A Forest Walk: An Audio-Guided Practice

Introduction (3 minutes)
Welcome! My name is Kim, and I’m the Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide who’s facilitating this experience. During this “walk of faith,” the working definition of “faith” is a continuous exchange of belonging. The exchange occurs among you, an outdoor place you determine, and the other elements of nature there. In essence, it’s an opportunity to let nature support you and to give a little of yourself in the support of the rest of nature.

Here are a few suggestions for getting ready:
• The walk will be about forty-five minutes long, including the time when I am speaking and the timed silence included for you to connect with the natural world through your senses. I’ll let you know good places to pause if you’d like more time.
• Connection to the ambient noise around you is important. So, I recommend that you disable notifications on your phone and use the speaker feature on your phone so that my voice can guide you throughout the walk. Alternatively, you might listen with only one earbud.
• Choose a site with which you’re already familiar. Forest bathing, as it’s called, can be done in most outdoor settings, even if they are not woodlands. Consider your backyard or even a city park that’s not too heavily trafficked. This walk is not intended for areas that are new to you.
• The walk concludes with an opportunity to sit and reflect using an article of faith, a small, easily carried item that has personal significance.

The outdoors can be a place that gives us comfort, speaks to our hearts, puts our minds at ease, and reminds us of all the other beings with which we share this home. We can let nature support us through our senses; all we have to do is drop into the interaction of our bodies with a place. I’m here to help you ease into this belonging. And to assure you that this will all unfold in the way it was meant to be. If there was a right way to do this, then you’ve already done it, because your body knows how to be here. All you need to do is to let it lead.

The prompts for you to let your senses lead are called “invitations.” [Chime sound] I’ll be using this sound throughout the walk to mark the end of one invitation and the beginning of another. So, if you feel like taking more time with an invitation, just press “pause” at the sound of a chime, and when you press “play” again, you’ll be in the right spot to continue. If you finish before the sound of the chime, just take time to connect with your breath and enjoy being outside.

Are you ready? Even if you’re almost ready, c’mon, let’s get some outside!

Pleasures of Presence (15 minutes)
Move to where you want this experience to officially begin. Have a good spot? (If not, take a pause here and get situated.) All right, let’s sink in . . .

Our first invitation is called Pleasures of Presence. Notice your breath wherever you feel it most vibrantly . . . your nose, your chest, your belly . . . Take a few more breaths . . . Notice how the air coming from you connects to the air around you . . . As you breathe, plants and animals are also breathing and sharing this air . . . Notice how the atmosphere holds you . . . holds you and the living things in this place where you belong . . . As you breathe fully, be fully present with this place.

Begin to shepherd your field of vision closer to you, perhaps to some point on the ground or directly in front of you. We will turn our attention to other senses, but feel free to keep a soft gaze going, or let your eyelids hover gently, or, if you feel comfortable, close your eyes completely.

Turn your attention to your sense of touch . . . Our bodies are supported by incredible underground worlds beneath us . . . Notice your body, how it feels to be supported by this place . . . I invite you to rock back and forth, shift your weight around if you like, until you find a pleasing position . . . Let the earth help you feel centered . . . Let your cares be drawn to the feelings on your skin . . . on your bare skin . . . and sensations where you are clothed . . . What kinds of qualities are in this experience of touch? . . . Notice what touch sensations are giving you pleasure . . . Invite that pleasure in . . .

Now I invite you to make a shift to your hearing . . . What sounds are around you? . . . Notice the variety of sounds . . . Notice any interaction of the sounds with each other . . . Is there a rhythm to the sounds? . . . Take a moment to connect with the furthest sound you can hear . . . Now bring your attention to the closest sound you can hear . . . Take a moment to tune into the sound of your own breathing . . . Let it blend in with the sounds around you . . . What is it like to be a part of the music of this place? . . . What within the experience of sound is giving you pleasure? . . . Invite that pleasure in . . .

You’ll now turn your attention to the two closely related senses of taste and smell . . . Open your mouth and breathe through your mouth and nose together . . . Just notice the textures of the air . . . Taste receptors are all over the tongue, so you may even want to stick your tongue out to better taste the biotic conversation going on around you. Don’t worry, the earth’s not going to take offense . . . Are there new scents that weren’t apparent at first? . . . Raise your head and smell the air . . . Does scent seem different here? . . . Lower your head . . . Again, how does scent seem here? . . . Raise your head back to center and experience any other qualities the air has . . . Where in this experience of taste and smell does pleasure appear? . . . Invite that pleasure in also . . .

If you haven’t done so already, if it feels right, you can have your eyes closed for the last part of this invitation. Imagine you’re in the middle of a circle that has four directions marked . . . To begin, turn a quarter of this circle to the right to the first direction, don’t worry about how accurate you are, just take this opportunity to feel . . . With your hands out and your entire body sensing as one knowing organ . . . just feel the presence of this direction and notice what it is like . . .

And turning another quarter circle to your right, eyes closed or in a soft gaze, take in the presence of this direction and just notice what it’s like, its way of being present . . . How does it feel . . . sound . . . smell . . . ?

And once again, turn a quarter circle to your right. Do you feel qualities of this direction that are different than the qualities of the other directions? What are these qualities, and how are your senses letting you experience them? . . .

And turning a quarter circle to the right, give yourself the opportunity to feel this fourth direction . . . its presence . . . and how it touches into you . . . What is revealed by being present in this direction? . . .

Holding your hands slightly out and put your palms forward, I invite you to get a second helping of one of these directions. Just slowly rotate your body in a circle until it arrives at a knowing of what direction it wants to face . . . Just find that place, where your body is saying “Yes” and still with your eyes closed, breathe in this direction with your heart . . . In a moment, but not until I say so . . . you will open your eyes or focus your gaze . . . and when you do, I invite you to see what appears using your heart sense, like you were seeing it for the first time . . . and now . . . open or focus your eyes . . .

Is there a gesture you want to make toward that which you are seeing? . . . What are you noticing? . . . Take a moment to honor your sensations at this moment . . . [Chime sound]

What’s in Motion? (7 minutes)
Our bodies move in so many ways . . . run, jog, dance, walk . . . and . . . we . . . can . . . move . . . like . . . sloths . . . carefully . . . moseying up a tree . . . The next invitation is called “What’s in Motion?” and this is an opportunity to explore an unhurried pace of movement that will let you sense what’s in motion, on the inside and the outside. Now your mind is one part of who you are that might want to go faster and race around to this, that, and the other thing while you’re walking leisurely. If that’s going on, all you have to do is usher your body back to the question “what’s in motion?” So, maybe go a little slower than you usually do and give this place that you’ve chosen a stroll or a saunter and take the question “what’s in motion?” with you . . . You’ll hear the chime when it’s time to continue.

[Timed silence then chime sound]

(Fill in the Blank) as My Witness (6 minutes)
Witnesses are a part of Forest Therapy . . . They are nonjudgmental observers that summon relationship. There are a host of ways that more-than-human nature is acutely aware of what’s going on around it. This place knows you’re here and is witnessing you right now. Some parts of nature see without eyes, smell without noses, and feel without hands. Some researchers have concluded that plants even remember. Through these sensations of nature, other living things serve as a witness to your presence in this place. So, the name of this invitation starts with a blank that you’ll fill in. It’s called “(Fill in the Blank) as My Witness.” Take a wander and use sight, sound, and touch, to notice all of the natural witnesses around you. For instance, you might look at the ground and say “Soil as my witness” or let yourself be drawn to a tree, touch it and utter in your mind “Tree as my witness.” Feel free to linger with any of these witnesses and yield your attention to their senses and yours. You’ll hear the chime when it’s time to continue.

[Timed silence then chime sound]

Where’s Water? (6 minutes)
How are you feeling? Ready? If not, take a pause here before we continue.

For this next invitation, I ask that you let your body lead you to something very old: WATER. So this invitation is called “Where’s Water?” Of course, there is no new water, so the raindrop that dripped down a dinosaur’s forehead is still on Earth somewhere. Even if you’re not near a pond or a puddle, water is where you are. And, you have more than your vision to help you find it. Let the water in you be drawn to the water outside. In whatever form you find it, take a moment to sense where this water has been, any of its past places. You might even want to name these places out loud and use sound to connect you with the water of this place. “A frog-filled pond, Cleopatra’s cup, deep inside a tree . . .” Take some time now to sense “Where’s water?” You’ll hear my chime again, when it’s time to move on.

[Timed silence then chime sound]

Skywalker (8 minutes)
The sky reaches all the way to the ground, and at this very moment, it is hovering over what connects you to the earth. With this invitation called “Skywalker,” take some time to skywalk and sense how it feels to be where the sky and earth meet. This is our next-to-last invitation, so you can use this opportunity to make your way to where you’d like to sit and end the walk. As you’re skywalking there, let your body’s attention float to what you feel as you move within the lowest layer of sky.

[Timed silence then chime sound]

Closing Ceremony—An Article of Faith (5 minutes total)
You’ve come this far by faith: the continuous exchange among you, the place you’re in, and all the nature there. This last invitation is called “An Article of Faith,” and it’s an opportunity to deepen your memories of this experience as you begin to move back into your regular activities with the walk coursing through your body.

If you wish to sit, please do so now. Here’s a little time to get situated. You’ll hear my voice again for the close.

[Chime sound then timed silence here: 3 minutes]

Remember that object I asked you to bring? Now it’s time to take out your article of faith and hold it . . . As you hold it, take some time to let the memories you want to keep of your walk surface . . . Imbue your memories on this special item as you hold this article of faith or simply put your memories in the pockets of your mind. To help this along, I’m going to recount slowly the names of the invitations used in this walk: Pleasures of Presence . . . As My Witness . . . Where’s Water . . . Skywalker . . . An Article of Faith.

Now, as you take some final moments to reflect, feel free to write, draw, or imprint with any materials you brought. Relax and refresh with water and a snack, as you like. To close, I’d like to thank the place you chose to do this walk, and you for taking this walk of faith. And to end this experience, with three notes of this chime, we will close our time.

[Concluding, three-note chime sound]

[End of transcript]