Its not always easy to switch our brain off from the conveyor belt of intruding thoughts that come into our mind, as we hustle through the day.
Whether they are good, or ones we’d rather not have and can do without, annoying, irritating or just plain nonsense ones, they are there and unfortunately, it’s how our brains works. Of course, we can choose how we receive them and act on them, but that’s a whole other topic.
We tend to drown them out most of the time with our addictive technology that’s wrapped around us everywhere we look and listen. Jumping on our phones for music, social media, raudio books and podcasts. Computers for work or leisure and tv screens.
I’d like you to try this for one minute.
Go sit with no devices to look at or listen to, switch them all off or be away from them. Just sit in silence. See what happens.
What type of thoughts rushed into your head? I bet there were loads.
I also bet none of them were in-depth about the thing you were looking at during that one minute. I guarantee you didn’t look at just one thing, your eyes were probably darting around, seeing what’s around you, but noticing nothing really.
Hearing may different sounds depending on where you are, but not tuning in to just the one.
Or if something did jump out at you, you may have made a comment about it in your head and swiftly moved your vision and hearing elsewhere.
If you had something in your hand, did you even notice how it felt, its weight, texture, or was it just something to fiddle with, another item to give your brain something to do, another distraction.
Can you now see how quickly your brain and thoughts work.
This is a change you could possibly feel and see when you attend one of my forest bathing sessions.
I guide and help you to slow down, to see things differently, really take in all that is there around you. Helping to alleviate any of the stress, anxiety you may have.
It all starts with some breathing, taking in some deep breaths, no special techniques, just some comfortable breathing to help slow you down and regulate yourself to a calmer environment. You can do this when you go for a walk on your own too. Walking at a much slower pace is also key. Its not that easy to notice the details if you’re on a brisk walk.
Before you start walking, make a choice as to what sense you would like to tune into first. Sight is a great one to start with. We naturally tend to look ahead and occasionally on the floor for safety reasons. But, if you’re walking pace is slower and of course you can stand still if you choose, you’re able to look in all directions, especially skywards. When’s the last time you looked up, directly up at the sky or the tree canopy?
You’ll point out to yourself that you’ve spotted some red berries, spring bulbs pushing up, squirrel running in the trees, ducks on a pond. This is the point that you’ve noticed them. Now is the time to see them, really see what’s drawn your attention.
Get closer, as safely as possible. Take in some deep breaths and see the finer details. How shiny is that berry, how delicate are those flower petals? Explore from all angles, from top to the bottom, all around. Its colours, have you noticed them in their full depth before or just seen a standard colour.
Before it may have been a red berry, now see the arrangement of shades. Allowing your eyes to decipher the varying tones.
If you continue to breathe slightly deeper and slower while exploring what you see on a closer, deeper more connective level, your thoughts flow towards your vision. You won’t be thinking of the to do list, the office meeting, the evening meal. Your thoughts will be where you are and what you see in that moment, without other thought distractions, without judging it either.
You’ll be seeing what nature offered up to you in that moment. Isn’t it magical!
Maybe you don’t have woodland or forest that is accessible to you, that’s ok, a local park, your own garden even a window box or house plant after the word garden.
The purpose is to slow down, calm down, loose some of the anxiety or stress from the day. Stop that flow of chatter in your head for a while.
You may have a beautiful garden, that bursts full of colour, fills you with joy every time you see and tend to it, that’s brilliant. How about next time, you go in deeper, look closer, really close, and see what else is present, on an intricate level.
In the local park, as you walk through, you see trees, they’re just trees usually.
On your next passing, go look at the bark, notice the varying textures, its lines, shades, and grooves. If you sit or stand at its base, really take in its size now? Does it now become more intriguing, are you seeing a tree now as an individual tree, rather than just a tree in the park?
This is how we can start to tune into our sense of sight, rather than just looking at things as we wander by. Rather than looking at our surroundings and not noticing them anymore, nature has become like parts of the household furniture, it’s just there.
Blends into our lives, every day. Most days our attention never leans towards it.
Remember, it is there, not in the background, its waiting for you to see it, look deeply into it and benefit from it.
Click here to book yourself onto a Forest Bathing session in Hampshire here
