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February 8, 2019

Forest Bathing Breathing Techniques: 4 Ways!

Forest bathing is all about mindfulness, settling into nature’s patterns with a focus on noticing.

It’s an opportunity to break from frenzied daily life and take a breather.

That’s what this post is all about…taking a literal breather.

It only seems natural to incorporate breathing exercises into your forest bathing practice.

So, let’s go over a few breathing exercises to try the next time you go forest bathing and transform your experience.

But first, in case you’re wondering, why even bother?

Benefits of Breathing Exercises

Breathing is an involuntary process, so what’s the point of forcing it? Well, your breathing is closely linked to how stressed or calm you feel. You can literally force your body into a more relaxed, present state by taking control of your breath.

Breathing exercises have many other benefits for your body and mental state:

Clinically proven to reduce stress, swapping the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) for the parasympathetic (chillaxed) nervous system.
Builds oxygen levels in your blood
Lowers heart rate and blood pressure
Expands your lungs and opens them up to more phytoncides
Helps you get centered and grounded
Calibrates you to the pulse of the forest

Breathing exercises are the perfect companion to forest bathing because they deepen your sense of relaxation and focus. They help you flip on the “awareness” switch. Cultivating an awareness of your breath anchors you and carries over into your shinrin-yoku practice.

If you feel closely, you can sense your breath and pulse integrate into the rhythms of the forest.

Now that we’ve underscored the advantages of breathing exercises, lets learn a few core techniques.

4 Forest Bathing Breathing Techniques

Belly breathing:
To begin, close your eyes, place one hand on your belly and one on your chest, and take a deep breath in. Feel your belly fill and push against your hand while the ribs remain unmoving.
Then, slowly let our your breath, feeling your belly deflate.
Continue this process for 10 breaths, focusing solely on your breathing. If your mind wanders, gently guide it back to your breathing.
On your last breath, open your eyes and bring your awareness back to the forest.

When to use: when you want to relax and gently transition into your forest bathing. It’s also great when you feel like you’ve been subsisting on shallow breaths all day.
Alt nostril breathing:
Place the index and middle finger of one hand on either side of your nose. Block the left nostril and breathe in through your right. Then, block the right nostril and breathe out through the left. Perform this same breath pattern five times.
Then, perform five breaths blocking the right nostril in the inhale and the left nostril on the exhale then alternate the pattern.

When to use: when you want to come into a balance of feeling energized yet calm.
Loud lion:
Inhale deeply through your nose, then open your mouth as wide as you can, stick out your tongue, and breathe out with a forceful hhhhhhhh noise.
Continue this breath pattern for 5 full breaths.
The forest is a great place to practice this exercise without being seen.

When to use: you feel tension in your mouth and jaw, especially after talking all day. It’s also great if you need to blow off some steam.
4-7-8 breathing:
Breath in for a slow count of 4, hold your breath for 7 counts, and breathe out for 8 counts. Continue as long as you need to.

When to use: this technique is the most relaxing exercise among the others. Use it to calm your nervous system, especially if you’ve had a rather stressful day.

Breathing exercises are a great to to use to help you transition from your harried everyday life into your forest bathing practice. Use them the next time you go out into nature and take a moment to notice how different you feel afterward.

Breathing exercises are also effective anytime you feel overwhelmed or stressed, such as before giving a presentation or when you’re in an argument. I also like to use breathing exercises to help me fall asleep at night. It’s an effective tool to have at your disposal!

{Ready to try forest bathing? Grab our free starter guide with 3 guided forest bathing invitations}

I’d love to hear your observations about how these breathing techniques improved your shinrin-yoku practice. Leave a comment below!

January 28, 2019

A Winter Forest Bathing Exercise

What does winter remind you of?

Quick, right off the top of your head, you’re likely to come up with words like:

Hibernation.

Cold.

Snow.

Grayness.

Cold!

Many negative adjectives get attributed to winter such as dead, gray, cold, arctic, chilly, and barren.

As a Wisconsin native, I have my own aversions to winter. Being so far removed from the vibrating nature of summer makes me feel sad and closed off. I cringe in the late summer and fall, thinking about the oncoming weather changes.

I dread winter.

The outside world slows down and makes its way inside.

However, this year, I’ve tried to make a mental shift from the dread of winter to the opportunity in the season instead.

Of course, the life of trees holds the perfect metaphor for this.

Dormancy allows for maximum yield.

What happens to trees in winter?

It’s easy to think of the trees as “dead” in the winter. In fact, that’s often how we talk about them. But they’re far from dead!

The grueling conditions teach them how to thrive instead of die.

During their dormancy period, trees go through a slowing, self-preservation stage in order to proliferate come warmer weather.

An apple tree can’t produce a very good harvest unless they go through an adequate dormancy period.

Dormancy allows for maximum yield!

And even while the upper portions of trees stop growing in winter, their roots are very much alive and extending.

The metaphor is so perfect, it makes me a little giddy!

How to Human in the winter

The winter is the perfect time for humans to go inside too. Warm homes where we gather are where are roots also extend.

We need the period of rest and preservation to come alive in the summer.

We need the extremes of hot and cold to appreciate the full spectrum of temperature and season.

I mean, I think about the sheer work summer brings with it: the constant proliferation of weeds, the steady growth of lawn, the infiltration of bugs, the watering, and the number of activities I feel obligated to do outside while I can.

In winter, we can take a break from all those responsibilities and obligations. Let them lie in retreat under sheaths of snow.

We can focus on the activities that took a backseat in the summer, such as the waiting sewing projects, the interior repairs, the shelves of books that went unread.

That go-go-go energy of summer needs a balance of winter energy, just like the yin and yang, the masculine and feminine. Balance.

Winter is a slowing down and rooting, not a long, cold death.

The grueling conditions can teach us how to thrive instead of wither as well.

We don’t die slow deaths in the winter, like it feels like sometimes, we shed the layers that don’t serve us anymore and pay attention to what keeps us alive, not just physically but mentally too.

So, today, I offer you a winter forest bathing exercise to go along with this sentiment of rest and balance.

Winter Forest Bathing Exercise

Head to your favorite nature space outside. Make sure you’re bundled up enough to stay warm and comfortable.
Lean up against a tree or other natural structure and take a few large breaths, finding a deeper sense of relaxation with each breath. You may feel natural closing your eyes.
Take a moment to identify with the tree or object holding you up. The intense process its undertaking at this very moment.
Allow yourself to become drawn into the same process as you rest back-to-back. The turning inward. The slowing. The releasing of all the superfluous layers and stripping down to your true source of lifeblood. (The forest bathing version of the KonMarie method, haha).
Find the relaxation, the turning inward, the permission inside the slowness.
Next, bring your awareness to the outer layers of your body. The ones closest to the surface, exposed to the air. Next, bring your attention to the layer under that and the layer under that until you get to the core of your body.
Take a moment to appreciate how the outer layers of your body protect the deep warmth of your beating heart. Your body shivers and contracts and does all it can to preserve your inner body temperature. A gift. Appreciate these signs of self-preservation.
Now, slowly open your eyes to the life all around you. Smoke from chimneys, tweets from the hardy winter birds, deciduous greenery, tracks in the snow from romping rabbits. Make note of all the signs of life all around you.
Then, slowly make your way inside, taking the new insights this winter forest bathing practice gave with you.

Journaling challenge: use one page in your journal to doodle the signs of life you noticed. On another page, draw or describe the layers of meaning you noticed in the lively dormancy of winter.

Bonus kid-friendly challenge: gather little remnants of nature in your pockets. Bring them inside and set them up in a nice little nature display. Set out a magnifying glass for further inspection.

{If you enjoyed this exercise, check out our free forest bathing starter guide with three more in-depth forest bathing invitations.}

I’d love to hear your thoughts or see your journals. Come on back here and drop a comment about your winter forest bathing experience or drop them in the Forest Bathing Central Facebook Group.

January 2, 2019

DIY Pine Needle Body Oil

At our house, we use an Advent calendar to celebrate the days leading up to Christmas.

One of our Advent activities this year was to make pine needle body oil from our Christmas tree.

This kid-friendly project will likely turn into a yearly tradition in our house.

So, before you throw out your Christmas tree, I’ve got a great easy recipe for you using its needles.

Otherwise, you can use the pine needles from any coniferous tree to make this lovely winter oil.

Gather a basket-full of needles on your next forest bathing outing.

(Pin me! Here’s a PDF version)

Pine Needle Body Oil

Supplies

One clean, lidded glass jar
Enough pine, fir, or spruce needles* to fill the jar (ours was a Balsam fir)
Mild oil, such as olive or almond oil

*Note: you want to make sure the evergreens you harvest don’t get sprayed!

Directions

Pull the individual pine needles off the branches, place in a fine strainer, rinse, and let dry.
Then, fill your jar within an inch of the top with the pine needles, lightly compressing and muddling the needles with a chopstick or spoon.
Pour oil over the needles until the jar is full or the oil covers an inch above the top of the needles.
Label the jar and place in a cool, dark place for a month, shaking every so often.
After about 30 days, strain the needles from the oil and discard the needles. Bottle the infused oil.
Voila, your very own evergreen body oil!

How to use your pine needle body oil

I like to use evergreen body oil in a number of ways:

Self lymph massage. Just look up “lymph massage techniques” on YouTube and you’ll find plenty to get you started. Did you know your lymph system doesn’t have any sort of “pump” to drain its fluids? Most of the movement happens through movement (exercise), but you can improve drainage with massage. My favorite technique is to rub around my ears, down the back of my neck, and around the front of the neck to the collarbone.

Sore muscle relief. The coolness of evergreen oil feels great on achy muscles while the massage encourages blood flow to the area to help it heal. It smells way better than Bengay too!

Child foot massage. One of my favorite ways to soothe my kids is to give them foot rubs, especially right before bed or after football practice. The cooling effect of the pine oil targets those achy tootsies. There’s just something about a foot massage that guides the kids into a relaxed state of mind and something so sweet about the nurturing process of a foot rub.

Congestion chest rub. Evergreens have great sinus-clearing qualities. You could add a few drops of eucalyptus oil to a palmful of your evergreen oil and rub it across your chest for relief reminiscent of Vick’s.

Partner massage. Evergreen oil has a gender-neutral fragrance that’s perfect for either partner. Back rubs with evergreen oil are a great segue-way into intimacy.

Learn more about herbal body oiling here. I refer to Amber’s podcast often about herbal body oiling and love her description of how the absorption of fats nourishes the skin and nervous system. She also sells some really magnificent body oils and remedies (the elderberry elixir saves us every cold and flu season). #notsponsored

Handmade evergreen oil is a sweet gift for a personal friend or family member.

Otherwise, keep a bottle in your own apothecary.

This effective oil is worthy of the rudimentary or well-practiced herbalist. Almost everyone has access to pine needles and they offer too many healing benefits to ignore.

You can also use the oils to enjoy the benefits of forest bathing in the winter.

I’ve talked before about the tree that keeps on giving, and this is another pure example of that. Another way to utilize the gifts that our precious trees offer us.

Have fun!

From my roots to yours,

~Jess

P.S. if you make a jar, I’d love to see it! Tag @ForestBathingCentral on Instagram with your concoctions.

December 11, 2018

Gifts for the Forest Bathing and Nature Enthusiast

*This post contains affiliate links, so I may make a small commission for purchases made through a referral link, but the cost to you is the same.

Since it’s that time of year, and I’m putting together my own Christmas wish list, I figured I’d share what amazing forest bathing gifts I’ve come across. BTW, these are ALL on my list;)

If you grab them now, you should be able to get them by Christmas!

Handmade

Just lookit this forest ring from Etsy! It’s a steal at $21!

A woodland terrarium or terrarium kit is a great gift for someone who could use a little glimpse of the forest in the dead of winter.

Woodland playing blocks for kids! Wouldn’t you like your house to be filled with these kinds of toys? You might as well just peruse all the gifts from this seller, Treemagination.

Welded Roots is one of my favorite shops to watch. She often has branch and twig jewelry, like this tree and human shaking hands, to make your heart sing.

Field Guides

Any kind of nature, tree, or field guides for your area are great to have on hand, like Peterson Field Guides.

Or Audubon Field Guides.

Wearables

This graphic T-shirt just about sums up what I’m always thinking.

I can imagine reaching for this yoga root tree pullover as a wardrobe favorite.

Thoughtful accessories

This waterproof sit spot cushion is super portable and allows you to set up a sit spot anywhere.

I’ve purchased this exquisite journal several times already. It’s my absolute favorite. This one is lined, but…

You can also find a great unlined nature journal, if you like to draw.

Every forest therapy guide needs an authentic Japanese tea set for the tea ceremony.

And either a large thermos or portable propane kettle for hot water.

Get the benefits of forest bathing indoors with hinoki cypress essential oil.

Encourage your kids to play in the trees with fairy garden supplies.

Books

Don’t forget any of the books and movies on our Suggested Resources page. These are must-haves for any serious forest bather.

Also, I contributed to this forest bathing Go Love Yourself Box, which is basically a ready-made forest bathing gift box. You wouldn’t need anything else!

DIY Options

You can also go the handmade route with some of our DIY options, like the forest bath salts or a hand-carved walking stick.

Well, that forest bathing gift list should get you started and keep you going for awhile! Or at least help you get a good brainstorm of ideas.

I hope you and yours have an extraordinary holiday season!

I’d love to hear your gift-giving stories in the comments section! Stop back and let me know!

December 5, 2018

Our Top 10 Forest Bathing Tips

Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, isn’t complicated. In fact, I’d consider “complicated” an opposing principle of forest bathing.

Forest bathing is all about taking in the scenery and impact of the forest through all the senses.

In the Forest Bathing Immersion Guide, the first instruction is to: Open forest. Insert human.

Really, it is no more difficult than that.

But, a few tips and tricks can enrich your experience.

So, we’re sharing our top 10 forest bathing tips, even though we could probably come up with hundreds;)

{Learn more about forest bathing with our free starter guide.}

Top 10 Forest Bathing Tips

Pre-1: just get outside and don’t make it too complicated. But we talked about that already.

Limit technology and distractions. The entire point of forest bathing is to take a break from the whir and buzz and breakneck pace of the technological world. You may need to reach for your phone for GPS, safety, or occasional Instagram purposes, but try to limit phone use as much as you can. If you really want to take snapshots of memorable moments, you can always try imprinting instead.
Find a sit spot you can return to. Read all about what sit spots are and how to find one here.
Set an intention for your practice. Just like they say in yoga, set an intention for your practice. When you enter the woods, think about something simple you want to accomplish while you’re there. Perhaps you need to de-stress from a harried day at the office or you want to feel a little magic, then let that be your intention. Some other examples of forest bathing intentions include: to feel relaxed, to tone down anxiety, to feel closer to God, to notice something new, to tune your ear to bird songs.
Your intention should be very simple and related to being in the forest. Your intention shouldn’t be to figure out how to solve your whole family’s problems. That’s too big and unrelated. However, you may be able to get a short reprieve from family drama in the forest so you can return refreshed.
Don’t force it. Even if you have an intention, don’t force it. Don’t feel obligated to leave the forest a less stressed, changed person. Don’t feel pressured to go to the forest so you can relax and get on with your life. Wrap your intention loosely around your shoulders and allow whatever happens to happen.
Perform an entrance ritual. I like to call this your threshold exercise. Find a ritual you can perform before entering the forest to set the practice apart from the rest of your day, to separate the experience from your frenzied life. To let go.
My favorite threshold exercise is to practice deep breathing through some branch-supported stretches. Some forest bathers leave their cares with a worry stone or worry tree. You may even practice changing your shoes or wiping your feet before entering the forest. Whatever threshold exercise you choose, use the time to transition and adjust your mindset.
Don’t go far. Although some liken forest bathing to hiking, you really don’t want to “travel” when you’re forest bathing. You should stay within a general vicinity as you move through the exercises. You may choose not to even move from your sit spot the entire time. But forest bathing is more about standing still and noticing than moving at any sort of notable pace.
Engage all your senses. Use your five+ senses to really experience the full spectrum of the forest. Forest bathing is an exercise in mindfulness where you pay attention to everything happening right now.
[Your “other” senses]
Bring your journal. A nature journal is one of a forest bather’s best allies. Journaling is a means of gathering your thoughts and experiences into a cohesive message or record. Journaling also guides you to notice things and put them into words. You can use your journal to draw and study plants, record observations from your sit spot, focus your attention, write passing thoughts, or record haiku moments before they flash away.
You could also use your journal to record information about your favorite trails, store or draw trail maps, or press leaves. You’ll be glad you have these records someday when you look back at all your entries and relive your favorite moments. You’ll have a tangible record of all your forest enrichment.
Practice gratitude. Cultivate a heart of gratefulness whenever you go into the forest. Any time, really. But gratitude for nature and its Creator changes your entire perspective.
To practice gratitude, just think about all the things you’re thankful for right where you’re at. Whenever you notice something that warms your heart or makes you excited, extend your gratitude toward it. Forest bathing is meant to be a pleasant activity, and gratitude enhances those pleasantries. Getting into the practice of gratitude enriches the entire experience–and your life!
Perform an exit ritual. Just like you perform an entrance ritual to shift your focus, you can also practice an exit ritual to transition back into your regular life. This helps you sort of bring your head back out of the clouds (er, trees), so to speak, and prepare your mind for the change. Change your shoes back. Use this time to journal. Or just take a minute to take in how you feel after your forest bathing adventure.

I also explain all of these forest bathing tips in this video:

I sure hope these forest bathing tips enrich your next experience in the forest. They’re simple, yet very profound once you actually put them into practice.

I want to know…

What are your favorite forest bathing tips?