Early Spring-Energy Forest Bath

A gentle guided forest bath meditation designed to help you slow down, regulate your nervous system, and reconnect with the natural world. No need to be walking or in the woods! Through mindfulness, sensory awareness, and grounding visualization, this practice supports deep relaxation, stress relief, and emotional clarity. You’ll be invited to soften your body, expand your presence, and experience the restorative rhythms of the forest. Ideal for moments of anxiety, overwhelm, or when you need to return to calm and inner steadiness.

Transcript

Hello, I'm Cheryl B. Engelhardt, And welcome to today's Forest Bath. If you're joining me from the woods, Beautiful. You can walk around if you'd like in your own woods, Or you can sit and watch inside of mine. If you're listening to this, You can watch, Or you can close your eyes and imagine your own forest. This is an early spring energy forest bath meditation, Which means it doesn't matter what season you're physically in, What the weather is technically like. This is for the energy of coming out of a hibernation into an impending bloom. We'll get started. Take a deep breath with me through your nose, And out through the mouth, Indicating to your brain that you are safe. You're not breathing through your mouth, You're not getting chased. We are safe. We are surrounded by big, Beautiful trees, By bushes, By blooms, By emptiness, That we get to fill with whatever we want to fill it with. As we take a breath in through our nose, Let the air of the forest nourish and wash our lungs as we send out anything that does not serve us. The woods is a beautiful place to remember that what is essential to us may not be what is actually in our lives. It's a nice reminder to be intentional with what we want to be putting in our own forest groves. We'll breathe in one more time, And out. We'll start to listen. Listen to the birds, To branches, To the wind. If you're walking, Listen to your own footsteps, To leaves rustling, Maybe there are little critters running around. Take in through your ears your surroundings. You're welcome to also take in mine. With the next breath in through the nose, Let's notice what it is we're smelling. Are we smelling that earthy dirt? Is it wet? Are we smelling flowers or pine trees? Is there just a freshness in the air that we can really be intentional about noticing? Next, Let's look around. What are the predominant colors that you are seeing? In this early spring, Late winter meditation, There might be a lot of brown. There might be some grays and light reds. There might be the greens of little buds popping up. Same thing with red buds on the trees. What are you noticing with your eyes about this forest experience, Whether in your own or in mine? Next, Let's notice what we are feeling on our skin, On our hands, On our face. Are we feeling sunlight? Are we feeling wind? What is the temperature like? Is it cool? Is it humid and clammy? Is it crisp? Take notice of any sensations you're feeling externally on your skin. Let's be aware now of our entire body. Just do a quick body scan from head to toe. Just imagine a ball of energy, A ball of light going from the top of your head down through your throat, Down your spine, Through your torso, Splitting at your hips, Going down through your legs, And into your feet, Into the ground, Becoming completely rooted, Stable, Secure, And connected to the rest of the forest around you. Look around to the closest trees and just imagine that your roots are now intertwined with their roots, That you are one with the nature around you. Let this firm stance on the ground be an indicator of how rooted you are, Of how stable your nervous system is and can be. Let the other roots of other trees support you and embody you and embrace you. Now imagine your roots and that ball of energy going through your roots and connecting to the closest tree's roots and going up those roots and into that tree. If you were to walk over and touch that tree, You'd be able to feel that ball of energy that was sourced in you. Let that energy rustle inside of that tree. Let it absorb all of its history, Of its beauty, Of its sturdiness. Now imagine that ball of energy descending back down through the trunk of the tree into its own roots and connecting back to your intertwined roots as it makes its way back through your roots, Through your feet, Up through your legs, Through your hips, Up past your heart, Through your throats, To the back of your head and up through the top of your head. Take a deep breath in as you absorb all of the beautiful stabilizing energy that you received from that nearby tree. The early spring energy is that of rest and of hibernation and of transitioning out of the spirit of rest into a spirit of blooming without yet having to take the action. This is a period of transition and of observation. It's a beautiful time to get very present to gratitude and to honor all of the rest that you've allowed yourself to be given, Whether intentional or unintentional. Sometimes we may get sick or something happens that forces us to slow down and rest. We want to honor all of those periods of rest in the recent past so that we can step into fully rejuvenated the next season of bloom. If you are in a season of early spring, Look around and see if you have any buds around you, Small, Little, Green perhaps or maybe red, Not quite fully bloomed leaves or flowers but just starting. Think about the energy it takes to emerge after a deep sleep, After a deep darkness. Give yourself the same grace that you're giving these little buds if you too are emerging from darkness. It takes something to really honor where you are and to give yourself permission to think this is perfect. I am exactly where I need to be, In the middle of a forest, Connecting with trees, Connecting with my rooted nervous system, Connected to my grounded energy and connecting to the future that I am intentionally stepping into. Right now, It doesn't require much but to keep breathing through the transition, To keep trusting that the blooms will come because they always do and to know that you are fully equipped to bloom. You have everything it takes right now. Take another breath in through your nose, Breathing in all of that clean forest air and letting go any narratives that are not serving you. Any stories you may be telling yourself about where you should or shouldn't be right now. Any narratives that you hear, Those little voices way in the back of your head telling you that you're not good enough or that you're not doing it right. They're there to protect you but you can breathe them out and let them go and let them ascend up to the sky through the leaves of the trees. Sigh out those narratives one more time. Breathe in possibility, Breathe in rest, Permission, Self-love and love for that interconnectedness that you feel when you are right here. Go ahead and relax your shoulders and relax your hips and knees and wrists and elbows and get back into your body as you feel your body existing as one entity in this woods. An individual yet part of the whole, Grounded yet flexible, A part of the whole. Rested yet excited for what's coming next. We'll do one more deep breath together and out. And if your eyes were closed, You can open them. If you were seated still, Go ahead and wiggle your fingers and toes and roll your shoulders back and feel free to take up some space. Thank you so much for joining me on today's forest bath. I hope you listen to my other meditations and forest baths and music to help ground your nervous system and step into the best version of yourself. I'm Cheryl B. Engelhardt. Thank you for being here. Have a beautiful day.