What is an annual forest bathing calibration?

An annual forest bathing calibration is an opportunity to realign with your values and your purpose, in life or just as it pertains to forest bathing.

Basically, you go to a quiet, natural landscape on a set yearly date and perform a mental audit of the year past and the year ahead. It’s kinda like an annual business review, where you analyze your progress and make adjustments for the year ahead.

I decided to start this annual forest bathing tradition on my last birthday, and thought I’d share the process with you.

My birthday falls in mid-June, so I can generally expect decent weather.

I also think birthdays or New Year’s Day are prime opportunities to recalibrate.

So, I headed to the forest with a pen, paper, and water and found a sit spot. Then, I went to work…

 

 

Watch the video here:

 

 

How to perform an annual forest bathing calibration

To perform your annual calibration, start by setting a date. Think of a day with special meaning, or that will acquire special meaning from this practice.

Decide on a date for your forest bathing calibration:

Consider what the weather may be like on your chosen day. A day in the middle of February in the northern hemisphere might be frigid. A day in April may be unpredictable. A day in June might be just right.

My birthday falls in mid-June, so I’m using that as my yearly calibration trip.

Here are some more ideas for your calibration date:

• Your birthday
• New Year’s day
• Winter and/or spring solstice
• A day with special meaning
• The day after Independence Day or another holiday (because you usually take off)
• Any day, really;)

Once you have your date set, it’s time to do a little planning.

 

Prepare Your Agenda

Before you head to the forest, prepare yourself with an “agenda.” Now, I use that term loosely. Your agenda could simply be to go in with one simple intention or with pages of worksheets to fill out. Find an agenda that fits your personality and aligns with this exercise.

Your agenda should relate to an annual check-in, similar to a yearly physical or an annual employee review to see where you’re at and make a plan going forward.

So, that could look like an annual review that a business might perform.

It might be a few pages in your journal exploring the past year and the year going forward.

Or, you might just head into the forest with a simple intention to discover an approach for the year ahead.

 

The four criteria below will be the basis of your agenda:

1. Define your purpose. Decide what the purpose of your forest bathing calibration trip is. Do you want to do a deep dive into the outlook of your entire life? Do you want to assess what your year of forest bathing has taught you? Or, do you want to simply listen to see what message is waiting for you?
2. Plot your tasks. Now that you’ve defined your purpose, decide what tasks you’ll do to fulfill your purpose and how you want this calibration to look. You might start with a meditation and a gratitude list and then move onto a yearly audit. After that, you can make goals for the year and finish up with a solitary tea ceremony.
3. Decide how long you expect to need for your agenda. A workbook of deep-dive questions may take hours or an entire day. A simpler intention may require only an hour. Decide what you’re going to do with your time, how much you’ll allot to each task. Make sure you block this time in your schedule and make proper arrangements at home/work.
4. Gather the materials you want to bring along with you for the process. If you want to do some journaling, bring your journal and your journal questions. If you have workbook questions you want to fill in, bring them along. You don’t need any materials, but if you want them, gather them together before you go.

 

You can find goal worksheets online, design your own, or just wing it. However, I recommend bringing a list of relevant questions to guide your calibration.

 

A few example questions for your annual calibration exercise:

*Use questions like these during your annual calibration to define your experience. You may simply “think” about them, journal through them, or use a more formal review.

Again, you can come at these questions from the perspective of your whole lifestyle or just your forest bathing experience. For example, you can make life goals for the next year or just forest bathing goals for the next year.

Past year

1. How do I feel my appreciation for nature has grown over the past year?
2. In what ways has the forest/nature made my life better in the last year?
3. What would I say the “theme” for the last year was?
4. Have I been true to my values this past year?
5. How did I do on my goals for this past year?

Year ahead

1. What do I want to focus on this next year?
2. How can I bring more nature focus into my life this year?
3. What do I want the “theme” for this upcoming year to be?
4. What are my values and how can I honor them this year?
5. What are my goals for this next year?

Print these questions up on some pretty paper with spare room to write.

Once you’ve planned your forest bathing calibration, the only thing left to do is to actually DO it. You can design your calibration however you’d like. Make sure it feels right to you. I’m just here to give you some ideas.

 

Sample calibration agenda:

1. Perform a threshold exercise before entering the forest.
2. Find a quiet sit spot, a prime place to ponder (how’s that for alliteration?)
3. Perform a few grounding exercises (i.e. take off your shoes and put your feet in the grass, do a little mindfulness breathing, try some brain catharsis, tune in to your senses).
4. Once you feel like you’ve gotten to a place of mindful calm, take out your journal, workbook, or questions and ponder them for awhile. Write down or just think about your answers to each. Take as long as you’d like, but try to write down what comes to mind first. Often your gut instinct is on the ball.
5. Let your mind wander. You finally have this wide open physical and mind space to let your thoughts expand. How often do you get time like this to think things through? Let your thoughts and writing take on a stream-of-consciousness flow.
6. Come back to where you are and ground yourself again. Take a few minutes to feel into the culmination of this exercise.
7. Prepare a tea ceremony or exit exercise for yourself to celebrate what you accomplished and denote the end of your excursion.
8. Return to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

Here’s your annual forest bathing tear sheet!

 

Where to go from here

When you’re done with your calibration, adjust your sails for the intentions you’ve set. If you want to make changes in the upcoming year, make sure you implement them when you get home. Create new routines and habits that bring your goals to fruition.

Some of the best ways I’ve found to incorporate new habits is to:

1. Track your new habits and shoot for long “streaks,” or the number of days in a row you perform your new habit. Once you’ve got a good streak going (15 days in a row), you won’t want to break it.
2. Remind yourself of your goals every day. Either keep a daily checklist and cross your habits off as you go or journal your goals every morning to keep them top-of-mind.
3. Incorporate them into your established routine

For example, say you decide you want to get out into nature every day. Build outdoor time into your already-established morning routine. Brush your hair while you do your grounding practice or take your morning coffee under a tree, so you don’t have to sacrifice any additional time. Over the course of several weeks, you can rewire your brain to follow this new pattern automatically.

Remember, you don’t want to watch the year pass with your goals crumpled up in the bottom of a bag somewhere. You want to show up next year completely changed.

 

 

I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Let me know how this article has inspired you to do a yearly calibration session and when you plan to do it.