katriina: “And Hawaiian nature – though mesmerizing – has also been severely altered by the human hand. But it is all nature. I suddenly started seeing it, like: Wow, it’s everywhere, even in the parking lot.”
Metsämieli-Forest Mind Other nature-based trainings followed. In Finland, where her roots are, Katriina found several. She chose to train as a Forest Mind guide. ‘Metsämieli’, in English: Forest Mind, created by Sirpa Arvonen, is a Finnish wellbeing method. Katriina: “Forest Mind is really a set of exercises to train your mind skills, designed to utilize and intensify the natural healing effects of forests. Forest Mind leans on a mixture of mindfulness, cognitive behavioural psychology, positive psychology, and some coaching. The Forest Mind walks have a forest bathing element to it, as they too use sensory exercises to accelerate the settling down into the present moment.”
This is what I what I want to bring to the world Katriina loves taking people on a Forest Mind walk. “I feel most of us are so clueless about the processes in ourselves, and it’s also new to me to be so aware of myself and my mind. It has had tremendous impact on my quality of life. I feel like this is what I want to bring to the world.”
Despite being in the field for quite some years now, Katriina still feels she has a problem with literally guiding somebody’s connection to nature. Rather, she would guide a kind of pure mindfulness in nature. “I am super happy to say: Hey, let’s just slow down and notice the air.” She likes to bring everything in a neutral way. Katriina: “Like, you go figure it out for yourself what works for you. That’s coming really from my own experience. I would not have liked someone telling me how I should be viewing the life around me. I already had my own intimate nature relationship. It would feel very “old world” to have someone tell me how to do it right.”
Huge layer of things In Katriina’s view, forest bathing is something natural, not something you have to be taught, per se. “It’s a realization of sorts. Something I can do if I just take the time to practice it, so it becomes a habit. Mindfulness is the same thing in a way. You slow down and notice what’s there, and just let it be. It becomes a habit when you do it often enough. You just have to want to make it a habit”.
But in a country like Belgium, or any other western country for that matter, this is easier said than done. Katriina: “There’s a huge layer of things that we’ve learnt, like: ‘Don’t touch that, because it’s dirty’, or: ‘Don’t go there, stay on the path!’. So first, you have to go through the practicalities of where to go forest bathing, so that people can do more than just view nature while standing on the path in a neat row”.
More than just stress release Katriina knows that forest bathing can be much more than just stress release. “Even from people who only came for the stress reduction, the comment often is: ‘Wow, I have never looked at nature like this before.’”
Since one’s relation to nature is so personal, Katriina recognizes that the concept of offering guided forest bathing walks doesn’t land well always, and can even cause some resistance.
Katriina: “I felt and experienced this in Finland, where forest therapy still hasn’t broken ground, really. People probably feel, like I did and still do, that they know how to do this and that it can’t be taught by outsiders. Personally, I also didn’t believe anyone in Belgium was able to impact my nature relationship.”
However, Katriina admits she was wrong and did learn a lot of appreciation of nature, living in Belgium where things she took for granted in Finland and Hawaii are not present. Katriina: “For instance, Belgians tend to be more sparing with resources like water and energy, because anywhere they look, they are reminded they need to share the space and resources with others.” Nature-on-prescription For the customers of Belgian health insurance company CM, Katriina offers resilience walks, inspired by Forest Mind. Katriina: “The concept of ‘nature-on-prescription’, in which doctors prescribe spending time in nature with a trained nature & health professional, is well on its way in Belgium.”
Creating awareness on nature’s positive health effects Together with Dr.Yannick Joye, the only Belgian whom Katriina knew was active in environmental psychology at the time, she started the research and consultancy cooperation NatureMinded in 2016. Katriina: “The science behind nature’s mental and physical benefits always fascinated me, and with NatureMinded we aimed to create awareness amongst people and companies on nature’s positive health effects at home, at work and in public spaces.”
She says there was a lot online on the topic already, and the media was slowly following. “For me, it was always clear it was going to blow up. I knew that this was where I had to be, and I found all the right people.” Soon, NatureMinded started to get the first projects. Passion Project: IFTDays In 2018, together with other experts and practitioners working in the field, Katriina helped bring about the International Forest Therapy Days (IFTDays). It brought together practitioners and scientists of forest therapy to learn, share and experience the healing effects of forests. Katriina: “This was the first time I got to experience forest bathing led by a Japanese practitioner and a guide from the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programmes (ANFT) guide. Everyone was looking into science on the topic at that time, I felt it was the ‘new religion’.”
With the IFTDays, practice and science were brought together for the first time around the topic of forest bathing in the west. Katriina: “From the beginning, we said we are going to roll with the punches and just change as the world changes. So we’ve went from an offline event to an online event to a yearly event to a monthly online circle with different speakers. It’s free, everyone can join, share knowledge, connect and nurture the forest bathing, or forest based wellbeing practice – community.” For Katriina, it’s her passion project: “It’s all about beautiful encounters with people who have a personal connection to forests, and sharing that connection, experiences and knowledge.”
In heaven Since about four years, Katriina also works for BOS+, a growing forest organisation in Flanders. Katriina: “We try to reinstate native forests, biodiverse forests, and work with companies to plan new forests. We also work in South America and Africa. We do a lot of environmental education, create materials. Everywhere where trees and forests of the world are impacted, that’s our field.” Recently, BOS+ started working together with the Flemish State on a programme to improve nature connection, wellbeing and environmental behaviour. Katriina: “I focus on the guides, such as what makes a good guide for the programme.” She smiles. “I am in heaven, since the curious researcher that is also part of me, gets to go to work.”
Connecting with life, life on earth Katriina says that her many years of working in the field of research and promoting forest based wellbeing practises have connected her more to herself.
“A huge win. I feel that as soon we are not in contact with ourselves, we start acting out outside. Not necessarily by going out and consuming at lot, taking out all your needs on material things – which does happen, too. But for example by just pointing the finger at others and getting exhausted through all the measures many are not taking.” For Katriina, connecting with nature is about making peace with yourself, which hopefully will ripple out.
She tries to be present with people. To be kind, to be really mindful about her own turf, about what’s actually happening there. Katriina: “This is also about nature, because it’s my core.” She tries to favour pure, organic food. “To respect my body, which is also part of nature. This little piece of land called Belgium is so under pressure that I want to make choices to support activities that regenerate rather than deplete.”
For now, her garden opens into a forest, which she can see from her window. “Almost every morning I go for a walk with my dog in that same forest with huge oaks and beeches. Soon, I will move and my surroundings will have a different emphasis. Maybe it will be time for the river, or who knows, the sky will feel closer there.”
She concludes with a smile: “To me, it’s really all inter-connected. Perhaps we should not talk about ‘nature connection’, but really about connecting with life, life on earth.”
You can find more about NatureMinded and the Forest Mind walks Katriina organizes here. To join the monthly International Forest Therapy Days circle, you can register via foresttherapydays@gmail.com
“I believe that if we are to make a change, that change starts with re-developing a relationship to the earth: all change is relational, heart based. A clever argument, a great sermon, a good speech, a great advertising campaign speaks to the head. However, when they are in relationship with a being, people change.” This Inside Forest Bathing interview features forest therapy guide Kimberly A. Knight, M.Div., chaplain and digital strategist, offering forest bathing walks in The Netherlands and the U.S., and interweaving her work as a pastor with reconnecting to the natural world. Kimberly: “I am a person who is built to seek spiritual meaning, and help others find this. The forest is work that is happening for me right now.”
Wanting to connect with my place in nature It was during the pandemic that Kimberly Knight listened to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ on audible. Kimberly: “It really shook me to the core that I wanted to reconnect with my place in nature. I struggled with feeling connected to this country. The culture is different, the language is difficult, and I was working at the American School, so I wasn’t really integrating so fully.”
Kimberly, a U.S. citizen who migrated to The Netherlands in 2018 with her spouse, started to explore the Dutch parks and forests, and felt connected to the land. “This connection made me feel the need to go deeper, to understand it better. I wanted to have the skills to help other people feel connected to the land in this way.” She signed up to become a certified forest therapy guide.
Kimberly laughs. “Of all things, my training cohort was named ‘Wild Tulip.’ Being located in The Netherlands, I thought of course I am going to be in the Wild Tulip cohort.” Kimberly knew there were other training programmes out there, but the one the Association for Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT) offered just felt like the right one. “The most thorough training, the most globally recognised. World class. It was wanting that seal of approval.” Kimberly: “I decided I needed to change my life and invest in that. So, I did.”
Spirituality and care for the earth The core of what has called Kimberly – a trained chaplain with a background in the church world – to become a forest therapy guide is spirituality. Kimberly: “And care for the earth. It’s just the right calling for me.”
One of her main worries in this-life time is how we as humans have mistreated the earth, and how we are depleting our natural home. “I believe that if we are to make a change, that change starts with re-developing a relationship to the earth: all change is relational, heart based. A clever argument, a great sermon, a good speech, a great advertising campaign speaks to the head. However, when they are in relationship with a being, people change” she says.
As a queer person living in the American south, Kimberly experienced that those times her rights had been affirmed by another person were because they had a relationship with her, or other queer people. According to Kimberly, relationship is how people change their hearts, and then change their minds, and their behaviour. “By inviting people into relationship with the natural world, they can re-discover that for themselves. I believe that the likelihood that they are going to change their behaviour to more sustainable behaviour increases, because their relationship has deepened.”
Way of the Guide Early in her training with ANFT, Kimberly came to understand what the organization calls ‘the way of the guide’, the manner in which their certified guides facilitate the walk in nature. “This very much resonated with how I was trained to be a chaplain: in that open omni partiality, accompanying, trust in the forest. A trained chaplain never imposes any world views, theology, or anything like that. You are there as what they call a minister of presence, to accompany and witness other people in wherever they are on their journey.”
Whether it’s a chaplain trusting the person and their relationship to the divine, or the guide trusting the participant and their relationship to the natural world, to Kimberly, it’s the same thing. “This is spiritual care.” It felt like a natural evolution of where she is theologically. Kimberly: “I am a person who is built to seek spiritual meaning, and help others find this. I consider myself more like a Celtic Christian – although I hold the Christian story dear. It’s a walk in the wood that is my cathedral, my church. The forest is work that is happening for me right now.”
Participants from all over the globe Kimberly offered her first forest therapy walks to the teachers at the American School of The Hague, where she worked at the time, at personal development days around wellbeing. “That was a really nice, sort of built-in audience.” She wants to bring forest therapy to more international schools. “Not just for the students, but to help the faculty. These are often very stressed professionals. The burn-out rate with teachers is very high. I would like to help them before they go on to burn-out, share nature with them.”
Through Airbnb Experiences, Kimberly started to offer walks in the Amsterdam Forest and via Meetup.com, she created a meet up. “Just to sort of build my reputation here in Leiden, so people would come back and reach out to me. It has since grown from there.” Kimberly also guides in the Panbos, in Katwijk. “It’s right against the dunes, really lovely.”
Participants come from all over the globe. Kimberly: “Because I was offering my walks in English, and I am so clearly American, I thought I would have primarily international visitors.” But that has not been the case: she has a many Dutch people joining as, for example, international students. “They very much want to connect with nature, meet people and do something different.”
Treating nature as an inanimate backdrop Kimberly watches people joining her walks initially almost marching, at fast pace and their shoulders up around their ears. “By the end of it, they are walking in a languid way, really slowing down. No longer realizing how uncomfortable it was for them at the start to move slowly.” Participants share with Kimberly how good they feel when they calm down, touch nature and notice things, like all the different kinds of bird songs, various trees or presence or different colours of green. “They start realizing how they have treated nature like an inanimate backdrop to their life, and want to change this.”
A touch stone for slowing down Kimberly recalls a teacher from the American School, who took a stone with her that Kimberly gave her during the tea at the end of the walk. “I told participants that if they wanted, they could take with them one of the smooth stones that I had brought to the walk. As a memory, literally as a touch stone for slowing down when they needed to.” The teacher had a young child and shared the touch stone with her. The child now asks for the stone when she feels she has to calm down. Kimberly: “To feel in touch with nature.”
Despite being the guide, Kimberly says she moves into a different space in her own head and body during a walk. “By the end of the walk, I feel calmer, completely self-actualized. I am 100 percent my best self when I am offering the walks to other people. I can feel that in my own body.”
Being more experienced in guiding, she now catches her invitations in the moment, based on who’s there and what the forest has to offer. “I now really trust the forest and want anyone to have the experience they need, no longer having a notion of what kind of experience I want them to have.” Eco-spirituality Kimberly shares her work in forest bathing and eco-spirituality also at religious and inter-faith gatherings. For her, forest bathing and spirituality are intertwined. This Fall, she offered a ‘Wild Church’ in the U.S. Kimberly: “A rewilding of spirituality. We gathered outside, in a beautiful Florida State park, and I prepared a scripture and nature poetry.” After that, she took the participants on a forest bathing walk and used invitations that drew on the language of creation and a creator. Kimberly: “The invitation to go out and find a tree and greet it worked so well. First participants felt a bit silly, but afterwards they shared how deep and calming it was. They kept talking about their trees.”
In Little Rock, Arkansas, together with psychotherapist Rachel Pinto, Kimberly co-hosted “Our Sacred Nature”, a 3-day weekend sanctuary for LGBTQIA+ individuals to find solace in the natural world, fostering resilience and deep spiritual renewal. Kimberly: “It was especially for those people who have felt rejected by their families and their faith, as a place for them to reimagine and create their own spiritual practices and rituals through the lens of nature. The retreat was so loving, grounding, and ultimately accepting.” The retreat included sound healing, yoga, mandala inspired creation and Kimberly offered forest bathing walks.
The place, on land originally the home of the Osage Nation, had an outdoor labyrinth, surrounded by trees, and in the corner an old stone chapel. Kimberly, who is also a Veriditas trained labyrinth guide, offered a labyrinth session as the closing ceremony. Kimberly: “The things that you experience in labyrinth are your own thing, but when you are in it with a group, you start to notice how you move in the world versus how other people move in the world. Are you slow, are you fast, and how to navigate taking and giving space in the labyrinth together? A beautiful and powerful experience.” Nature as the centre of wellbeing Kimberly says she has two sides of her brain that she works with. “One is this digital strategy, website building, social media person. The other is this calling to nature.” She feels fortunate to be able to now only use her digital powers for good through her company Wildwood Wisdom, by helping other nature connection professionals with their social media and telling their stories. “Nature therapists, artists. Nature is at the centre of my spiritual, mental, and physical wellbeing. It just is.”
Meeting the leaders of the art This Fall, as ANFT’s digital landscape coordinator, Kimberly had the chance to attend the 5th International Congress Forest and Its Potential for Health (ICPH) in Kranjska, Slovenia. “We drove out of the airport and it was into a forest. Mountains and water, the clearest I have ever seen in my life. Just spectacular.” Kimberly learned about the latest insights in nature therapy, but also connected with representatives from the tourist industry. “They talked about reimagining the tourist industry, shifting their relationships with the land, and inviting people into more holistic encounters with different areas of the globe. Not using up the resources of the planet or damaging nature, but developing a deeper relationship.”
She met people from all around the world, forest therapy guides and researchers, including Dr. Qing Li, one of the world’s foremost experts in forest medicine and immunology, who studies forest medicine to find out all the ways in which walking in the forest can improve our well-being. Kimberly also met ANFT founder M. Amos Clifford. “Presenting and talking, thoughtful, but also just being silly and laughing. The leaders of the art.” Getting the word out Kimberly’s biggest challenge in offering her walks right now is getting the word out. “An experience can be hard to explain.” She wants to connect with organisations, bring forest bathing to their teams. “Here in The Netherlands, there seems to be quite a growing forest bathing community, with forest bathing guides working to make deeper connections within the medical community. But it is not yet as widely recognised as for example in the U.S., where daily 3-5 articles emerge about ‘the miracle of forest bathing’, and much more guides offer forest bathing walks. I don’t think a lot of people here in The Netherlands have any idea of what forest bathing is about. Do they have to put on their swimming suit?”
Making friends with the rain Another little challenge for her can be the Dutch weather. “Pouring rain, not a fan. Recently, it had been raining for weeks here, I spent time in the Leidse Hout park, trying to make friends with the rain. Making a mandala for myself in the pouring rain. But I am still not friends with it.” She laughs. “I am often very mad at the rain. I think I will take the online course for forest therapy guides by ANFT guide Stana Luxford Oddie about how to guide in winter and cold weather.”
Guide gathering in Europe Kimberly says she really wants to work with other ANFT guides to develop a co-created retreat in Europa, to take place in late spring or summer 2024. Kimberly: “A guide gathering, a sort of extended meet up, to connect, guide each other, and deepen or own skillsets.” Not meant to make any money from it, sharing meals. Further, she would very much like to offer more 3-5 days nature retreats with other ANFT guides, where participants can do forest bathing, but also yoga, sound healing, art journaling, and related activities. “We can work together and collaborate in different modalities.”
Develop a Wild Church community As part of her forest therapy guiding, Kimberly also wants to offer a consistent ‘Wild Church’ experience for LGBTQIA+ individuals, on a Sunday, once or twice a month. “A gathered community coming together to experience however they understand the Divine, and create their ow spiritual meaning in nature – a rewilding of spirituality.”
Kimberly: “I do use the term ‘rewilding’ often. An ecological term about how we are repairing the ecological damage we as humans have done. It’s a very powerful process, of returning the earth to itself. Low impact, no intervention. Letting nature just be nature. That’s how I understand the spirituality of this, just letting us be our natural selves.”
“Nature is the place where you can experience the spiritual dimension in the easiest way, without any way of concrete religion or beliefs. I think this is so needed today, so needed.” This Inside Forest Bathing interview is featuring ANFT forest therapy guide Marc Ayats Plana, who guides walks in the woods and along the Mallorca’s seashore. Marc: “When I bring people into nature I feel realised, complete: I feel I have done my job.” With his wife, award-winning illustrator Nívola Uyá, Marc also offers Art & Nature workshops. Together, they published a children’s book about forest bathing. For the Red Cross, Marc also guides forest bathing walks. Marc: “In the latest walk, a month ago, I invited the participants to be buried on the forest floor. When they started placing sticks and rocks on each other, I suddenly realized they were the suicidal survivors group. I was pretty scared.”
I meet Marc Ayats Plana online on a Tuesday afternoon in late October, while he’s in the middle of preparing the family Halloween dinner. The event had completely slipped out of our minds when choosing a date for the interview. “I just prepared the bread for tonight, it’s in the oven now” Marc says.
Over a year ago, Marc and I first met in Sintra, Portugal, where we completed our training with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programmes (ANFT) to become certified forest therapy guids. From the backseat of a car driving us and fellow guides to the starting points of the many beautiful nature walks, Marc shared bits and pieces of the inspiring work he does in the field of forest therapy. Soon, I realised he was a person with a story to tell, and I am very happy to share something about his calling and activities to connect people with nature.
Nature as compass From a young age, nature played a big role in Marc’s life. It has been like a compass, pointing out the direction of his next steps. According to Marc, nature has always been there as a ‘being’ or ‘presence’ he could sense. Marc: “In any situation in my life, nature is like: “This way. That way.” He laughs. “The way to nature”. He remembers his father enrolled them on trips to the mountains with other people. “Every Saturday we went. Looking back, I think this has marked my route into nature.” Forest bathing came into Marc’s life in a very natural way. Marc: “Before becoming a certified guide with ANFT, I already guided people into nature for a long time. I used techniques such as opening the senses and slowing down, not knowing this was called ‘forest bathing’.” Misson in life In high school, one of Marc’s teachers took his class often out on nature trips. Marc: ”He was the only teacher that went in nature with us.” Marc realized this was very important and noticed it was easy to do. He had found his mission in life: promoting the encounter between humans and nature. Marc: “Or, as I say it today, creating consciousness of being part of a whole, as I believe nature is the easiest way of feeling part of a whole, which is the spiritual dimension of human beings.” According to Marc, nature is the place where you can experience the spiritual dimension in the easiest way, without any way of concrete religion or beliefs. Marc: “You are home in nature and can experiment this part. The spiritual dimension. Which I think is so needed today. So needed.”
He walks away from the screen. “Sorry, one moment, I have to check the bread!”
Marc studied Environmental Sciences. In 2008, he started working as an environmental manager at the Spanish Red Cross. He organizes nature walks, nature meetings, and nature workshops. Marc: “All different approaches to reach the same objective: connecting people to nature.”
Feeling completed When I ask Marc if he could describe what happens to him when he brings people into nature, his eyes sparkle. Marc: “I feel realised, I feel complete, since I feel I have done my job.” He adds that it feels like a thing he does not fully control. “I bring people into nature, but I don’t know what’s going to happen, maybe they feel better, maybe they feel worse afterwards. But it’s like my calling. My work in this life, or one of them, is to bring people into nature.”
Creating a new relationship with the world By discovering the forest bathing field, Marc says he found another way of bringing people into nature. Marc: “Accessible to all kinds of people, ages, physical conditions and without any prerequisites.” Not closed, like the science that he was taught at university. Marc: “This was very important to me. It was what I had been looking for.” He wants people to realise that we as humans are not separate from nature. Marc also considers the forest bathing walks he offers as a political instrument for a better world. “It has been demonstrated that changing the way we view nature is at the core of this new relationship with the world that is much needed and urgent today. We need to start seeing nature as a living being, not as dead objects that we can manipulate for our sole interest” he adds.
Children’s book about forest bathing Marc walks away from the screen again, to return with a book. On the cover, I notice a cute dark-haired girl embracing a tree. I see a woodpecker up high in the tree and a fox with eyes closed, relaxing next to the girl, as if taking in the different scents of the beautiful flowers that surround them. A dragonfly circles above the flowers. Marc: “My wife Nívola Uyá creates wonderful illustrations. She has won several prizes and international awards.” Initially, Marc and Nívola did not know a word for his activities of bringing people into nature. But after reading a few books about forest bathing, they decided to create a children’s picture book about this topic together. In 2019, ‘Un Baño de Bosque’ (Bathing in the forest) was published by Cuento de Luz. A year later, it won the Independent Publisher Books Award.
Meeting Amos Clifford The first book Marc read about official forest bathing was written by M. Amos Clifford, founder of the Association for Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT).” Marc: “I met Amos at a conference in Girona, Spain. We were talking about the activities both of us undertook to connect people to nature.” Upon hearing some of the things Marc did, Amos gave him his book as a present. Marc laughs. “I didn’t know him at all.” The Originals In 2020, Marc became a certified forest therapy guide. For his training, he chose ANFT. “They are the creators, the inventors of the methodology.” This was important to him. Marc: “I liked ANFT’s approach more than others. ANFT is focusing on ‘reciprocity’, the nature-human relationship, instead of the therapeutic one. This is more in line with how I see it.” ANFT’s methodology gives him tools. “Maybe I was using them already, but I was unaware of it.” Marc has five or six spots where he takes people for his forest bathing walks. “The problem in Mallorca is that 90 percent of the land is private, so it’s very difficult to reach the forest, or nature really.” He organises forest bathing walks for the general public, but also via his employer, the Spanish Red Cross, for special groups.
Bringing suicide survivors into nature In 2020, Marc started offering forest therapy walks to complete his guide training with ANFT. One of the walks he did was with a group of people who were suicide survivors. A colleague found out about it and asked him to continue. Marc: “They paid me for a year of forest therapy walks.”
On the first couple of walks with them, Marc admits he was extra cautious. “I did not know what kind of ‘invitations’ – voluntary activities we generally use to slow people down and connect them with nature by using their different senses – I could use or not.” He laughs. “I was thinking, maybe I say something that was not right for their experience.” But this did not happen. Marc: “Usually, there are some people who cry during the walk, and this is absolutely not an issue. What I was scared about was some kind of deep consequence.” Marc: “During my training with ANFT, they taught me to just trust the forest. So I did, and it worked.”
Invitation to be buried He laughs. “In the latest walk, a month ago, I invited the participants to be buried on the forest floor. When they started placing sticks and rocks on each other, I suddenly realized they were the suicidal survivors group. I was pretty scared.”
Marc: “I like this ‘invitation’, it goes like this: ‘The soil of the forest is like a sheet that covers the rocks. You can open a little window, grasping with your hands and explore with all your senses what’s taking place inside the soil, all the life that’s in there.’” He explains: “By this ‘invitation’, participants connect with the soil and all the processes of regenerating life that’s taking place inside the soil.”
Further, Marc invited the participants to be part of this process of regeneration. “The participants are divided into pairs and one of the pair lies down on the forest floor. The other participant places leaves, sticks and rocks on top of this person, for them to experience they are inside the soil of the forest.” Marc says it’s fun, like playing a game. “When people were covering each other, maybe they did not dare to put more stuff on top. I was passing by the small groups and added a big stick, or a rock.” Marc believes that the more embodied you are, the more you feel held by the earth. “It was very good.”
Feeling very protected According to Marc, by taking part in this invitation, the participants are regenerating in some way. “I do not use this word, I always say they are “inside the forest soil”. However, afterwards, when each of the participants shares what they were noticing, they do mention ‘regeneration’, ‘feeling very protected’, ‘inside, like in a mother’. They did feel the earth was carrying them.”
Marc says this is the ‘invitation’ most liked during his forest therapy walks. “The moment they remove the stuff that was placed on top of them, it’s like a reversal. Incredible.”
Feeling a lot of energy The day after a walk, Marc asks participants to fill out an online form to share their experiences. So far, he has gathered over 100 answers. Marc: “With regard to the visible effects, I see people ending the walks more relaxed, open and happy than the beginning. In the questionnaire, participants generally share they ‘feel at home in the forest’, ‘feel care for nature’, ‘feel part of nature’ or ‘feel peace’. Participants also share ‘feeling a lot of energy’.”
Marc also went into nature with homeless people and refugees from Africa. “These people often lack the means to go out in nature and are locked in cities. Through my job at the Red Cross, I made going into nature more accessible and introduced them to Spanish nature.” During the walks, Marc provided his participants with an environment of peace, tranquillity and relaxation. Marc: “They move from here to there, go where the police or the Red Cross or other institutions tell them to go. They are not free. In nature, they are away from their everyday stress. This is so important for them.” Snorkelling forest therapy This past summer, for the first time, Marc offered snorkelling forest therapy. Marc: “It was wow, incredible.” He partnered with a local association engaged in environmental awareness. Marc: “They were in charge of the security part, and I did the guiding.” The snorkelling they did together. The walk started on the seashore with what ANFT guides call ‘The Pleasures of Presence’ invitation, in which you bring yourself into this very moment, by focusing on using your different senses. Next, the participants went snorkelling, guided by various ‘invitations’. Back on the shore each of them shared what they were noticing.
Experiencing the Posidonia Marc: “Here in Mallorca, we have the Posidonia, a sea grass that can grow over one metre from the seafloor and comes very close to the water surface. During the session, I invited the participants to put on their snorkel, go into the water and just experience the seagrass, on any part of their body.”
For another invitation, Marc asked the group to pair up into couples. One of them would put on the snorkel to be able to breathe with the tube, and just float with the sea, being carried by the sea, while having the eyes closed for about five minutes. The other would keep an eye for security; to provide a feeling of safety and protection; and to make sure the partner would not float into a rock or something. “That was wow, super, incredible” Marc recalls.
The session was concluded on the sea shore by drinking tea together. Marc: “To experience the ambience of the sea, I offered small pieces of algae in the tea”. He thinks this type of forest bathing, while going in and out of the water, has a lot of potential. “It’s complete. The seafloor is very clear. You can see fish, rocks, snails, and a lot of living things.”
Combining Art and Nature Three years ago, together with his wife Nívola, Marc also created a project of Art and Nature. His wife contributes the ‘art’ part, Marc the ‘forest’ part. “We call it Trazos de Bosque, which can be translated like ‘Sketches of the Forest’. We offer art and nature workshops.”
Marc excuses himself for another moment. “I have to go again to see the oven.” He returns and says everything’s OK now. “I finished the cooking!” Trusting the forest When I ask Marc whether there are any challenges he faces in his activities as forest therapy guide, he laughs. “One big challenge is my own insecurity about what I am doing, or if it will work.” He is silent for a moment, then continues. “For me, trusting the forest is very important. During the first moments, I had to rely on this. I didn’t have any rational elements for knowing it would work out. It’s like faith.”
Having done a lot of walks now, Marc says he knows and trusts it will work. “To me, the most important thing is staying attentive to the forest, and also to the group. I feel I can even change the order of things, or catch an ‘invitation’ on the spot, matching the forest atmosphere.” He stresses that the guide should always check: “How is nature arriving at the participants?”” Meanwhile, Marc invented thematic walks, such as winter walks. Or he uses a little story, for example a Greek myth, to introduce an ‘invitation’. Spiritual manipulations Another challenge for him is to explain what a forest therapy walk is exactly, since it’s different from an ordinary walk. Marc: “You have to be very clear, because some people might think it’s like a sect, that we use spiritual manipulations or other strange things.”
Confusion Further, Marc doesn’t like to call his walks ‘forest therapy walks’, not wanting people to expect some kind of therapy. “We create a therapeutic environment, but as a guide, I am not offering any kind of therapy.” In the introduction of his walk, Marc always explains that he’s not any kind of doctor, practitioner, or psychologist. “Nowadays, there are a lot of practitioners of any therapy, and it’s very easy to assume that the forest therapy guide is a practitioner of any therapy.”
According to Marc, in Spanish, and probably in Europe, generally, the word ‘forest therapy’ is a bit problematic, since therapy is not understood in the same way as the ANFT understands it. Marc: “I think it creates a lot of confusion, and also barriers for reaching the public administration, universities or other influential actors. Marc prefers to call his walks ‘forest bathing’ walks. “All the guides in Mallorca, including those from Forest Therapy Hub, use the name ‘forest bathing’. It sounds very good, very commercial.”
Balearic Islands Association of Forest Bathing (ABBIB) Marc says that since 2020, forest bathing is becoming more known in Spain and Mallorca. Marc: “There has been a lot of work done by the Forest Therapy Hub in the field of training and promoting of the practice. They have a lot of guides now, from ANFT we are still very few.” He adds that in Girona, Catalunya, the public health system started offering forest therapy walks on prescription. Further, a private company is offering commercial forest bathing walks in Madrid.
In 2020, together with other certified forest bathing guides, Marc started the Balearic Islands Association of Forest Bathing (ABBIB) to promote forest bathing walks. Marc: “From the six guides, I am the only ANFT guide, the others are trained by the Forest Therapy Hub.” Marc is especially proud and happy that the association included different forest therapy schools and guides. “That is very rare.” The Association is the only one in Spain about forest therapy. A cute little black-haired girl appears on the screen behind Marc’s back. She starts watching me. Is she the girl from the children’s book? I wonder. “Hola” she replies to me. “This is Jessica”, Marc introduces his daughter. “Does she speak Catalan?” Jessica asks her father. “No, that wasn’t any Catalan” he replies. “But in Catalan it’s all the same: hello, OK, thank you.”
Marc looks at me. “Marjolein, I think I have to go now.” We both laugh. “I think you better should”, I reply. “Thanks so much for sharing your story and have a wonderful Halloween celebration!”
“This shinrin-yoku invitation is called: ‘Forest breathing’. Spend a few moments just feeling the air moving around you and within you as you breathe. Breathing in, be aware of what you are receiving from the trees. Breathing out, be aware of what you are returning. Breathing deeply, receive the gifts of the forest in your entire body. Breathing out, return the essence of your gift. What are you noticing?”
Deep breathing has long been part of many health practices. Our breath is so important, and many of us are habitually shallow breathers. Our blood is therefore not completely oxygenated.
In the forest, the benefits of deep breathing are amplified because the air has a higher proportion of fresh, clean oxygen, direct from the trees. There are also beneficial phytoncides in the air.
In some places, like near a waterfall, the air is full of negative ions, which have positive effects on our bodies.
Just take a moment to slow down, relax and breathe in the medicine of nature!
“This invitation is called: ‘The Joy of Little Things’. As you wander or sit-down somewhere in nature, notice the micro-world present on the ground. Take your time. Let your curiosity guide you. What are you noticing?”
A shinrin-yoku (forest therapy/bathing) walk guided by a certified ANFT-guide consists of several ‘invitations’. These assist you in slowing down, relaxing, and finding your own way of being in relationship with nature, the land, and all its inhabitants.
“This invitation is called: ‘Traces of nature’. In a city, like in a forest, nature is everywhere, but it often takes more focus to actually notice it. Using all your senses, notice how nature is present in the streets of the city. I wonder if nature is noticing your presence, too?”
During a shinrin-yoku (forest bathing/therapy) walk offered by an ANFT certified guide, the guide invites the participants to take part in several ‘invitations’: voluntary activities suiting the very moment and place.
An invitation can be done while walking, standing or sitting and serves to connect participants with nature, themselves and each other.
I hope you will enjoy noticing various traces of nature popping up in this very special new Spring season as much as I do!
stillnessnature.com 