Forest Therapy Nashville

We’re overscheduled, overstimulated, and it’s not going so well y’all. Vulnerable share of actual events and feelings from the human world. ♥️
Most species in nature communicate constantly. With such overwhelm of info in our complex brains (hello 500 events in my algo), humans seem to be moving fast and losing communication threads, diligence, and accountability to each other.

Can we slow down and preserve the integrity of our little webs?! Saying it out loud into the ether in hopes we can! 🙏🏽✨

Putting a drop in this conversation in hopes of always being real ( ) and of nourishing not only nature connection but human connection and nourishment.

I was almost running in the grocery this morning. Then I remembered my forest bathing skills I’ve repped for seven years now. I guided myself to regulation in the cereal aisle.

As a mom with a few jobs, including being an guide, I get amped. I can’t always be outside. Bringing my forest bathing skills inside helps me tremendously.

🙌🏼You can reclaim your senses. Your body. Your nervous system, too. Turn on. Tune in. ✨

Walk with me to remember how, if you’d like some ideas.

So thankful for my forest mentors (human and non) and for this practice every day. It’s a friend and a teacher.

The truth may reveal itself without analyzing the lie! Our brains 🧠 can make stories and nature 🌲 can help.
When our nervous systems are on guard 😬(maybe from a certain event or maybe from life life-ing), we imagine 💭 threats to explain it (“tiger!” “They hate me!” “I’m the worst!”). Untruths.

It’s good to be aware of your habits and patterns of story making, but there’s a helpful triage tool in your bag…. Settling. Grounding. Regulating. 🙌🏼

As the dirt storm of our system settles, we see more clearly. Often, the threat/story we imagined isn’t true. Let nature help you come back to presence and regulation in your system. No tigers. 🐅 🚫

Thank you brains and bodies for protecting us, we’re learning how to work with you! 💖

Back after Summer hibernation! Join the first Fall forest bathing walk! Connect with yourself and nature and soak up benefits of this spacious deep practice.

Forest bathing is proven to lower cortisol, heart rate, and more. It’s proven to increase feelings of creativity, attention capacity, and peacefulness. It also decreases anxiety and depression. All this right off Briley Pkwy in ? Yes thank you.

This is a two hour guided walk based in the senses. Refresh. Chill. Be quiet. ♥️

It’s not just hype. I’ve seen people benefit in real time over and over again through the years. Make a few hours for yourself to do something different! Reclaim your body and mind and put down your phone. We can do this!

What’s it like to remember you’re a sentient animal in a system of beings? Every shadow our skin catches, every wind we feel, every step we take, every curiosity we have … the earth feels it too.

As I noticed these shadows, I watched them move then thought about the wind, and the moon, and air, and sun. I felt comforted and playful for a moment. I caught a vid so you may see what’s easily possible.

I think these moments matter so much. Nothing but the earth and our bodies to create a feeling. How freaking cool, and free, and choiceful, and cellular.

We’re constantly in relationship with nature, whether we notice it or not. And it’s in relationship with us!

🌾

Sound up for a mini connection invitation. Postcard from the sea. 👋🏼
What pushes; what pulls? What rubs; what flows? What makes a dance? Do they love it? Do I?
Do they know or know not the wind as it blows?

More questions that arise in me when connecting with these beings. 🙏🏽 🌊

At the risk of you thinking I’m a loon, I share a brief example of yesterday’s inner dialogue with my yard beings. Many of us need relational feedback, practice in vulnerability, or relationship shifts. Practicing with humans can be tricky. Especially with a history of relational wounding and triggers.

Enter… nature. ✨There’s a web of more-than-human* beings so intricate and massive , and you are a part of it. When you slow down and use your senses to connect with Earth beings, you can practice so many things: using your voice, inhabiting your body, following your intuition and desire, being heard, being responded to, requesting support, being supported, handling delight… the possibilities are as numerous as the human interactions in our lives.

Is this what nature connection sounds like in my head all the time? No. Sometimes it’s less this and more emotion, somatic sensation, or nonverbal understanding. Sometimes painful, sometimes silly. You get the idea.

🌲I invite you to your own practice. Walk into the field of connection and see how it feels. Join a forest therapy walk or schedule a private forest bathing session and I’ll do my best to invite you towards a slower, deeper relationship with the world around you.

*”more-than-human beings” is a term coined by the founder of , Amos Clifford. 🙌🏼

Nashville has komerebi today. In Japanese, this word is the essence of sunlight filtering through the trees, not only the dappled light but the feeling we get watching it. Aaaaahhhhh.
Notice it. Play with it? I spontaneously wanted to play hop scotch with the sunspots and had a little joy moment. We’re allowed to interact with the Earth. How can you experience komerebi?

Gratitude for the Japanese and Korean roots from where forest bathing came into consciousness as a practice.

Nature is a phenomenal guide. Urban living is a training ground for our senses to tune in at will. Can you only see the power lines in this vid? Play around with your focus. What else exists? Can you only hear the car? Does it annoy you? What else is making sound? What does it feel like to want purity? What’s it like to think purity is perfection? How does that work out for you, brothers and sisters? 😜

I’ve been pondering the barriers between us and joy/pleasure/wonder. Sometimes it’s a bit of a hike to get to the place where you can really feel it. That’s ok. Let’s put on our boots and roll!
For some it’s knowing the thing of wonder will go away. For some it’s a shame of feeling excitement or salivating joy. For some it’s been so long you wonder if you ever felt it at all and doubt you can. For some it’s a rigid yearning for zero contaminants of the perfect joy moment.

I have a few spots in my therapy practice if you’d like to explore psychotherapy with me. I also have a forest bathing walk June 20th in Nashville with spots open! Let’s walk in the realness toward your hopes and sun colors together!

💖🙏🏽🌲✨🏄