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How to Hone Your Intuition with Forest Bathing

forest bathing intuition

 

Sharpened intuition is a natural byproduct of forest bathing.

When you come into full awareness in a natural setting, you prime your intuition.

But intuition is a rather esoteric concept, isn’t it?

 

Let’s talk more about what intuition is, how to hone it, and ways forest bathing hones it.

 

 

Watch the video version here:

Definition of intuition

Here it is, straight from dictionary.com:

Intuition [in-too-ish-uhn] n.

  1. A direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process
  2. Immediate apprehension
  3. A keen and quick insight

Intuition is the ability to understand something immediately without conscious reasoning. It’s an inner knowing without knowing why you know it.

Intuition might manifest as “a gut feeling” or a “shift in energy.”

 

Your intuition may signal something like:

  1. Someone’s watching you
  2. You need to get out of here
  3. A person gives you an eerie feeling
  4. You feel compelled to connect with someone
  5. There’s something more going on beneath the surface

 

Intuition is a mix of a little bit of this and a little bit of…

  • Awareness of your immediate and peripheral surroundings
  • Observation
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Instinct (versus rational thought)
  • Gut feeling

Esoteric yes, but we all have some understanding of how intuition works. And we all have it.

So, how does forest bathing play a role?

 

How forest bathing hones intuition

The factors that make forest bathing the perfect environment for intuition building include:

Stillness and quietness:

A relaxed quiet is the best environment to access intuition. You cannot hear your inner knowing over the noise of distractions, thoughts, media…the world. Shinrin-yoku puts you into that quiet, receptive state.

Awareness:

The mindfulness aspect of forest bathing puts you into a state of conscious awareness with all five+ senses. The more you build your conscious awareness, the more your unconscious can work.

What this means is, you might be sitting in the woods and suddenly feel someone else approaching. Your peripheral awareness may pick up a slight shadow or a tiny twig crack that your consciousness didn’t notice.

Natural setting:

Our ancestors primarily lived out of doors. All of our natural instincts, our capacity for intuition, were built upon our natural heritage in nature. Nature is what honed our intuition to where it’s at today. Intuition and nature are so inextricably linked, you can’t separate them.

Journaling:

Nature journaling gives you an opportunity to process your experiences and put them into words. If you just think through your experiences in nature, those thoughts never stick in your memory and tend to trail off. Thoughts are ephemeral. Journaling is concrete. Writing it down gives you practice in capturing your gut feelings. Processing and capturing those thoughts gives you better insight into your intuition.

 

But why should you care about intuition?

 

Benefits of Intuition

Intuition is a huge gift that we’ve been given naturally. Intuition is a wise guide that:

  • Helps you avoid trouble or unsafe situations
  • Provides relief knowing you can trust your gut to make the right decisions
  • Gives comfort knowing the right answers are inside you
  • Lets you know who you can trust and who you can’t

Our entire survival as a species has depended on intuition. Certainly it can make your life easier to navigate.

 

Other ways to hone intuition

Slow down and connect mind, body, and spirit: Any practice that gives full attention to your whole self makes your inner guide easier to hear. Practices like yoga, prayer, singing, etc, enhance your inherent guidance system.

Get into a natural environment: Like we talked about before, nature and intuition go hand-in-hand, so any way you can get into nature gets you in better touch with your natural instincts.

Get clear on your values: Write them down and review them, daily. The more focused you are on your values, the easier you’ll be able to recognize when something is “off.” Your values are your conscious guidance system while your intuition is your unconscious guidance system.

Practice: Practice using your intuition on small things, like small decisions. Which path to take at a fork, which meal to choose at the restaurant, which person to start a conversation with. Practice what your gut tells you, before you have a chance to rationalize. With practice, your intuition will get stronger and stronger and you’ll be able to hear it better.

Meditate: Any practice that gets you into stillness and awareness puts you into direct contact with your intuition.

Solitude and introspection: When you’re with other people, you’re often concerned with their needs, paying attention to verbal and nonverbal cues, and can feel inhibited. In solitude, you can be completely uninhibited. Uninhibited introspection provides space for intuition to show her beautiful crown.

Creativity: The creative mind and the intuitive mind are attached. The same unconscious mechanisms that spawn creativity promote intuition. Sometimes your intuition even comes through in your art. Play with your creative side, whether that’s painting, gardening, wood whittling, or origami to get in touch with your intuition.

Journaling: I have to mention it again, because I can’t recommend journaling enough. Stream-of-consciousness journaling is one way to really explore your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It gives you insight into why you think the way you do. By decluttering your mind and getting more acquainted with your thoughts, you can start to decipher what intuition is telling you.

Listen to your body: You know how you can develop a craving for salty food when your body needs sodium? Well, the same force that tells you that your body needs a certain mineral tells you not to get into that car. Your “cravings” and your “gut feelings” are part of the same network, so when you practice one, you practice the other.

 

As you get more aligned with and aware of your intuition, it will get stronger. Like muscles, it takes practice and strengthening to grow. And as your intuition grows, it gives you more helpful guidance.

Well, that’s it for today. I hope this information has given you some epic insight into intuition and how to hone it.

 

I’d like to hear from you:

Have you noticed an improvement in your intuition since you’ve started forest bathing? What gifts has intuition given you?

Tree Ring-Span Storytelling

February Sand County Almanac

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission when you purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for supporting us!

 

 

I was just reading some Aldo Leopold, as any good nature literature lover, as he describes history through the ring-span of a tree.

In A Sand County Almanac, Leopold describes cutting down a dead oak.

He explains, in detail, the events that happened in the surrounding land, that even indirectly affected the tree. He also describes the conditions through which the little acorn had to survive in order to take hold.

 

A Sand County Almanac

 

It’s really a beautiful few pages. He begins with this excerpt:

 

There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.

To avoid the second, he should lay split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator.

 

I feel like right now, during this quarantine, no words have rung truer.

We all feel right now how fragile our entire world is. We have never felt so vulnerable or acutely aware of the processes that must happen in order for toilet paper to get to your toilet paper holder.

Spiritual dangers, indeed.

But then, he describes the saw cutting through layers of history, one year or decade at a time:

 

…and then on a crisp winter’s day, we laid a newly filed saw to its bastion base.

Fragrant little chips of history spewed from the saw cut and accumulated on the snow before each kneeling sawyer.

We sensed that these two piles of sawdust were something more than wood, that they were the integrated transect of a century, that our saw was biting its way, stroke by stroke, decade by decade, into the chronology of a lifetime written in concentric annual rings of good oak.

 

If you want to hear the whole story, here, let me read it to you…

 

 

I just love this idea of keeping a ring-span record, a chronology in concentric rings, so I put together a nature chronicling exercise below in honor of this beautiful concept.

 

Tree Ring-Span Journaling Exercise:

Grab your nature journal and locate a tree in your own yard. (This is especially ideal when you plant a new tree.)

If you’re using an existing tree, guess how old your tree is. You don’t need to be precise. Any guess is okay.

If you want to be particular, or give your kids an interesting science project, you can measure the girth and make an estimation from there based on this guide.

Then, draw the same number of rings on a new sheet or use our free tree ring printable.

Draw an arrow to the outermost rings and describe what the tree has witnessed in the last year or two.

Then, make your way inward and describe what history the tree holds from years and decades past.

You could look through your local department of natural resource’s records for relevant events that have happened in your area and plot them on your ring map.

Otherwise, you can scrapbook the major events that have happened in your life through the tree rings.

In honor of this exercise, I started a page in my nature journal for a tree we planted just 2 years ago with a quick Instax picture. It already holds a few stories in its tiny little trunk.

The tree was a gift for my husband. He asked for a red maple. I got him a red maple. He told me that wasn’t right. He wanted a type of maple that carries red leaves. Hehe.

This year, of course, our tree stands undeterred by the great COVID-19 quarantine of 2020 that will end up in history books and in the spaces between the tree rings.

 

Tree ringspan

 

Wouldn’t this be a really neat surprise to leave the next homeowners of the house?

Many of us leave behind the notches on the wall showing our kids’ growth, swatches for the paint we used on the walls, and a list of numbers for contractors. How special would it be for a new homeowner to receive a sweet little tree diary like this? A reminder of all the stories the place holds.

 

Homeschool Tree Ring Science

Just a note about homeschooling, since most of the world is encountering that right now…

You can tie all of this into a fun little tree ring unit of study for kids of any age.

You can incorporate the tree ring printable from here, the February passage from Sand County Almanac I read above, a sketchbook, and a few trips outside in your curriculum.

tree ring layers diagram

For the younger crowd, just keep it simple and teach them about the basic concept of tree rings. Find a stump or a slab of wood and count the rings. You can also make bark rubbings with the side of a crayon in your sketchbook.

Elementary age kids can use the tree ring printable to study the parts of a tree trunk. They can also try the tree aging exercise I mentioned earlier.

High schoolers can study the literature and more about Aldo Leopold. They can also do a more in-depth tree science study and keep a more advanced nature journal.

You can easily encapsulate math, art, science, and literature with this unit. Fun stuff!

 

 

Final thoughts

I hope this short literature study has your mind buzzing with thoughts and ideas. I hope you never look at tree rings the same after this!

Please stop back here and let me know how you’re using this exercise (otherwise I’ll never know!) and ask any question you have. I love hearing from you!

 

From my roots to yours,

Jess

 

The Thinking Tree: Brain Catharsis in the Forest

forest bathing invitation

 

On my birthday, all I asked for was a day alone in the woods.

That’s all I really wanted.

It just felt right.

You can probably guess why.

We lead really interrupted lives. 

When I’m home alone for several days with children, for example, I start to realize just how interrupted I am.

I can’t start a project,

Read a page in a book,

Watch a Youtube video,

Start an Amazon order,

Write a blog post,

Experience a meditation…

Without being interrupted approximately 12,382 times.

Just by the kids.

That’s not even counting the ads, the outside influences, the phone, the dogs, etc.

Ultimately…

I cannot start a thought and finish it to completion.

How often are your thoughts interrupted?

 

Do you know where you can start a thought and finish it to completion?

The forest.

Or perhaps a sensory deprivation tank.

But that costs and takes more effort to organize.

Forest bathing is free and accessible.

So, to the forest I went.

 

And I did a few practices there to allow my thoughts to flow uninterrupted.

I found a sit spot off the trail in case anyone else was on the trails.

I flipped my phone to silent,

And I started a mindfulness exercise by concentrating on one leaf on a stump. I returned to that same leaf every time my thoughts started to wander.

I also focused on my breathing, taking in the minty fresh air.

After grounding myself like this, I finally did allow my mind to wander.

I also brought my journal and other writing paper in case I needed to brainstorm and wring out my soaked mind.

And it was glorious!

A novelty really.

To sit quietly and allow the forest to focus me rather than allowing my focus to be stolen from me.

 

The next time you’re in need of a mind break (and it takes some intentional focus to even notice when this is happening), find your thinking tree.

 

The Thinking Tree Exercise

  1. Find a quiet sit spot [learn about sit spots here] in the forest, a park, or your yard. Ideally away from passersby and other distractions.
  2. Take up to 10 minutes to settle in, taking deep breaths.
  3. Find a spot to focus. Could be something like the tip of a plant, a certain leaf, or a pebble. Every time your mind starts to wander, bring your attention back to your focus spot.
  4. Once you’re grounded and your mind has quieted, shift into thinking mode. Don’t force thought, just allow your mind to wander and your thoughts to focus wherever they will.
  5. Keep a notebook handy to write down any ideas you want to remember later.
  6. Just allow your thoughts and follow them wherever they lead.
  7. If something has been weighing heavily on your mind, it will probably naturally come in. Let it. Oftentimes, nature is a great place to find solutions or perspective for those problems. If a question has been bugging you lately or you need clarity on a decision, let it in. If everything is going well, let it in. Give your mind space to think about whatever it gravitates toward. Only try to steer your thought process toward the productive, not the limiting.
  8. When you feel like you’ve reached the completion of this exercise, however long that takes, close your eyes, take a few culminating breaths, and return to your normal routine.
  9. Take a moment to think about how good this exercise makes you feel, to follow thoughts without unwanted interruption.

 

Check out this Livestream where I explain the process in visual form.

 

As simple as this exercise sounds, the Thinking Tree exercise is profoundly cathartic. It’s brain catharsis. 

When you return home from this exercise, you should notice a sense of relief at allowing your brain to do its thing, uninterrupted.

You might find you’re able to concentrate better once your brain is wrung out.

You may have more patience.

You may feel a tangible sense of relief.

 

We all need those breaks from interruption.

 

Return to your thinking tree every time you need a break from over-stimulation, too much input, too much distraction, too much interruption.

 

I’d love to hear from you…come back and tell me about your experiences at The Thinking Tree.

A Winter Forest Bathing Exercise

forest bathing in winter

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

  1. Head to your favorite nature space outside. Make sure you’re bundled up enough to stay warm and comfortable.
  2. 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.
  3. Take a moment to identify with the tree or object holding you up. The intense process its undertaking at this very moment.
  4. 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).
  5. Find the relaxation, the turning inward, the permission inside the slowness.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.

 

forest nature display

 

 

{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.