The beginning of an uncoiling

I guided my first complete strangers on my forest therapy walk yesterday. No friend-of-a-friend or anyone to vouch for me.

They found me on the internet and met me at a forest preserve (along with three other people that knew me but not each other), and we slipped and slided through the thick mud to find a cozy corner of the woods all to ourselves and spent 2 hours paying attention to nature and ourselves and each other with compassion and curiosity and shared tea and chocolate and OMG my dream is coming true.  

Was it pure bliss the whole time for everyone involved?

No. Among us we shared struggling with traffic sounds and back pains and self-judgement and unexpected emotions and mud and rain and phones-thought-to-be-on-airplane-mode-but-actually-buzzing-incessantly distracting this one person who just wanted to get away from it all. 

But there was also laughter, and release, and birdsong, and some lessening of some of the pain for a bit, and awe, and so many cool mud sounds, and as one person shared during the first guided sensory invitation “the beginning of an uncoiling.” (How great is that description?) And so much more. 

It's not supposed to be perfect. It's kinda the point of the forest therapy I guide (one of them anyway) to learn to sit with it all -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.  And the beautiful. Maybe noticing the beautiful a little extra.

It is my joy and honor to hold space for people as they (we) tend to our relationship with the natural world, in our own perfectly imperfect ways. 

Schedule your own or join me and some strangers (aka future forest friends) on a public walk at https://www.thatforestfeeling.com/register or link in bio.