Alexandra Reuter
I STARTED FOREST BATHING & IT CHANGED MY LIFE | why you should try it & how to start shinrin-yoku!
Forest bathing truly has changed my life for the better! It's such a simple concept yet it has been so profound and healing for me.
The book I've mentioned in the video:
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in Without Going Crazy
by Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone.
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#slowliving #shinrin-yoku #forest #forestbathing #wildlife #nature
I'm really excited about this video because today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite things some things that has brought me so much joy and lightness and sometimes even euphoria and a deep sense of the lines it is the practice of immersing yourself into white space as fully as possible using all five of your senses this practice is often referred to as forest bathing a term coined in Japan in the 80s though it has become very popular in Japan first day they have practiced by people all around the world long before was given that name and I often become really aware that my ancestors could have experienced their local forests in a very similar way twenty thousand two hundred thousand and even two million years ago it is a very simple concept but from my own experience I can assure you it can be so very powerful what makes forest bathing different from going for walk for exercise or to get from A to B is that there's no goal other than to feel the forest to walk to sit to breathe to notice and just experience if you don't have access to a forest you can try to find another green space like a park or a meadow instead there are lots of different ways to connect with our natural environment what works for me might not work for you but if you meet the forest with patience curiosity and an open mind it might just let you in on some of its magic I'm well aware that all of this sounds really pretty cheesy but connecting with our world in this way has been so big and so important to me that I had to have can't help myself indoor spaces tend to be quite stable and unchanging you can't help but to feel a little domesticated wild spaces on the other hand are ever-changing forests have lots of different modes depending on the seasons the weather or the time of day and if you pay attention you can notice all of those separate changes you don't have to travel far to experience something so fresh and exciting and new spending lots of time in white spaces awaitin something inside of me I feel the urge to create and to share what I found with the world I feel so deeply moved like the first does something inside of me you start to feel part of the forest instead of a visitor you experience it more like the animal that you are I really hope that this made you a little curious and inspired you to try it out yourself so here a few things that I like to do to immerse themselves into our local woodlands you might just find that you love it as well and maybe even as much as I do I use both my hands and my feet to explore the forest I like to take off my shoes to feel the forest road beneath my feet it slows you down and it makes you so much more aware and mindful of your surroundings because you have to try to avoid stepping on stinging nettles or on thorns I love touching the back of all trees feeling all the different textures the moss the deep bridges in the bath or just beneath your fingertips in the past few years I've been learning how to forage what you can eat or you can cook with make teas out of I've been learning where to be careful and what to avoid and this spring I've not gone on a single walk where I hadn't snapped on leaves or on flowers on the way and it's not just about all of the forest labors being sweet and inviting though of course some of them are it's about tastings a wide variety using a sense of taste as another way to experience the forest try to take in all of the different smells the scent of the flowers the grass the soilless I like smelling the differences between the different parts of the forest the distinct scent of lots of conifers for example I love the smell of a forest on a hot summer's day or just after has rained try to just walk aimlessly without a destination or a time limit just follow your senses and be curious a little while ago I got lost in our small of the forest and it turned into a real adventure climbing over fallen trees and crossing streams and even finding whitewater meant a little while before that I had gotten a bit scared of this forest to be honest after a mother deer barked at me when I had gotten too close to her thorns that I hadn't spotted and having to find my way out of the forest on my own paying attention and taking everything in it made me finally lose my fear of those deer and that felt amazing try sitting or even lying down and listening to the forest and all of its inhabitants the birdsong shrews chasing each other amongst the bramble bushes the wind in the leaves and creaking sounds for trees look up to see the branches sway in the wind or just be still and watch the forest life continue around you I've been learning how to identify trees and flowers and mushrooms and I've been learning their horse chestnut flowers change their colour from yellow to pink once they're pollinated to basically communicate with the bees which ones still have nectar inside I've learned that you can eat Jack by the hedge and herb Robert flowers that blackberry bushes don't just make delicious berries but the new leaf chutes can be made into a lovely cup of tea as well this year alone I have been part of so many beautiful moments inside a forest I've laughed and I've cried and I felt it all so deeply it almost felt that little magical like I was witnessing the ancient spirit of the forest or maybe of the land I've always loved the outdoors but my love for our beautiful world has grown so much deeper and stronger than I thought possible and it breaks my heart to think about all the damage we as humans have caused but I also have hope that if we reconnect and real wild ourselves and act where the wild love for the world we can bring change that was a little him to a book that I'm reading at the moment by Joanna Macy which I will link in the description and I very much recommend it if you can leave your phone and your camera at home I've had so many beautiful animal encounters that I can't put in this video because I chose to experience the moment without trying to capture it I found that if you are just present forest life just continues around you accepting you as part of it I really hope that you enjoyed this video and I will see you next time thank you for watching
#STARTED #FOREST #BATHING #CHANGED #LIFE #start #shinrinyoku
source
How to learn to recognize plants, especially mushrooms, if we leave our camera phone at home?
I keep finding new mushrooms that I've never seen before. I have to take pictures of them so I can identify them. And I need my phone to navigate the forest, so I don't get lost because I'm constantly finding new paths. It's not advisable to walk in the forest, especially if you're alone, because of the risk of injury. I often encounter horned vipers in the forest, the most venomous snake in Europe. Don't give dangerous advice.
“The woods are so human,” wrote John Foster, “that to know them one must live with them.
An occasional saunter through them, keeping to the well-trodden paths, will never admit us to their intimacy.
If we wish to be friends we must seek them out and win them by frequent, reverent visits at all hours; by morning, by noon, and by night; and at all seasons, in spring, in summer, in autumn, in winter.
Otherwise we can never really know them and any pretence we may make to the contrary will never impose on them.
They have their own effective way of keeping aliens at a distance and shutting their hearts to mere casual sightseers. It is of no use to seek the woods from any motive except sheer love of them; they will find us out at once and hide all their sweet, old-world secrets from us.
But if they know we come to them because we love them they will be very kind to us and give us such treasures of beauty and delight as are not bought or sold in any market-place.
For the woods, when they give at all, give unstintedly and hold nothing back from their true worshippers.
We must go to them lovingly, humbly, patiently, watchfully, and we shall learn what poignant loveliness lurks in the wild places and silent intervales, lying under starshine and sunset, what cadences of unearthly music are harped on aged pine boughs or crooned in copses of fir, what delicate savours exhale from mosses and ferns in sunny corners or on damp brooklands, what dreams and myths and legends of an older time haunt them.
Then the immortal heart of the woods will beat against ours and its subtle life will steal into our veins and make us its own forever, so that no matter where we go or how widely we wander we shall yet be drawn back to the forest to find our most enduring kinship.”
Yes! subbed ☀ – just began my practice and filmed a #forest bathing video recently – thank you for sharing ❤🔥
Lovely! Thanks for sharing.
Love it and sharing.
Alexendara ,wonder full journey and beautiful video ever have seen,you GREAT women of UNIVERSE really
Nature gives us so much—healing, peace, and energy.
Beautiful expression of ♥️💕. You have gotten so much from The Forest. I wonder what The Forest has gotten from you? 😂 💖
Namaste 🙏🏾 ✌🏼
Thank you for this beautiful meditation. I have a friend who is a Forest Bather practitioner and routinely takes groups out. I have been privileged to attend once but schedule and health issues have kept me from getting out. I need to just start going out again on my own schedule and time frame. (Hers are typically 3 hour sessions). You have motivated me to get out even if just 30 minutes 😊❤️
I never really did forest bathing, not intentionally at least, but…
This one time, in 2015, when I was working in a factory doing metal works there, physical work, I decided to save my rent money and cancelled the apartment rent deal, no more house for me. I started to sleep on the city woods, while working the days in the factory. It wasn't even that hard, the hardest part really was to cope with the fear that someone might come and kill me when I sleep, or something.
I did that for nine months. And the effect?
I quickly became more healthy, more vibrant, more vital, stronger, emotionally stronger too, and mentally. And lighter. I had a six-pack without overtraining my abs. I was lean and muscular unlike now, nine years later after coming back to a house to sleep. Coming back to house, I soon contracted psychosis and became a bit less healthy, bit fatter and maybe weaker too.
Before starting to sleep in the woods, I was pretty miserable at the factory job. I felt it physically quite demanding, even though my co-workers seemed to be fine. And emotionally, I was miserable there too. But, after starting to sleep in the woods, there was a profound and quick change. Co-workers started to respect me more and notice me, and support me even a bit more. One of them had done the same sleeping in the woods while working thing, as I did. And his friend said, "soon everyone here will come to sleep to the woods nearby with you", hehe. I guess they saw what that did to me, and they approved.
It might've been the best decision in my life. Before that I was studying a bit of the things I kinda wanted to, but when I started sleeping in the woods, I moved to study things I really wanted to study: Daoist secrets. Learned really nothing from the book, because I didn't put effort to the practice, but I studied other things like that too. I studied because I felt I was able, I felt good about it.
We were once in the forests. Back when we were cavemen and women. We spent many lives there. Why should we suddenly stop, especially when there's no longer mammoths, sabertooths, tigers, wolverines nor other beasts that hunt us like prey? Yeah in USA at least there's cougars and bears, here too some bears, but bears don't usually attack you if you are calm and don't move fast and don't turn your back on them, nor surprise them when they've just had kids and are protecting them. Mama bear with kids is one of the worst things here you can run into. But hell, it's still better than being in the slavery and suffering of city life.
The only part I still don't know well how to handle in the forests, is getting food, especially animal foods like meat and organs like liver and kidney and all parts of the animal, really. I'm not gonna get a gun and start hunting, not even a crossbow I think, just go to a market and buy meat, or fish some fish with fishing pole on the lake. Eat berries from the forest. Some sammal (fungi-like plant growing on rocks in here in Finland).
Please lemme know if you have similar experiences, and what you think 🙂 I'd love to hear you
Mikko Murmeli
Lovely. Thank you.
This is an excellent forest bathing video.
Thank you for posting it.
Please make more videos about the same topic.
I give YESHUA all the glory for HIS beautiful creation
thanks a lot for the breathtaking video🪄💐 ❤
Nature Heals the Mind, Body and Soul.
As a nature lover and birdwatcher here in North Wales, this is something I want to do more of come Spring. Thank you ❤
You are so cool!
So very peaceful ❤
What beautiful frames you've used, I think I'll use them on my channel too 🕉
Awesome vedio ..❤..thanku soo much 🙏🙏💕💕
Until a bear comes by
God is Good!
Great moment.. I also doing forest healing here in indonesia
is trail running or hiking can be considered as forest bathing?
This is so, so unbelievably interesting, such a wonderful video! 😊. For me, forest bathing puts me right back into a child like mindset. Slowing down and opening your mind to every detail is quite a profound experience and almost like an effective natural tonic for the mind. You present this topic in such a beautiful way, thank you!
I’m pretty sure no humans were around 2 million years ago 😅
Our ancestors knew this and embraced it, it is something that some (most) of us have lost, let it wash over and through you and it is better than any drug, it is intoxicating and addictive.
Stick with it girl.
A respite from human insanity..