Forest Bathing & Wellness at Ewhurst Park

For many, the multitudinous benefits of spending time in nature are innately known. For others the whole idea feels strange and perhaps a bit whacky. Everyone is welcome at our workshops and by coming along, you can experience for yourself the power of nature for your health and wellbeing.

Whether you’re looking for healing, to find a new balance within yourself, or to just enjoy learning new techniques for maintaining your health and wellbeing, these workshops are tailored to you and for what you’d like to make of them.

What’s included

The workshops include spending structured and unstructured time in our ancient woodlands and wider landscape. The day will be split into specific sessions with breaks in between and a forest lunch.

You will be invited to explore your connection and attitude to nature, how you currently feel within yourself, and how you can harness nature connection for your current needs. There’ll be the invitation to explore different energies found in nature and how to use them, and guests will discover exercises and practical techniques to promote healing and wellbeing of the mind, body and spirit.

This workshop includes a simple lunch which will be cooked on an outdoor fire and feature produce from Ewhurst Park’s Quality Meats range and foraged ingredients. This is a time to share in community, food and social connections by gathering to eat together, and if you like, to make and cook some of your own food, for example, fired dough sticks or indulgent toasted marshmallows.

You will also get advice on how to practice nature connection away from the session in your own time and in your own spaces. Nature connection can be practiced anywhere you have access to, from forests or parks, to gardens, window boxes, or even next to a house plant or looking out onto nature from a window.

Everyone can find riches and discover more about themselves through the experience of connecting with nature.

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” John Muir

About your guide

Our resident nature connection practitioner and herbalist, Simon Keith, has helped many people through trauma, illness and difficult times with over 15 years' experience leading local nature therapy and connection sessions. His bushcraft and woodwork skills are second nature, and he’s at his happiest tramping through forests in search of exciting mushrooms and plants.

What are the benefits of forest bathing and nature connection?

There are already robust scientific studies showing that nature exposure improves blood pressure, heart rate, mental health, cognitive function, brain activity, physical activity, and sleep, as well as having a protective effect against mental ill health and poor cognitive function. It is also associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and improved immune function, and is currently being studied for its long-term effects on depression, anxiety, and chronic disease, among other factors.

People who practice forest bathing and nature connection have reported improvements in (to name a few):

- Energy levels

- Positivity

- Respect for themselves and nature

- Self-care

- Listening (to themselves and others)

- Wellness

- Anxiety

- Depression

- Anger

- Fear

- Stress

- Concentration

Sometimes practitioners get a wake up call to try a new way of looking at and living life or feel a sense of empowerment, others find it to help with PTSD.

Some Links to Scientific Studies

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4790

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320722003950

https://nhsforest.org/evidence/?_evidence_category=nature-connection

https://tinyurl.com/bdd4xans

What can guests expect each session?

Workshops will be held in spring, summer and autumn and will be tailored to the group with different activities and elements incorporated into each session. Repeat sessions will give you the opportunity to delve deeper and will likely give increased benefits. Book onto all three for a discount.

Host or Publisher Ewhurst Park