How to take a 10 second forest bath

Ways to instantaneously connect to nature whenever you’re feeling anxious or stressed

Mostly reminders for myself for the times when I’m not in the forest…which is most of the time! I believe the true Nature Jedis are the ones who can be connected to nature and in that space of awe as we go about our days in the world.

I admire people who live in nature and I yearn for that too, but there’s some part of my dharma that keeps guiding me back to the tech world in San Francisco. It’s here where I can be the voice of the trees. These are some ways I keep my cool while working at an office or sitting in traffic….I wrote this not while sitting in a forest but between meetings at a design studio while looking out at the window and holding my citrine stone. That’s how we do.

You can be in the world and not of the world by remembering your connection to nature/spirit/the divine as you go about your day.

Look out the window

Nature is all around us!

Look at photos of nature on your phone or computer

Not my favorite, but it’s scientifically proven that even looking at pictures of nature will lower stress.

Keep shells, stones, sticks, or feathers in your pocket

Anything to remember that connection. Wear nature as jewelry. Adorn your body as an altar.

Place your feet on the ground and feel your connection to the Earth

Imagine that there are roots on your feet that go down deep into the Earth.

Take a few deep breaths and in out.

Connect with the air. Connect with your body.

Have a sip of water. Spritz yourself with rose water.

Drink with the awareness that we are made up of water. And so it the Earth. The same water has been traveling through is over millennia. Water is life.

Close your eyes and travel to a sacred spot in nature

Use your imagination. Travel back to that beach vacay.

Give thanks to the Earth. Make a mental list of things you’re grateful for

You already have everything you need. It all comes from the Earth.

Look up at the sky

Remember how small inconsequential you are. Tap into the mystery.

Light something on fire…like a candle

Allow yourself to get transfixed by the flicker.

Connect to your body

Dance, scream, do some qi gong, breathe. You are Nature.