Conscious Immersion Paths in Nature

The Forest Therapy Guide is a new professional figure, an instructor of meditation who works in contact with nature. The meditations, rituals, and practices that the Forest Therapy Guide facilitates and transmits are inspired by Shinrin-Yoku, the Japanese art of nature immersion.

The term Shinrin-Yoku, meaning “forest bathing,” was coined in Japan in the 1980s by the head of the Japanese Forestry Agency. It refers to consciously immersing oneself in nature with all five senses. Today, Shinrin-Yoku is increasingly known and appreciated as a preventive therapy, helping to reduce stress hormone concentrations in the body, strengthen the immune system, regulate blood pressure and heart rate, and manage cholesterol levels.
It’s an adventure of deep communion with nature. It can be practiced in many ways and at multiple levels, but the most traditional approach involves mindful walking and meditation (practiced using diverse techniques and forms) in the woods or other natural settings: city parks, sea voyages, desert treks… it can even be practiced on a balcony in front of a pot of geraniums!

The forest is an archetype of the soul, of the psyche. Immersing oneself in the forest, in nature, through Shinrin-Yoku practices, is equivalent to consciously entering our inner space and gathering lost or forgotten fragments of ourselves, unexplored possibilities, resources for self-healing and profound transformation, drawing from an inexhaustible source of creativity and enthusiasm.

Beauty in nature is everywhere and guides us throughout the journey, beyond moral categories, beyond desires for appropriation, control, and governance, as a manifestation of the ability to give and offer oneself to encountering the invisible.

My journey leads me to integrate various experiences into forest bathing: from Tantric yoga tradition (non-dual Kashmiri Shaivism), to meditation techniques from Theravada and Zen Buddhism (Vipassana and Anapanasati), to the principles of Japanese Aesthetics, and to animistic Shintoism. I qualified as a Forest Therapy Guide under the guidance of Selene Calloni Williams, who, together with Noburu Okuda Do, synthesized a series of meditative practices and rituals inspired by Japanese aesthetic philosophy and Hillman’s imaginal thought.

The paths I offer can be developed:

• individually (online, through experimenting with a series of practices that can then be used independently in one’s own nature experiences) or in person (at Lakazeza, during the warmer months, or in the Piedmontese and Ligurian inland forests).
• I also lead residential Shinrin-Yoku seminars in various locations (see upcoming events).

To learn more, see Views – The perfect moment to meet you

Read an excerpt from Shinrin Yoku – Selene Calloni Williams, Noburu Okuda Do