Author: StarBasil

April 3, 2018

How to Forest Bathe in the Winter

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*Please note, I have a few Amazon affiliate links in this post, which means I get a teensy commission, but it doesn’t affect your cost in any way. All commissions help keep this site running.

Forest bathing in the summer?

Pretty darn amazing. Effortless even.

Forest bathing in the winter?

Blech. Why bother.

It’s frigid…

The trees are in hibernation…

The trek requires much more preparation and gear by way of boots, jacket, hat, gloves, etc.

The air is plain old hostile sometimes…

…at least to me.

Especially when it’s 25 below zero. Your eyelids practically freeze shut.

But I do make an effort to get outside whenever it’s above freezing, at least for a little while.

I’m trying to make a more concerted effort to get outside in the winter, despite all my self-inflicted limitations.

I would challenge you to do the same. Even for just a few minutes.

I’m also trying to incorporate the forest into my indoor life.

So, that’s what made me think about what winter forest bathing looks like. (Plus, it’s snowing outside my window as I write this).

I want to show you a few ways that you can experience the benefits of forest bathing into the winter.

4 Ways to Forest Bathe in the Winter

#1 Nature Micro-Dosing

I refer to nature micro-dosing above when I talk about getting outside in the winter, at least for a few minutes. I also explain the concept of micro-dosing in this video.

Essentially, you should still make an effort to get outside and take in nature or sit in a sunny window to give yourself micro doses of nature in winter. The forest is still accessible to you, you just have to make the effort.

#2 Massage Your Senses

Even when you can’t physically get outside, you can still expose your senses to the sights, sounds, and smells of the forest. You can still put all the concepts of mindfulness to practice indoors.

Sight

To find the sights of nature, you need look no further than YouTube. You can check out my forest bathing playlist or watch other videos of the forest. You can also take a few minutes to peruse forest images on photography websites. Studies show just looking at green imagery benefits your life.

{Related reading: check out this compilation of studies about the benefits of forest bathing}

Sound

To expose yourself to forest sounds, check out mynoise.net. I use this audio website all the time. I love listening to forest sounds to take me there in my imagination. Check out the Fairy Pond and Rainforest, Primeval Forest, and Japanese Garden audio streams, in particular.

Smell

The smells of the forest are always available to you in essential oil form. I recently grabbed some Hinoki Oil and a Deep Forest essential oil blend from Amazon. They basically smell like a pine forest (because that’s what they are!).

Hinoki essential oil, derived from cypress trees, was used in several studies to demonstrate how pine forests increase immune function and induce relaxation. Diffuse these pine-scented, straight-from-the-forest oils in your living room or make my essential-oil infused Forest Bath to experience the same benefits for yourself.

#3 Nature Visualization Therapy

You can also practice nature visualization to forest bathe in your imagination. Fun fact: Your mind doesn’t know the difference between visualization and real life. Even if you’re forest bathing in your head, your mind thinks you’re forest bathing for real.

Try a guided meditation, like this one to shift your mind into forest bathing mode. If you’re prone to anxiety like me, you might find this exercise really helpful in taming your nervous system.

#4 Try a Winter Forest Bathing Exercise

This winter forest bathing exercise helps you appreciate the processes that happen during the winter season. Make sure to bundle up enough to enjoy the outdoors or wait for a day when the temperatures are above freezing.

#5 Bring the Forest Indoors

No, I’m not advising you to plant a forest inside your house. I’m just suggesting you bring some of that living greenery indoors to infuse your living spaces with life. Bonsai trees, plants, terrariums, and other indoor foliage give you some measure of exposure to green when there’s no green outside.

Ever heard of Breathing Rooms? I just came across this concept while doing some research. I love this idea of dedicating a room in your house to cultivating fresh air. Gather some plants in your solarium and visit that room whenever you need to clear your lungs or take a break from worldly technology.

{Via}

I hope this article gives you some inspiration to continue to forest bathe in the winter, even when the snow and cold invade your favorite forest area.

Even though the winter isn’t the most inviting time to go forest bathing, there are still benefits from doing so. It’s a great way to experience the forest in all its different stages.

Try it!

How about you?

Do you make intentional efforts to forest bathe in the winter? What are your favorite ways to bring nature indoors?

February 2, 2018

50 Ways to Uplevel Your Forest Bathing Experience

If you’re one of the many people that can appreciate the subtle nuances that make forest bathing so satisfying, you’ll enjoy these strategies to take your practice a step further.

Or, you can use each one of these as a starting point if you’re just beginning to forest bathe.

These strategies help you mine the cracks of your forest bathing practice for gold.

Try these 50 ways to uplevel your shinrin-yoku experience:

Bring a magnifying glass. Check out nature in even more up-close detail.
Bring your journal.
Bare your feet
Use a walking stick. Make it a game to find the best one.
Use your imagination to build a fantasy story about your surroundings in your head a la Bridge to Terabithia or Where the Wild Things Are.
Bring your child with you and ask them general questions about the forest to see what they say.
Bring along a local field guide.
Go forest bathing at sunrise.
Leave your technology behind completely.
Pray.
Do a handstand and observe the trees from a new perspective.
Touch interesting textures with something other than your hands: your knees, toes, or nose.
Dig a hole.
Bury a burden in the hole you dug.
Carry parts of the forest with you as you walk, such as a pinch bouquet.
Leave a gift, something of yourself, for the forest (without littering). A kiss. A lock of hair. A prayer written in the soil.
Go forest bathing at sunset.
Read a nature poem before you go to set the tone.
Leave your worries at the forest entrance.
Smile.
Skip.
Do some stretches with the support of a tree.
Burn a mental snapshot.
Sing.
Set an intention for your walk before you go.
Lean in.
Look around and locate more things to be grateful for.
Bring your dog. See the forest through the eyes of your pet.
Try to scope out secret hiding spots like you would as a kid.
Look inside hollow trees.
Perform a one-word walking mantra meditation.
Take a moment to actually read the informational signs.
Follow the length of an entire vine with your hands.
Veer off the trail a tad.
Walk backwards for a short distance.
Try to decipher the answers to life’s biggest questions in the forest.
Stare intently at something interesting.
Take in the view of the forest on your back.
Follow the trail of an ant.
Find a high spot to look out over the horizon on.
Give back to the forest: pick up a piece of trash or send a mental blessing.
Put your feet in the water.
Write a message in the soil.
Leave a message in a hollow tree for someone to find.
Sway or do some Tai Chi moves.
Let the little kid inside of you dance when you feel compelled.
Listen for rhythms.
Make note of natural symmetries and patterns.
Learn one thing about how to survive in nature.
Take a moment to appreciate how tiny you are inside the forest from the Google-eye view.

Here’s a pinnable version to pin for later!

I hope this brainstorm helps you get more out of your next forest bathing experience. Let me know how it goes in the comments below!

January 3, 2018

Microdosing: The Solution When it’s Too Cold to Forest Bathe!

It’s been in the negative digits this week in Wisconsin. It’s rather unpleasant to be outside, even for a few seconds. It literally hurts your face to open the door. Even inside, we’re using space heaters to try and keep up with the chill in the air.

However, I have this burning itch inside me to experience nature every day. Can you relate?

I try to spend time in front of sunny windows or at least run to the mailbox to get the mail. That’s about all I can handle, but it’s better than the alternative of not getting any nature exposure (the horror!)

So, that’s why I thought it would be helpful to discuss how micro-dosing is the solution when it’s too cold outside to go forest bathing.

What is nature micro-dosing?

Micro-dosing on nature is about getting little bits of exposure to nature whenever you can. A quick walk outside with the dog, a quick snowball fight with the kids, a quick jaunt outside to fill the bird feeder… It’s getting outside for even just a few minutes when it’s otherwise impossible to be outside.

What are the benefits of forest micro-dosing?

You might think, why bother if I can only be outside for a few minutes?

Studies show that just by looking at plants or having a nature window view, you experience positive benefits, so you can imagine the advantages of forest bathing in microdoses.

Just 5 minutes of activity outside is enough to improve mood and self-esteem (and help you stay warm).

Even if you think going outside for a few minutes wouldn’t matter, it does! You should even be able to notice how you feel different when you skip it for a few days. You start to crave it!

How can you get your micro-dose of nature?

Even if you can’t get physically outside, you can view it from the window or sit in a sunny patch.

Gaze out a window at the glistening snow-covered branches.
Curl up in a sunny patch on the carpet like a cat. Or Make Your Own Sunshine!
Get as bundled up as you can and go lean on a tree for a few minutes.
Pay attention to one of the green flourishing house plants. Touch, smell, and view it.

This is how I like to micro-dose on -20 degree days:

Find a sunny spot on the carpet with a view of our treeline.
Set the 2 minute meditation timer on my Fitbit.
Follow the Fitbit deep breathing exercise with my chin tilted toward the sun.
When the breathing exercise is over, stare out the window at the trees for a few minutes longer.

Otherwise, I like to put as many layers on as possible and walk along our treeline and back.

It’s enough to fill my lungs with a quick hit of fresh air, change my scenery, change my perceptual input for a few minutes, and get natural sun and nature exposure.

Here’s a quick view of what micro-dosing looks like at my house:

I hope this inspires you to get outside, even just for a few minutes. I’d love to hear from you:

How are you going to get outside today? Do you notice a difference when you do versus when you don’t get outside every day?

December 19, 2017

DIY Forest Bath Recipe

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links to products I use personally at no additional cost to you.

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Remember when you first heard the term, “forest bathing” and you were wondering what kind of nature freaks get naked and bathe in the forest?

Yeah, it’s kinda funny now, isn’t it?

But now I’m going to come back around and tell you to take an actual forest bath. But you can do it in the comfort of your own home. Don’t worry.

This is a forest bath Epsom salt mix that brings some of the healing effects of the forest right into your bathtub.

I’m also releasing this recipe just in time for Christmas, because it would make a really great gift for any people on your list that you haven’t figured out yet (procrastinator!)

You can even use your Christmas tree for one of the ingredients.

Share the forest with your loved ones!

Oh, and btw, I’m not the most precise recipe maker. It’s more like, “throw in some of this and a little bit of that.”

DIY Forest Bath Recipe

3 parts (cups) Epsom salts
1 part oatmeal
A handful of pine needles (mine is blue spruce)
10-20 drops of your favorite pine-y essential oil (I used Hinoki cypress and deep forest blend)

Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl and store in a pretty clear glass container. When you’re ready to use it, place a scoop of this bath soak in a mesh strainer and place underneath the running water (so the ingredients don’t clog up your drain).

Benefits of Epsom salts: the skin absorbs the salts and the magnesium reduces muscle aches and inflammation.

Benefits of oatmeal: the skin-protective elements of oatmeal ease uncomfortable skin conditions.

Benefits of pine: specifically Hinoki: improves immune health.

Then, of course, there are all the multitudes of benefits of the forest.

I saved a little bit of this forest bath soak for myself. Because it’s turning into winter here in Wisconsin and I’m going to need some forest doses when it gets really cold. I love how this brings the forest indoors and makes it accessible when the woods become less accessible in natural form.

Enjoy!

Did you try this forest bath recipe? I’d love to hear how you used it in the comments. Let me know!

December 13, 2017

A Christmas Tree Forest Bathing Experience

One of the best opportunities to go forest bathing? When you’re looking for your Christmas tree. Christmas tree forest bathing.

Even the sign at the front of our local tree farm educated us about the purified air around us.

But that pine smell…

You know what I’m talking about.

That pine smell that clears and refreshes your lungs…

That represents stability and reassurance…

That instantly smells like Christmas…

That maintains the residue of life in a winter forest void of leaves…

And when you bring that sweet tradition into your home, how your home presents that same refreshing comfort…

Can you feel it just by reading it?

The weekend after Thanksgiving, our little family went to find our Christmas tree.

We visited a new tree farm this year because of logistics, so it gave the experience a newness.

Since we were looking for the perfect tree, we were very in tune with the sights, sounds, and smells of the place.

We took our time, allowing for exploration…

…for our three-year-old to talk to the quail wandering around the property.

…for her to notice a hawk feather.

…for her and our nine-year-old to peer into a few animals’ dens and wonder at its inhabitants.

…for us to wander down a path on the property and look around.

…for the four of us to stop on the bridge and appreciate the trickle of water that ran through the farm.

…to appreciate all the pinecones underneath one of the trees, and find the biggest one to take home.

And I realized…we were forest bathing. Christmas tree forest bathing.

And we got to bring a remnant of that experience into our home, to smell the purified air every morning when we get up, to signify a season of new birth and warm spirits.

We get to do our own form of indoor forest bathing when we sit under the tree to read Christmas stories and sip hot chocolate.

Remember, forest bathing is a simple exercise in mindfulness and sensory exploration…

All it takes is a stand of trees and a little time to wander and wonder.

Shopping for your Christmas tree is the perfect time to try forest bathing.

***Here’s a great way to preserve some of that festive charm for months after Christmas. Use the needles from your pine tree to make this DIY Pine Needle Body Oil.

Do you cut down your own tree for Christmas? Have you ever stopped to “take in” all the pine-y wonder around you? Do you plan to go Christmas tree forest bathing this year?