Hello and a warm welcome to your forest bathing experience.
My name is Mags of Wild Soul Yoga and Wellness and I'm a yoga and meditation teacher and a ritual guide and I've led many forest bathing meditation experiences through the beautiful countryside of County Wicklow,
Ireland and today I'm leading you.
Whether you're in a forest,
A park or your own garden and no matter where in the world you happen to be listening from you're so welcome.
Because during this meditation you will be bathing your self in the forest atmosphere and using all of your senses including the sense of sound I'm probably not going to recommend that you listen to this audio through earphones or earbuds because it might block out the sounds of the forest so you might be better off playing this aloud.
For that same reason I have no background music or sounds or chimes or anything here just my voice and there'll be lots of times where I'm completely silent so you can bathe in the forest atmosphere.
If you haven't already find somewhere that you are going to be able to be comfortable sitting or standing for up to 30 minutes our experience is going to last so you might want to sit down maybe a bench or maybe on the forest floor on the grass if you need to pause at any stage to make yourself comfortable that's okay just resume when you're ready.
As I mentioned we'll be moving through the senses and I want you to just really you know allow your mind to move around and to focus on the different elements of the forest as best you can like you might be distracted your mind might be busy that's completely normal no matter how enjoyable or relaxing that hopefully you will find this experience.
There are longer term benefits as well so even if the mind is really busy today just offer yourself some self-compassion you're still doing something wonderful for yourself but hopefully be able to tune in and enjoy it from the get-go.
That being said now we are going to begin shortly and we're going to be beginning with the sense of sound and for that reason I want to ask you to close your eyes for the first couple of senses because our sense of sight if we're lucky enough to have the sense of sight can kind of overtake all others sometimes so you want to gently close down the eyes here if you're comfortable to do so just to remove that sense temporarily.
So we are beginning with our focus on the sense of sound begin to tune in to your sense of sound listen to the sounds of the forest allow yourself to identify all the sounds around you and make a mental list of all the sounds you can hear right now can you hear the sound of the wind or trees leaves blowing in the wind is there any running water or rain are the birds singing can you hear the sound of your breath coming in and out take some time now to really sit with these sounds really listen tune into the details more closely can you hear where the wind meets the trees and leaves is the wind gentle or loud far away or near can you hear where the wind meets the trees and leaves if there are bird sounds are there different birds is there any pattern to the bird sounds that you can hear are the birds communicating with each other are there dogs barking in the distance are there planes overhead are there voices from other people around you keeping the eyes closed if you can we're moving on from the sense of sound now to the sense of smell sometimes the smells of the forest might not be obvious it might take some time to tune in what does a forest smell like what are the different things you can smell is there anything fragrant or floral that you can pick up on can you smell any woodiness or earthiness are there herbs,
Leaves,
Pine if there was rain recently is there a smell of a damp forest floor what about a dry tree bark can you smell anything pungent or decaying or is it just fresh air what smells are strongest what smells are closest to you what smells of the forest do you like and not like what smells from nature do you like and not like take some time to sit and notice with the sense of smell naturally following the sense of smell is the sense of taste so keeping the eyes closed if you can start to tune in to your sense of taste thinking about the many flavours that the forest can provide us with like wild berries the taste of edible flowers earthy herbs thinking about the taste of wild garlic and mushrooms leafy forest greens nettle tea can you taste the freshness of the forest air at the back of your throat taking some time to sit with the sense of taste and thinking about what tastes might be sweet sweet or sour floral fragrant bitter staying with the sense of taste for one more minute here the last moment of the eyes being closed we're getting ready to introduce the sense of sight by gently blinking the eyes open and just a crack then to halfway and then to fully opening your eyes to what can you see in the forest allow your eyes to go in and out of focus as you look at different parts of the forest explore what you can see and make a mental list of all the items you can see break that list down now even further so trees,
How many different types of trees the leaves on the trees,
The twigs,
The branches,
The stumps,
The bark can you see flowers how many different flowers can you see what colours can you see green,
But how many different shades brown,
But how many different tones thinking now about the less obvious colours that you might not have noticed until now where the light is shining and where there are shadows things that look damp things that look dry the biggest thing you can see and the smallest thing you can see sitting with the sense of sight now and finally finally we arrive to touch the sense of touch think about all those textures that you saw that you can see and what they might feel like all the different surfaces rough,
Smooth pointy soft,
Bumpy,
Slippy,
Sticky,
Bristly if you can and you'd like to feel the forest floor beneath you reach out to a leaf or a piece of tree bark or a flower explore the sense of touch whether real or imaginary whether in your hand or your mind notice which textures you're most drawn to what sensation they bring or would bring if you were holding these things in your hand and thinking too about the sense of touch what other things can you feel the air going in and out of your body as you breathe the rise and fall of your body as you breathe the air all around you your sit bones connecting with the earth or the bench where your feet are the sensation of the fabrics of your clothing on your body sitting with the sense of touch in a moment we'll revisit all of the senses one by one but just for one minute this time and with no prompting or guidance from me I'll leave you in silence to bathe in the sense if you would like to you can close your eyes for the first couple of senses again just to remove that strong sense of sight we're beginning our journey through the senses once again with the sense of sound tuning in to your sense of smell the sense of taste the sense of sight the sense of touch all of the senses together now and identify which sense resonated with you the most just sit with that sense now for a final reflection here think about the elements of the senses that resonated with you the most and how you can bring them into your life colours,
Textures,
Scents,
Smells is there anything you can incorporate into your home or your daily routines to reinforce that connection with nature that oneness if you found any of the senses or elements of the senses relaxing or gave you any sort of sense of wellbeing think about how you can incorporate that in listening to nature sounds diffusing essential oils drinking herbal tea using certain colours in your home just take this last moment to contemplate that and close your eyes and one final time today I'm going to ask you to just temporarily remove the sense of sight by closing down your eyes and start to rub your palms together vigorously to generate some heat between the hands and then place the hands over the closed eyes allow the heat to penetrate into the eye sockets for a moment keeping the eyes closed bring your left hand to the centre of your belly your right hand to the centre of your chest bring your chin slightly down towards your chest and thank yourself the forest mother nature Gaia whatever word you'd like to use here and thank yourself so much for allowing yourself this time to really slow down take a deep breath in through the nose and a long clearing breath out through the mouth repeat that two more times slowly blink the eyes open and allow the eyes to settle if you can take some time now to just sit and relax and reflect on your experience or mindfully move through the forest and enjoy for now our experience together has come to an end it has been my pleasure and honour to hold a space for you today I can see you in my mind's eye and I really hope you enjoyed and I hope to see you again on the next meditation thank you for joining me Namaste
