Alongside writing for property developers, placemaking specialists, architects and designers, I also teach meditation and mindfulness – working primarily with nature-based practices including forest bathing.
See this post about the intersection of mindfulness with marketing communications for design and how you can benefit from it.
What is forest bathing?
There are different approaches to forest bathing and forest therapy coming on board all the time. Mine is based on the simple Japanese art of shinrin-yoku (literally: forest bath) which began in the 1980s. It ties together different multi-sensory meditative and mindful exercises with opportunities to move and to rest over several hours in a forest or woodland setting. Research from Japan shows that a day spent among the trees can reduce your adrenaline levels by as much as 50% and increase your immune system’s killer cells by 40%.
My forest bathing events typically include mindfulness with breath, mindful walking, yoga, rest, multi-sensory meditation, contemplation with trees, and a gratitude practice.
Nature as designer – biophilic design at source
As well as offering peace and sanctuary through a range of natural mindfulness and meditation techniques, forest bathing the way I approach it is a useful source experience in biophilia and biophilic design if you work in architecture or placemaking.
We explore natural geometry, natural colours and textures, fractals (scaleable repeating patterns) in the macro/microcosm, the Japanese concept of ‘ma’ (spaces between), the natural canopy and light, grounding in earth, phytoncides (essential oils from trees), prospect and refuge (open and safe spaces), genius loci (spirit of place), orientation in space, and much more besides.
Senses in the forest bathing experience
Perhaps the most important aspect of a forest bathing experience is that it fully integrates all the senses and connects the body and mind in a truly holistic way. Participants are invited to notice how the different senses connect to the forest environment – both individually and synergistically. I often break my teaching down into sensory modules before bringing everything together.
Sight
We tend to lead with the visual sense in daily life, but even so we can see without truly looking. In forest bathing I invite people to scale up and scale down their perspective; to notice things on both the microcosmic and the macrocosmic level. This means focusing in on the individual pine cone and leaf, or moving out and seeing the clouds and the sky. We look for geometric shapes and fractals such as patterns in bark or branches, or the spiral pattern in a snail shell. We know from research in biophilia that the human mind responds positively to fractals and that they reduce stress.
I also ask people to consider the quality of light, to notice the variations in colour, light and shade around them and how sunlight is filtered through trees. Exposure to natural light is of course fundamental to health and wellbeing, as is the natural cycling of light throughout the day and the seasons.
Hearing
In a forest bathing session we pay attention to the natural soundscape. If we’re lucky, this will include a rich variety of birdsong and other insect or animal sounds, as well as the sound of breeze passing through trees which we know is calming to the mind. In some forest settings, you may hear the sound of running water. Science shows that connection to fresh water offers its own health benefits, although at the time of writing my events are based away from water so this isn’t a focus. But I include it as an element of my teaching anyway. We also talk about the importance of silence. For designers interested in acoustics, it can be quite revealing to reflect on how we perceive sound, what we notice and what we screen out.
Touch
The sense of touch is one of the more neglected senses in our tech-dominated lives and yet vital for feeling connected to our own bodies, to physical space and to life. Being in a natural setting with earth, grass and trees is wonderful for physically reconnecting mentally busy people, so I spend quite a bit of time talking about grounding in the earth, walking barefoot, body awareness, and just feelings things with your fingers. When we do our mindful walking, we walk slowly and carefully and we stop to stroke things and pick things up. There are intervals in the event to focus on the breath and to practise both gentle yoga and complete rest.
Smell & taste
Some forest bathing practitioners, particularly those with access to deep forest, put a focus on forest foods, foraging and teas. In my events we draw together the two most environmentally neglected senses of smell and taste and explore the health benefits of essential oils (especially phytoncides that are released by trees and the research that’s been done in Japan into how they can lower stress levels). We also talk about air quality, fresh air and the importance of breathing well when you have access to clean air. We eat a picnic lunch together in the event and finish with herbal tea as part of our gratitude circle.
Sixth sense
I invite people to go beyond the five physical senses to the sixth sense, which I refer to as the spirit of place or genius loci – an intuitive or abstract sense of what a particular setting feels like. Individual sense of place and the idea that you have a specific experience in a specific place at a specific time is an important aspect of mindfulness and an important consideration in modern architectural design and placemaking. This is what roots us in places and communities and makes us feels part of our environmental eco-system. We take a bit of time during the event to explore the relationships between spaces, the contrast of open and enclosed space, the clearings between the trees in terms of orientation and direction, and also to sit with particular trees in an intimate space.
People typically emerge from these events feeling totally restored and with an enhanced connection to nature that they say lasts. If you’d like to join us for our forest bathing events in spring & summer 2024 at University of Oxford Arboretum (Harcourt), please go to this link for tickets: https://www.obga.ox.ac.uk/whats-on
