At the end of a tough year, sharing a gentle forest song to bring in some calm. We hope your new year is filled with peace and love.
FOREST SONG
There are many gifts that trees and forests give us. Some of them are obvious, but some remain hidden. In our race for development and growth, a few of these gifts may have been forgotten or overlooked. But spending a few mindful moments with the trees brings them back to our attention. And attention leads to awareness.
FOREST SONG | Nature Video
* Please watch in full screen with headphones for best results.
The invisible gift of breath that connects us to the forest, teaches us a simple truth on the art of living. Amidst the ups and downs, twists and turns, the ever present breath reminds us that life is about giving and receiving. Learning to give, is learning to love. And learning to receive is finding peace.
This forest song has been shot in Eagle Nest Wildlife Sanctuary, one of the most enchanting regions of the eastern Himalayas. It is a haven for birds and hosts an extraordinary variety, numbers and accessibility of species. *The bird featured in the film above is an emerald pigeon.
A free download of this forest song poster is given at the very end of this post. Feel free to share the film or the poster with those who might need a breath of peace. Read on for a simple forest meditation and the text only version of the forest song.
FOREST MEDITATION | Tree Practice
Here is a beautiful tree mediation by Lee Steppacher. It’s called the ‘Tree Practice’
“Tree” is a word, a concept. This a practice to really know a tree, with all of our senses, and our relationship to it.
Keep attention in the body, below thoughts.
Walk with the intention of finding a tree that you are drawn to. Let your body guide you. If someone else takes ‘your’ tree, find another – there are many.
Spend some time a ways away from the tree and take in the whole tree with your eyes.
Notice its silhouette, the aspects of the tree. Consider parts of the tree you cannot see, e.g. the roots.
Reflect on how this tree came to be here, what it has experienced. Consider how the tree interacts with the world around it – the wind, beings living in, on, under the tree, relations to water in soil etc.
Move closer to the tree and get to know tree more intimately, with all your senses: touch the bark, smell it, notice its temperatures, the sounds of leaves —- whatever feels right.
Keep attention in body, no need to think. Gently move from outside experience to inside experience.
Be light with exploration. How else might you connect?
Lean on tree, feel its support. Sit at its base, try tree to your back, or to your front.
Maintain openness, and listen.
Scientists have found that trees can communicate in a special way– don’t over think this (especially if you are a scientist). No need to ask how or why, but just consider what you might learn from the tree.
FOREST SONG | Words
Breathe
I am your breath as you are mine
Our lives linked forever in time
On your first breath I was there for you
As I am with you right here, right now
Breathe
In your sadness you may forget me
In their madness they may cut me
but till I remain I send you my gift
Breathe
A simple truth for a complex world
Learning to give, is learning to love
And learning to receive is finding peace
Breathe
END NOTE
What lessons have the forest gifted you? Let us know in the comments below. For more gifts from nature, try our Nature Calm course.
Healing Forest is a project that aims to bring people and forests closer to each other through inspiring stories, films, and articles . Our aim is simple. Helping people heal. Helping forests heal.
REQUEST: In the season of giving, please share this post with those who might need a little peace and love. | *Download the forest song poster here.
What is the secret of all relationships? How can we dissolve the boundaries between our inner nature and the nature outside? How do we break the illusions that stop us from connecting deeply with life and others? A few simple nature mindfulness practices hold the answer to these important questions.
Mindfulness in nature helps us cultivate deeper connections, fostering warmth, joy, and understanding in all our relationships. In addition, outdoor mindfulness activities offer you fun ways to practice mindfulness in a group setting. It creates strong, caring groups that support each other in the time of need, just like a forest supports its individual trees.
Nature mindfulness activities are great for the mind, the body and our relationships. By blending mindfulness activities with nature you amplify the multiple benefits of both.
7 Outdoor Mindfulness Activities for Groups
These mindful activities and exercises can be done solo or with friends and family. The more diverse your group is, the more insightful its results. Mindfulness group activities enable us to observe our mind’s struggles reflected in our peers. You learn from those who are more advanced, and you support those who are just starting.
Given below are 7 outdoor mindfulness activities along with many insightful tips and examples. Learn how to make mindfulness easy, engaging, and fun for all ages.
And at the end, make sure you explore our handpicked outdoor mindfulness activities for adults and kids plus a silent mindfulness film from the Himalaya – that capture the essence of nature mindfulness in just 1.5 minutes.
Mindfulness Activity: Language of the Birds
What is the difference between regular bird-watching and mindful birding? While our eyes make up the primary sense for the former, the most important sense for mindful birding is our ears. Rather than counting the number of different birds that we can see, our focus is on learning how to create calm with the help of the birds.
Mindful Listening
We recommend keeping all cameras and phones away. Once you find a space that has sufficient bird activity, ask the group members to find a spot for themselves and sit in silence.
Listen to the closest bird. Listen to the farthest bird. Listen to the birds in different directions. Listen to the silence in between the birdcalls. Listen for conversations. Follow the sound of a particular species and imagine what the birds are trying to say?
The group can share their stories, insights and learning at the end of the session.
Spending time with the birds in a mindful way leads to some beautiful insights. Here one such story from a flock of swifts by Helen Macdonald, Author H is for Hawk.
“Swifts have, of late, become my fable of community, teaching us about how to make right decisions in the face of oncoming bad weather. They aren’t always cresting the atmospheric boundary layer at dizzying heights; most of the time they are living below it in thick and complicated air. That’s where they feed and mate and bathe and drink and are. But to find out about the important things that will affect their lives, they must go higher to survey the wider scene, and there communicate with others about the larger forces impinging on their realm.”
Just like the birds, sometimes we have to let our minds soar above our day to day worries and see our lives from a higher perspective. Mindfulness allows us to do that, helping us discover wiser choices for our future.
Mindfulness Activity: Inner Balance
Mindfulness creates a balance of attention and awareness. The real goal of mindfulness is not just paying attention to the mind, but creating an awareness of its true nature.
Balance exercises have found to be very helpful in relieving stress and reducing inner tension. Additionally, they improve focus, concentration and memory. Finally, the unquestionable benefit of the mindfulness activity is the ability to control emotions in critical and stressful moments. The simple act of balancing stones is a very powerful mindfulness technique.
Mindful Awareness
The activity starts by collecting suitable stones and in the first round participants work on their own to see how high can they make their stone towers.
In the next round the same activity is done in pairs, but in silence, without any exchange of words. Once all the pairs have created their stone towers, we dismantle all the stone towers for the final round.
The final round, also done in pairs involves creating an inverted pyramid of stones – with the smaller stones at the base, and larger stones on the top.
Instead of just focusing on stacking the stones, pay attention to the center of gravity of each stone. With patience one can find out the exact alignment between two stones, which leads to the equilibrium of balance. At the end of this exercise, the group can sit in a circle and spend a little time to contemplate things that bring balance to their lives.
Mindfulness in nature, offers you a gateway to understand and transform your own inner nature.
Fun Mindfulness Activities For Groups
There is a common myth that mindfulness has to be a very serious practice. However mindfulness in nature teaches us something very useful. To turn any activity into a habit, you have first learn how to have fun with it. If you don’t enjoy the process, it is difficult to sustain.
The mindless entertainment we engage in through television or social media may keep our attention focused, but it does not provide rest to our mind. On the contrary it over-stimulates it. One can see its impact in depleted attention spans, reduced concentration, and poor memory.
Here is a collection of 3 outdoor mindfulness activities that make use of the leaves for mindful immersion. These activities help you create some unique artworks, especially in Autumn.
Creative Mindfulness
Leaf Tracing: Pick any leaf. You choose a simple one or a complex shape. Trace the outline of the leaf with your eyes as slow as you can. Move from one edge of the base, all the way around to the complete the loop. This exercise is an excellent way to slow down your thoughts.
Leaf Collage: Group members work in pairs. Using different leaves they have to create a mythical or magical forest creature. Use the imagination to escape into a hidden world. This simple exercise raises the energy levels of the group. So the group leader must ensure that the silence of the group does not get lost.
Leaf Mandala: Each person in the group is assigned to collects leaves of a particular colour or shape. The group then works as one unit to create a geometric design on the forest floor using all the different leaves they have collected. It could be concentric circles, spirals, or a four-sided maze.
*TIP: Zoom Mindfulness Activities: As an interesting experiment, share these activities with friends who may be in different cities. Ask them to do any of these nature mindfulness activities at their own convenience. Schedule a Zoom session / call later to exchange insights. It creates a beautiful experience of learning and growing with each other.
Mindfulness Activity: Mushroom Lessons
While observing the breath is a very common mindfulness exercise, people who are going through a difficult phase in life find it very challenging because of troubling thoughts. Therefore, we should start with other senses first, especially when introducing mindfulness to beginners. Our visual sense can be a powerful ally. Turning to nature to observe and discover its many gifts shall fill us with awe, wonder, and deep calm.
Mindful Observation
When you enter the woods to search for mushrooms you have to be alert, silent, and calm. By being mindful of your steps as you walk in the forest gently, you can turn this rewarding activity into an exercise in mindfulness.
A mushroom walk is not just about collecting mushrooms, rather it is about observing how mushrooms transform what’s dead or dying into something new and useful. It’s a powerful metaphor that we can all apply to many aspects of our own life.
NOTE: Be sure to buy a good field guide for mushrooms from your area or go with an expert. Some basic instructions for Mushroom Walks, as per the Modern Forager are given below.
1. Tread Lightly. Don’t trample all the little mushrooms and potential mushrooms in your hunting ground. 2. Make a positive identification using more than one source wherever possible. “When in doubt, just leave the mushroom.” 3. Mature mushrooms release spores into the air that are essentially mushroom seeds. You can respect the spores by leaving some of the mushrooms untouched. 4. Don’t use plastic bags — which can ruin your harvest anyways; look for mesh bags, baskets, buckets with holes drilled in them. 5. Micro-trash is a big problem! Try to leave none and collect some if you see any.
Mindfulness Activity: Power of Awe
One of the most effective nature mindfulness activities for adults involves focusing on the emotion of awe, and wonder. It helps to shift our attention from the negative cycles of our mind that pull us down, to a more positive frame of mind.
For this mindfulness group activity we can either use the treasure-hunt model where the group goes out into nature and collects object based on a pre-given list, or we can ask the group members to just take a photograph of the objects.
For larger groups it is better to use photographs as it creates a lesser impact on the surrounding. The simple rule all participants need to follow is that you can only take one photograph per activity on the list. By restricting the number of photographs, we get the group members to be more mindful of each shot they take. With this single rule we can turn our device of distraction into a mode of meditation.
Mindful Appreciation
One thing that makes you smile. One thing that brings you calm. One that fills you with hope. One thing that makes you curious. One thing that fills you with awe. One thing that you are thankful for in nature.
What happens when we experience wonder?By Katie Steedly People get along. When people are struck with wonder, they generally are not yelling, arguing, fighting, or angry. Wonder brings people together. We all agree that flowers are wonderful. We all agree that ducklings are wonderful. We all agree that coral reefs are wonderful. Butterflies? Wonderful. Chocolate? Wonderful. Sunsets? Wonderful. Wonder provides a moment where we can hold hands, (perhaps) tear up, and find common ground. The noise of life fades. A silence akin to speechlessness falls when we experience wonder. A gentle hush that is beyond words eases tension. Reflection paints wonderful moments with reverence. Wonder is calm in the chaos of the world.
The ability of Nature to inspire awe and wonder are one of the big factors that contribute to its healing effects on our mind. After a mindfulness in nature session, brain scans showed a sizeable reduction of blood flow to the subgenual prefrontal cortex region. It is a region linked to sadness, withdrawal and general grumpiness.
Mindfulness Activity: Growing Kindness
Community service as an outdoor mindfulness activity is an essential way of channelizing group energies for creating positive transformations. One such exercise involves creating or working in community gardens.
Mindful Service
FOOD GARDEN: South Central Los Angeles, USA is a food desert – an area filled with liquor stores, fast food chains and vacant lots. Tired of driving 45 minutes to buy food that is not chemically treated, Ron Finley decided to turn some of those unused plots, starting with the patch in front of his house, into a food forest. With obesity rates 5X higher in South Central than in Beverly Hills, a neighbourhood only 8 to 10 miles away, Finley realized that food is the problem, but is also the solution. “The drive-throughs are killing more people than drive-bys”, he says. Finley and a group of volunteer gardeners from all over Los Angeles are changing that, one lot at a time. “Growing your own food is like printing your own money.”
MEDITATION GARDEN: A meditation garden is an island of tranquility which allows you to connect with nature and with yourself. It offers you a space to plant seeds of peace, hope, wonder, and joy within you. With a few simple nature elements you can transform any garden into a meditation garden. The heart of a meditation garden, beyond its visual appeal and the calming aesthetics is the thought, practice, and care which goes into connecting with your garden.
A true meditation garden is not about the space you have on ground, rather it is about creating the relation between your mind and your garden.
As people and families spend less time in nature, the consequences are showing up everywhere: in our physical health, our mental well-being, and our relationships. Creating a deeper connection with the natural world is one of the most powerful steps we can take for a healthier, more resilient life.
Mindfulness in Nature
All life exists in relationship. Through mindfulness in nature, we learn to bridge our inner nature with the nature outside. Why is it important, and how is it useful?
Watch our short 1.5 minute meditative film from the stunning Himalayas to find the essence of nature mindfulness.
What did you feel? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Nature mindfulness practices gently transform our behaviour, our actions, and our communities. Having mindful groups in our life is an invaluable gift. Given below are some useful resources to help you create countless mindfulness in nature experiences.
Mindfulness Activities for Adults & Kids
Learn how to cultivate a calm mind, a healthy body, and deep relationships through nature. Discover some of the best outdoor mindfulness activities for adults and families.
For Adults: 150+ nature mindfulness activities for a calm, healthy life: Nature Calm >
For Parents & Kids: Learn life’s most useful skills with 10 magical walks. Check out: Nature Play >
This collection of outdoor mindfulness activities is just a small selection from our treasure trove. To get useful new ideas once a month, join our free newsletter.
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Healing Forest is a project that aims to bring people and forests closer to each other through creativity and mindfulness. Our goal is to create is a calmer, healthier, and kinder world.
What does forest bathing have to do with a remedy for loneliness and low self-esteem? Let us go on a forest bathing trip in South Korea to find some clues. Through this article we hope to inspire you to bring some of these ideas into your own nature walks and forest bathing routines.
Forest Bathing is the art of immersing yourself in nature to rejuvenate your mind, body, energy and to activate nature’s healing benefits. For those unfamiliar with the concept here’s our article on Forest Bathing from Japan.
Living in a city creates many hidden challenges for our health. South Korea has developed innovative systems to counter these harmful effects. Many of these Forest Therapy concepts remain relatively less known due to a variety of cultural and language barriers. We will introduce you to some of the enriching ideas and share how you can benefit from them.
Life in Korean Cities
About 85% of South Koreans live in urban areas. The country has seen rapid urbanisation and advancement in technology. It has one of the world’s highest Internet speeds and is at the cutting edge of the latest broadband revolution.
Florence Williams, author of Nature Fix states: Perhaps no one has embraced the healing effect of nature with more enthusiasm than the South Koreans. Many suffer from work stress, digital addiction, and intense academic pressures. More than 70 percent say their jobs, which require notoriously long hours, make them depressed, according to a survey by electronics giant Samsung. Yet this economically powerful nation has a long history of worshipping nature spirits. The ancient proverb “Shin to bul ee—Body and soil are one” is still popular.
A big social trend seen in South Korea is the rapid decline in number of marriages as well as birth rates. According to Statistics Korea in 2017 nearly one third of all households were single person households and almost 90 percent of them are exposed to a feeling of loneliness.
Culturally, South Korean pop culture has become enormously popular all over the world, but what is less known is the high aspiration levels created by the Media frenzy. Completely surrounded by subliminal messaging and advertising, many people get caught in a self defeating trap. The quest for living the dream life can take a toll on anyone’s self-esteem. *Today, South Korea is widely considered as the “plastic surgery capital” of the world, boasting the highest number of cosmetic procedures per capita worldwide.
Watch a glimpse of the life in Seoul, the capital of South Korea and notice a few of the social nuances mentioned above, in this beautiful video by Brandon Li.
Forest Bathing in Korea
Running along the length of Korea are the timeless Baekdu-Daegan mountains. Covered in lush forests filled with aromatic Hinoki trees, they provide a comforting escape from the rush of the city lives. For millennia these mountains have stood as sentinels, calmly watching the flow of time and the journey of humans.
They influence the weather, the ecology, and the water systems, which support agriculture and feed the entire nation. The wise elders in ancient times named them energy spine mountains. They believed that Baekdu-daegan continuously fed essential life-energy throughout the land of Korea. Its unimpeded clear flow was considered necessary for the birth and growth of heroic and virtuous citizens, and thus for the health, strength and prosperity of the Korean Nation.
These enchanting mountains hold a vast network of hiking trails that are also great for forest bathing and forest therapy. The intriguing, interesting, beautiful part of these trails is the way they weave through and connect Korea’s nature, culture, rural life, and food.
Korea’s Healing Forests
Today these mountains and forests are the inspiration for the ambitious National Forest Plan. Its goal is “to realize a green welfare state, where the entire nation enjoys well-being.”
Over years of research the Koreans were able to scientifically establish the multiple healing benefits of nature. What’s commendable is how they were able to put this knowledge into creating systems and spaces for forest bathing and forest therapy. To reach a vast spectrum of people, the forest welfare program was divided into 7 distinct stages based on the human life cycle.
In this section we give you a glimpse of the different sections and highlight the benefits of forest bathing for our lives.
Forest Bathing Benefits Across Ages
Birth One of the biggest benefits of forest bathing is the relief it can provide from anxiety, panic, and worry. Having the lowest fertility ratein the world, the South Koreans hold the expecting mothers-to-be in high regard. By creating special pre-natal classes and forest meditation sessions in nature, they not only help the parents ease their anxieties and worries but also establish nature as a space where families can bond with each other.
Childhood Across many of the forests of Korea you will find ‘Children’s forest playground’. Open spaces in nature where children can interact and play safely in the ambience of the forest. Taking this a step further is the establishing of Forest Kindergarten with trained faculty who can guide children in the beautiful art of learning with nature.
Time in the forest also led the children to report feeling happier, less anxious and more optimistic about their futures, according to a study by Prof. Dr. Park Bum-Jin. Many Koreans have been so intensively urban for so long that they can feel out of place in the woods. “Children and the younger generation don’t really have experience in nature; so many of them think of the forest as dirty or scary. If we don’t change their mind-set now, there will be no chance.” he says.
Adolescence Nature offers equilibrium between technology and human interaction. It creates avenues for healthier outflow of teen anxiety, energy and aggression. An interesting experiment was the “Happy Train” which delivers school bullies to a national forest for two days so they can learn to be nicer. Why does it work, you ask? It’s because no one teaches us humility and respect better than nature.
By incorporating regular programs under the theme ‘Education in the Forest’ many schools are helping their students understand the natural world and its magical creatures. Given the craze for video games in South Korea, there are also some digital detox programs for preteens. The aim is to spark awe, wonder, and fascination with the beauty of the natural world. In the confines of nature, the mind can truly open up and unlock the doors of creativity.
Early Adulthood All across the country there are a network of forest hiking trails within easy reach from the urban centers. Bukhansan National Park near Seoul, the capital, attracts millions of visitors every year.
These hikes offer a break from the noise, pollution, and crowds of the city but also allow the hikers to raise their moods as well as energy levels through a range of activities. Testing one’s strength and endurance on a hiking trail is a great way to build resilience.
Nature makes us realize that unlike the promises of a plastic surgeon, there are no cosmetic quick fixes for the challenges of life.
Green Gym is another activity which is increasing in popularity these days. Green Gym was developed by The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) and Dr. William Bird from UK. Green Gym is a wonderful concept about improving the local green environment through light physical activities such as tree planting, pruning, and vines removal. It brings people together to connect with nature as well as with each other.
The benefit-cost analysis of Green Gym shows that 1 pound of investment creates 4.02 pounds of social value. Green Gym activities emphasise not only the improvement of green spaces in the community but also on strengthening social communication and connections among the local residents.
Midlife Given how effective forest bathing is against the ill effects of stress and burnout, it is no wonder that many people are turning to nature for their breaks and holidays.
With two-thirds of Korea made up of forests, it is easy to escape from city life and revert back to the laws of nature, seeking out a new life by tasting the peaceful serenity of the great outdoors.
Korea has 37 state-run national recreational forests scattered across the nation. Many of them are designated by the government to create recreational facilities where citizens can fully appreciate all that the woods have to offer.
In a typical recreational forest, like the Jangseong Healing Forest, hundreds of visitors come through every month, including three to four groups per day geared to some kind of healing, from cancer patients to kids with allergies to prenatal groups and everything in between. Depending on the program, participants may do activities like nature bathing, guided forest meditation, woodcrafts and tea ceremonies. But the heart of it all is walking in the Hinoki forest.
The aroma released by these trees to ward of microbes and pathogens has an added benefit for humans. Breathing in these compounds known as Phytoncides increases the count of Natural Killer – NK cells in our blood which is our body’s defence against cancers and tumor cells.
Seniors – Late Adulthood Creating access to nature for its senior citizens is one of the most important goals of any society. Spending time in nature works wonders for their mental health as well as physical immunity. With more time on their hands, simple activities or walks in nature allow the elders to avoid loneliness and depressive thoughts.
South Korea is creating a network of healing forests across the country. In addition, the Forest Agency is building an ambitious $100 million forest healing complex, complete with addiction treatment center, ‘barefoot garden’, herb garden, suspension bridge, and 50 kilometers of trails.
After Death In the traditional Korean philosophy of a holistic world-view and cycles of life and death, a unique ‘National Tree Burial Forest’ has been created. It is an eco-friendly way to send off the loved ones.
The ashes and remains of the body provide life to a seed that will be nurtured to grow into a tree. Over time, these trees of pine, oak, wild cherry and many other local species will become part of a healing forest. Providing a space for future generations to immerse in forest baths and contemplate their own journeys in the circle of life.
Tree Burial Forest
What’s commendable is the vision that S.Korea has about integrating nature into their lifestyles. Chungbuk University offers a “forest healing” degree program, and job prospects for graduates are good. It’s a cradle-to-grave operation: Programs include everything from Forest Welfare Experts, Forest Interpreters, Kindergarten Instructors, Forest Trail instructors, Forest Healing instructors and much more. The intention is to implement multiple forest therapy programs so that they can maximise the healing effects of nature, across their entire society.
References: *Prof. Dr. Bum-Jin Park, Director – Lab of Forest Environment and Human Health, Chungnam National University, South Korea. ** Ted article by Florence Williams
Forest Bathing Insights
A large part of our behaviour is shaped by our environment. It is influenced by the spaces where our social interactions take place. Over time, repeated behaviour transforms into habits, which build up our personality. This is the way our inner nature works.
In many ways, the hectic, high-pressure lifestyles in South Korea remind us of the direction in which societies across most parts of the world are moving. If we were to reflect on the lessons learnt, we realize the true value of incorporating nature into our day to day routine.
The forests help us break free from the anxieties of our overstimulated minds. They recharge our energy to face the challenges of the gruelling city lives. They grant us the wisdom of accepting our imperfections and finding fulfilment in the small gifts of life that nature has to offer.
Returning to nature is a great way to boost not only our mental and physical health but also our social health and self-esteem.
Stay wild. Stay connected.
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