Proper forest bathing is all about enjoying the outdoors, relaxing and getting involved with the heartbeat of the forest and its beneficial properties. The exercises described below are an inspiration to surrender to nature with all your senses. Forest bathing happens according to one's own feelings: Let the soothing green take effect on you, absorb the soft sounds and smells and feel the calming atmosphere. Your own breath sets the pace. It is not important to physically exert yourself. Just be there. Whoever comes back will feel good and alive. The stations in the forest are marked with the symbol of deceleration.
Station 1: The forest - a quiet zone
Wi-Fi off - forest on. Switch off and enjoy the far-reaching view. Feel how inner peace grows, how peace envelops you from the outside.Pure enjoyment.
Station 2: The green thread
Find your own rhythm while walking, calmly put one foot in front of the other. It doesn't matter whether you do the exercises in the forest - just take in the forest to the full. Or just walking in the forest. Breathe in the spicy air deeply and fully and enjoy nature. Quietly.
Station 3: Hands-on blind tasting
Use your hands to carefully feel what the forest has to offer. Close your eyes and be amazed at all the things your sensitive fingers can feel - track down - discover. Finger food of a different kind as nourishment for the imagination.
Station 4: Walser meditation
Sitting in the forest between trees, looking up to the sky, feeling your inner home. Arrive and discover - especially yourself. Taking a deep breath - helping the body to become one: with itself and with nature. Change perspective - who or what do I want to be? Encountering something new in nature - feeling happiness.
Station 5: Listening to the noise
Everyday life is so noisy. We forget to listen carefully. Therefore: Open your ears! Choose a nice place, sit down comfortably, close your eyes and listen. What does the forest tell us, what do the old trees murmur? How do the birds sing, how does the wind rustle? And what rustles and cracks, hums and buzzes on the forest floor?
Station 6: Feel-good treasure
Preserving the many positive impressions. This mindfulness around our own sensory perceptions and the stage of the forest with its healthy influences does something to us. Pause once more and the forest as a treasure will continue to have an effect for a long time.
© Dorothea Nachbaur
