The Standard Sequence in Guided Forest Bathing
2nd April 2023
Although each Forest Bathing experience, whether guided or not, will always be different depending on the location, the time of year, the prevailing weather conditions, your mood, and many other factors, most ‘schools’ of Forest Bathing share a similar structure including a number of key nature-connection activities or ‘invitations’. The Association of Nature and Forest Therapists refer to this as ‘The Standard Sequence’. This carefully designed sequence creates an experience that enhances nature connection and boosts the therapeutic and restorative effects of nature for health and well-being. It also means that there is a degree of consistency in what you can expect wherever you experience a guided Forest Bathing walk, and by whoever you are guided. As Amos Clifford described in his influential book ‘Your Guide to Forest Bathing: Experience the Healing Power of Nature’, “Structure is part of what makes forest bathing a ‘practice’.”
Awaken the Senses, ‘The Pleasures of Presence’ or ‘Embodied Awareness’
One of the first nature-connection activities or ‘Forest Bathing Invitations’ is usually a guided (or self-guided) ‘sensory inventory’ designed to focus attention on the natural world surrounding you through your different senses and establish contact with the present moment and place. A more detailed description of ‘Embodied Awareness’ is provided in Amos Clifford’s book ‘Your Guide to Forest Bathing’.
Sharing Circles
In a guided or group Forest Bathing Session, people participating often follow this initial nature-connection activity with the first of several ‘sharing circles’, a safe space in which they can express themselves and reflect on their experience. The Forest Bathing guide may offer guidance or suggestions in the form of a prompt, such as “What are you noticing?” and may lead the first Sharing Circle with an example such as “Inside I am noticing …..”, “Outside I am noticing ….”. However, participants are free to follow these suggestion or not and are free to share through silence, to share through movement or expressive dance, to express themselves in way they would like, or to remain silent and still.
A Sharing Circle offers the opportunity to talk uninterrupted and to be listened to non-judgmentally and for each person's voice and experiences to be heard, valued and respected. Other members of the Sharing Circle just listen and learn, they do not comment or provide their opinion on what the person sharing their experience says, other than to sometimes thank them for sharing. As well as deepening nature-connection and improving our understanding of nature, Sharing Circle can increase inter-personal connection, empathy and a better understanding of each other.
‘What’s Moving’ or ‘What’s in Motion’
A second common nature-connection activity designed to help you to really begin to slow down is sometimes referred to as ‘What’s Moving’ or ‘What’s in Motion’ or ‘Walking in Forest Time’. Often lasting 15 to 20 minutes this activity involves slow walking and pausing to look around you, and as the name suggests, paying attention to things that are moving. This could be animals and wildlife, plants and trees, clouds, or water for example.
People often find this activity harder than it sounds, and find themselves walking at their normal walking pace. This occurs after we begin to lose our focus on our surroundings, our minds start racing, and our body automatically tries to keep up by increasing speed.
‘It Depends’ or ‘Infinite Possibilities’
The next part of the sequence is sometimes referred to as ‘It Depends’ or as ‘Infinite Possibilities’ as what nature connection activities you choose to engage in ‘depends’ on the factors discussed at the start of this article - location, the time of year, the prevailing weather conditions, your mood, and many other factors - and there are ‘infinite possibilities’ for different activities as Amos Clifford notes:
“Invitations are everywhere in the forest. The grass invites us to lie in it. The clouds invite us to gaze. The hawk invites us to spread our arms like wings and walk as if we were flying. The steep part of the trail invites us to slow down and notice how we carry our center of gravity. The worm invites us to explore the dirt. These are simple invitations, easy to discover.”
Sit Spot
The penultimate activity in Guided Forest Bathing, and sometimes the last activity when self-guided, is Sit Spot. Sit Spot is a mindfulness practice - or as Amos Clifford notes, when done in the context of forest bathing, Sit Spot is a practice-within-the-practice - in which a person selects a specific location in nature that feels ‘right’ to them and then spends time just sitting there, observing and connecting with the natural surroundings in a mindful and intentional way. As the name suggests, it involves sitting in one spot in nature, usually for at least 20 minutes, giving wildlife time to become accustomed to your presence and resume their own behaviour. Through staying still in your chosen spot you can often cultivate a deeper comprehension of yourself, others, and the wider natural world, as well as relaxing, unwinding and slowing down.
The Tea Ceremony
Whilst it is not quite the same as the “Way of Tea” in Japan, perhaps it is due to the Japanese origins of Forest Bathing as ‘Shinrin Yoku’ that Guided Forest Bathing walks often end with a tea ceremony, although this also offers a pleasant way to transition out of the Forest Bathing experience and back into the everyday world. This tea is sometimes made from ingredients foraged by the Forest Bather or Forest Bathing Guide during the walk, or with ingredients brought with them.
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