Forest Bathing Is a Different Kind of Practice

Nev Hoffman leading a Guided Forest Bathing session at York Land Trust. Photo by Raya Al-Hashmi of Raya On Assignment.

Forest bathing is a different kind of practice.

Forest bathing is a slower, more relational way of being with the natural world. It invites presence, sensory awareness, curiosity, and rest.

The practice is less about reaching a destination and more about arriving fully where we are.

In the way I share it through Blue Fern, forest bathing is a guided practice of arriving more fully in the body, awakening the senses, quieting the mind, and remembering relationship with the living world.

In that way, guided forest bathing is both simple and deep.

It can feel like meditation and mindfulness, because we are practicing presence.

It can feel restful, because the nervous system is given permission to soften.

It can feel playful, because the senses begin to wake up.

It can feel embodied, because we are not just thinking about nature.

We are experiencing relationship with the living world through breath, sound, scent, texture, movement, and stillness.

And for some, it can open into something deeper: a spiritual connection, a feeling of belonging, or a remembering that we are part of nature too.

Each slow walk is different. Each person arrives with something different.

So part of the practice is simply tuning in:

What do I need today?

What can I give and receive today?

What kind of energy am I carrying?

What kind of energy might I be ready to receive, and how might I meet the forest in return?

Sometimes we need rest. Sometimes we need steadiness. Sometimes we need beauty, or grief, or grounding, or a way back into the body.

And often, what we carry in the body is connected to what we carry in the heart. What we carry emotionally may be connected to something deeper still: a longing for meaning, connection, belonging, or peace.

This guided practice gives us space to listen through those layers.

Not to force an answer.

Not to fix, improve, or alter ourselves.

But to feel more fully in relation: with body, breath, senses, emotions, spirit, land, and the living world around us.

There is no one right way to receive the practice.

We bring what we need.

The forest meets us there.

And sometimes, in that meeting, something begins to settle. Something begins to listen. Something begins to feel whole again.

Notes

This reflection is inspired, with gratitude, by the teachings of Regan Stacey of The Forest Therapy School, and by Lee Holden of Holden Qigong, whose language around Qigong as a practice of tuning into the energy we need helped me find new words for forest bathing.

A note on language: In this reflection, I use “forest bathing” and “forest therapy” in a broad, conversational way. There are meaningful distinctions between the terms, especially within the field and among trained guides. Here, I’m speaking to the lived experience of slowing down with nature as a relational practice.

At Blue Fern, I often use the terms Guided Forest Bathing, Guided Forest Therapy, and Guided Nature Therapy interchangeably to help make the practice accessible to the people I serve.