Forest Bathing

I thought of you @RickThrivingNow when I came across this article in a health magazine. Forest bathing…what a luscious and beautiful sensory picture that paints for me. You’ve brought the idea of ‘sauntering’ to your ‘Morning Mile’ in the woods…and ‘forest bathing’ is another perceptual position although I’m sure you are already doing it in your own way. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Just seeing the “forest bathing” subject on my phone made me pause and get a simple uplift as I entered and paused and prepared to leave the forest this morning’s mile.

I wonder these days how I “avoided” being in the woods every day when living near them. Some of it is rhythm, getting into a pattern that didn’t include forest and nature time, making it “the normal setting” and not having the clarity about why it really matters to me.

And, yeah, a lot of what people do around here is “hike” and “run” and there’s been less of an obvious connection with sauntering and forest bathing.

This morning everyone I crossed paths with was either walking a dog (I don’t have one) or running (I don’t). That’s not always true, and I am starting to pick up on the energy of the 5% or so that are out to really savor the experience and different sounds and energy and flow.

4 Likes

Just the idea of bathing our senses is quite beautiful and compelling. Immersing our skin in a warm tub is bathing…what about immersing our other senses in the energetic medium that they respond to? Bathing our eyes, our ears in nourishing sights and sounds…and maybe bathing others with our loving voice/ideas/thoughts. Cleansing, nourishing, fortifying…!!!

I think extending it to include many other activities feels empowering and right as well. What about bathing in ‘we-space’ for example? ‘We-bathing’ anyone? ‘Calm and confident bathing’.

Bathing is not just for every second Thursday anymore!! :wink:

3 Likes

Yes, I love this!

I took the kids to my pregnant friend’s birth-blessing celebration today, and we were sharing stories of our births and parenting, and especially songs… and I shared how I sang to my son on my chest the moment he was born all blue (& he insists he only “decided to stay” BECAUSE I sang to him!), and I still sing to him every night he’s with us… and it is his nightly sound-bath! And indeed, a calming we-space bath too! It’s good for both of us.

There’s a cleansing, fortifying, calming resonance with song, especially songs repeated as a nightly ritual for years on end… that is certainly like a bath for the senses. No matter what kind of day we’ve had (he had more challenging moments than usual the past few days!), singing at night washes it all away and brings us closer. Such a sweet way to end the day. :revolving_hearts:

3 Likes

Song bathing…aaaaaaahhhhhhhh…mmmmmmmmm… :slight_smile:

I didn’t think of it this way at the time but I bathed my youngins in song every night for years when they were little…I still see their little faces looking up at me, drooping eyes, gentle gaze, as I sang Beatles songs and made up songs about their day. I think I could happily just give up everything I’ve accomplished and accumulated to this point in time to go back to one moment of that again…sigh…

3 Likes