Like an onion

The intense nature connection that you can experience during a forest bath is very special. As a forest bathing guide, I love the moment when I see the participants merge with the forest and with themselves. You can see it in their eyes that get a little glassy and the blissful smile playing on their faces. It strikes me time and again that this moment of connection usually already takes place during the beginning of the forest pool. From that moment on, a hidden gate opens up somewhere in us through which the forest can easily penetrate into us, deeper and deeper. I like to compare the experience with an onion of which we remove a peel more and more during the forest bath to eventually reach the core.

Each forest pool is different and each participant experiences a forest pool in his own unique way. And every forest bathing guide is also different and has its own specific accent in his / her offer. What I think we all have in common are the basic ingredients of a forest bath, namely the stillness, slowing down and the conscious opening of the senses so that the atmosphere can flow into the forest. In addition, there is a whole range of different ingredients that forest bathing guides use to create their own style.

Special ingredient

What I love as a 'special ingredient' are the Celtic seasonal festivals. Since my early years, these parties have been an important guideline and that is why it is a matter of course to weave them into the Barrevoets offer. They act as coat hangers around which I build my walks (but also by extension my life).

Our Celtic and Germanic ancestors (by extension all natural peoples) probably did not know a word like 'nature connection' at all, they were so intensely one with nature in a way that we do not know today that such words were completely unnecessary. I don't see them agreeing to go forest bathing 😊 That is precisely why their past offers such a rich source of inspiration to integrate into nature-connecting activities such as forest bathing.

The cycles of their annual celebrations are like gateways that open a profound connection with the natural world and with our own true natural inner world - our inner landscape. As a forest bathing guide and nature coach, I like to lift the veils that hang around these gates a bit and make them visible to the participants. For example, some of the invitations or exercises that shape the forest pool each time become a small ceremony or ritual that serves as anchor points to internalize that from the outside world. The seasonal parties are, as it were, a kind of natural mirror where we can become aware of what is really going on, separate from the everyday, but linked to the transition from one to the other. They are linked to change, to transitions and can help us to make contact within ourselves with what we want to change, renew, process.

Ancient roots

My experience with integrating the seasonal parties in a forest pool or nature coaching is that it brings an in-depth accent. By integrating a touch of our common ancestry, we also connect with our ancient common roots. It is plugging into our collective rhythm that lies deep within us, stored in our genes.

Celebrating the feasts together connects the generations: we inherit the customs of our ancestors and at the same time we give them to our children. In this way we are connected with the past and with the future through honoring the old traditions, while we are just very mindful in the now.

This writing makes me curious about where fellow forest bathing guides place their emphasis. What different ways does the forest bath world have? What effect does this have on the participants? How does this translate into their natural connection? Fascinating!

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Emmy Schockaert is a creative forest bathing guide / nature coach. She mainly guides in forests in the Flemish Ardennes. She is also the driving force behind Barrevoets . Nature is her passion and green thread in life. With Barrevoets she wants to be a link in the connection between man and nature. She combines her training as a nature guide, herbalist, nature coach and forest bathing guide (Shinrin Yoku / Metzamieli) in guided hikes. It is not walking but the slowing down, stillness and stimulation of the senses central. Emmy likes to use our Celtic background as a guide. The seasons and the rhythm in nature are her source of inspiration. She also often works with CM . You can follow her on facebook and instagram . Her website: www.barrevoets.be