Forest Bathing at Clowes Wood, Solihull

F orest Bathing (aka Shinrin-Yoku) is a set of mindfulness practices and meditative activities designed to calm the nervous system, awaken the senses, and bring us into meaningful relationship with the web of life.

You'll be guided through a sequence of "invitations" to help you explore each of your senses in a state of heightened awareness, expanding your usual range of perception and discovering wonders and mysteries as you encounter familiar things in new ways.

Forest Bathing has been scientifically proven to give rise to a range of health benefits such as reduced blood pressure, reduction in stress hormones, improved sleep, increases in anti-cancer proteins and reduced levels of anxiety, depression, anger and confusion too.

With regular practice, the enhanced feelings of wellbeing, wonder and peace that Forest Bathing draws out of us can gradually start to infuse and enrich our everyday lives beyond the forest.

You'll be invited to slow right down to experience existence at the speed of a tree – known as “Forest Time”, which will shift you into a different brainwave state. So often in this modern world, we're locked into the “beta” wave state of constant action and planning and busy-busy-busy. Forest Bathing helps us get into “alpha” state, associated with calm, creativity, intuition and “flow”.

Doing it with a group allows you to switch off and just let yourself be guided, while the sharing circle at the end gives us a unique opportunity to be enriched by each other's unique ways of seeing and being.

I'm overjoyed to be working in collaboration with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to offer these sessions at Clowes Wood Nature Reserve, one of the most beautiful and biodiverse woodlands in the Midlands. 10% of all ticket sales is donated to the Trust to help maintain the Woods for the benefit of wildlife and humans alike.

Please note that these sessions are not suitable for children or pets.

ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION: There is quite a lot of walking involved in this session as the car park is a 15-20 minute scenic walk over uneven ground from the forest, and about 25 minutes to get back again at the end. Once inside the forest there will be a little more walking at a slower pace, but the ground can be uneven, muddy, and in places a bit hilly. If you have any concerns about the level of physical activity involved please email me before booking to discuss - [email protected].

There's often an invitation to sit on the ground at various points during the session - if this is difficult for you I recommend bringing a folding chair or folding stool.

REFUNDS / TRANSFERS POLICY: Please note that group sizes are kept small to maintain the quality of the experience so in order to honour the time, expertise and hard work I put into running these sessions, tickets can only be refunded or transferred to a new date if requested more than 7 days before the event.

Host or Publisher Healing Earth Ways