Forest Bathing is another great reason to grab your journal, essential oils, and enjoy nature.
What is forest bathing?
The concept of forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku) originated in Japan.
Forest bathing is a simple but highly effective therapeutic practice of immersing yourself in a forest setting. It's intentionally putting yourself in that natural environment and focusing solely on being present through all your senses.
This isn't about physical activity like running the trails. It's more about wandering, sitting, and contemplating in the peace and calm of a natural woodland landscape.
Your focus should be on the act of being still and quiet in order to fill your senses.
Forest bathing, taking in the beauty around you and embracing the slow pace, allows your mind to rest, calmly process your thoughts, and soothe the chaos in your mind.
Your intentional choice of a forest setting, allows you to 'bathe' in your surroundings, bringing balance and connections between nature and your mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing.
Why Journal When You're Forest Bathing?
As you quietly identify what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, you'll shift into a calmer yet more present and alert space. This works like a warm-up exercise that prepares your thoughts to flow onto the page. While nestled under the canopy of trees, you'll be surprised what memories surface, seemingly out of nowhere.
If words are slow to come, capture the colors or shapes with drawing or doodling to awaken your responses to the experience. Collect leaves or pieces of bark that lay in your path. Press them in your journal for future writing or drawing inspiration.
Journaling after the experience of forest bathing is also a powerful tool for self-expression and reflection. It's a means to translate the 'whispers' of the forest and our inner dialogues onto paper, creating a tangible record of our thoughts, emotions, and realizations.
The Symphony of Essential Oils
Essential oils, nature’s concentrated extracts, resonate deeply with the practice of forest bathing and journaling.
Imagine encapsulating the very essence of the serene, healing energy of the forest, and bringing it into your daily life. Essential oils like Cedarwood, Pine, or Lavender, can enhance and extend the tranquility and therapeutic benefits of your forest bathing and journaling experience. These oils, when diffused, applied, or inhaled, add nature’s benefitial aromas and help ground you, calm your mind, and enrich your spiritual and emotional connections.
As part of your forest bathing preparation, apply grounding oils like Cypress, Fir, Hope™️, Patchouli, 3 Wise Men™️, or Fir. You could also pick an essential oil or two from these suggestions and place a few drops on your vehicle vent diffuser or a diffuser bookmark to extend your pre and post forest bathing experience.
Your Path Forward
Forest bathing, journaling, and the thoughtful use of essential oils create a path of peace, self-discovery, and holistic wellness. They invite us to slow down, breathe, and connect - with nature, with ourselves, and with the elemental joy of being.
Embrace this journey. Let the forest bathe your senses, let your thoughts flow freely onto your journal, and let the pure essence of essential oils enrich this theraputic time. Together, these practices offer a gateway to a more mindful, peaceful, and centered life.
Want to bring more of the benefits of nature into your journaling world?
Here are two of our other articles you'd like:
- Embrace Hygge with Journaling and Essential Oils
- Nature's Trilogy for Wellness: Journaling, Essential OIls, and the Great Outdoors
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