JoyTrails

Just me, hugging a tree that has survived losing all its mates and being scratched by cows in a grass paddock for the last 50 years. I hope I can weather the storms to come with as much beauty and grace. 🥰❤️ and I hope you are safe, dry and warm today after the huge storm last night. I don’t have power, but that’s ok. I can walk outside, listen to the birds, and I can knit !

This week’s big and tiny joys from the SW “Nature channel”… what are you noticing? 🙏🥰🌳🍄🍄‍🟫🌸

Ahhh Autumn. You make Forest Bathing adventures so much fun! These 3 are my top fungi pics from yesterday’s gentle wander and wonder. Noting that the second and third pics I should have stuck a finger in for scale, as they were about the size of my thumbnail (or smaller) 🥰. Spunky wee miracles that keep reminding me that being in nature is joy joy joy. Of course our imagination goes wild when we see these beautiful wonders. Not knowing or researching these fungi - what fun names would you give them? 🍄🍄‍🟫
(And did you know, researching their real names is actually discouraged during Forest bathing. The idea of using biological names in this practice actually creates an ego driven response from us as humans, creates an ‘us and them’ response removing us from the wild natural connection we have with nature, and takes us out of our relaxed state by using parts of our brain we are training to take a big nap when we Shinrin Yoku.) So please don’t send me their real names, only fun ones please ! 🥰🍄🍄‍🟫🌳

Have you noticed how when you do something that’s just outside of you comfort zone you feel amazing?
This is because of a lot of science, hormones and brains etc - I won’t bore you with details but the magic is in the discomfort. We live in a world that has been designed outside of nature to be safe and comfortable and it has not challenged us or made us resilient. Instead it’s made us scared. This world where we are told daily that Ai might kill us, yet we have to use it or we get left behind, that we need to keep striving and doing because we cannot stop or we fail. We have forgotten we are part of nature. 😢That there is no ‘us and them’. We are just a species who’s got ourselves mixed up in some pretty awful stuff, and we are hurting ourselves and the planet as we do it. We are scared, numb, lonely and lost. Things that are good for us, nature, slow living and unplugging, are uncool or politicised as being left wing poppycock. But deep down we know they are true. We crave them but never find the time to actually commit. It’s why I can’t get a single soul to a Forest Bathing event 😩🌳 - despite the fact that it’s PROVEN to actually help. 😩🙄 Everyone is safe, numb and scared. I get it. It’s why I swim in winter. 🥶 BECAUSE it hurts. It’s outside of my comfort zone enough to wake me up. And it makes me feel- sad, angry,confused and in love with this gorgeous amazing planet and closer to my fellow beings- human or otherwise. 🕷️🦜🐠🏔️- afterwards I feel brave and strong and able to handle this crazy life. Being challenged and uncomfortable is good. We Forest bathers know it. The science stacks up. So I ask you, what do you do to keep being present at this moment in history that is terrifying and hard? Would you humbly consider Forest Bathing, given you don’t even get wet or cold?! 🥰 Could you consider it as a way to get involved in finding ways to reconnect back to what your heart is telling you? Please let me know. I want to understand how I can help you. How nature can give you just enough discomfort to do it anyway, and thrive? That you must slow down or you will burn out? 🌳🌅