Walking through the forest, off the beaten track, in silence, touching the moss and branches and breathing consciously: that is forest bathing. The mindful "bathing" in the forest comes from Japan, but you can also experience it in Switzerland. We have tried it out.
"Do we need swimming gear?" Fabian from the TIKTok department at NIKIN accompanies me to forest bathing and asks me this in advance. In fact, the "bathing" in the word is somewhat misleading. So let me tell you right from the start: you can go forest bathing in full gear and without a life jacket. It's all about walking through the forest with mindfulness and, as tour guide Roland explains to me at the end of the experience, "coming down". Aha, all right. But let's start at the beginning.
Learning mindfulness with the forest office
Forest bathing comes from Japan and is called Shinrin-Yoku there. If you want to find out more about the history and the different providers, I recommend this article. For our first forest bathing experience, we opted for a tour from the forest office. Roland (picture above, left) and Peter (picture above, right) offer forest bathing and forest mindfulness tours on their website in addition to forest office places. For both of them, this is a matter close to their hearts, as Peter explains to me with a smile right at the beginning, because: "What you value, you protect. That's why we want to bring people back to the forest." The forest for our experience is near Muhen AG. However, the two professional forest ambassadors (as stated on their official business card) also have other locations.
Touch moss and eat bark
The exact starting point for the mindfulness tour is a forest house. From there, it's a relaxed walk next into the forest along a wide, well-worn path. Then Peter suddenly turns off into knee-high undergrowth. I'm a bit taken by surprise and look a little skeptical, but Roland says: "Just check for ticks later." Noted. In fact, the undergrowth thins out considerably just a few meters into the "wild" forest and now I'm walking softly on old leaves and small green plants. Our tour guides encourage us to walk mindfully, i.e. to be aware of every step. Moss and leaves should be touched or even smelled. It reminds me of my childhood, when I was always curious and could spend hours looking at the smallest things. Then Roland hands me a piece of bark and says enthusiastically: "You can also taste wood, so you can perceive the forest in a completely different way." Fabian is even more enthusiastic about this suggestion than Roland. His comment: "Do it for TikTok!"
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Being aware of silence
The piece of wood is actually quite okay, especially as you can spit it out again. What comes next, however, is what I like best and probably falls into the category of traditional forest bathing. Our tour guides bring out small mats and instruct us to sit quietly in the forest for 10 minutes and breathe consciously. I'm a little stiff at first, but then I relax and listen to the silence, which isn't really so silent after all. Because you discover sounds, life and little things everywhere, like a spider on the forest floor that I had previously overlooked. When I tell the group about this, Peter nods in agreement and explains: "There are over 7 million organisms in one hand of soil. A forest is full of hidden life."
Seeing the forest in the mirror
Now we go to next, but this time blindfolded to strengthen our other senses. We are then given a small mirror to hold either under or over our eyes. This exercise is also about focusing entirely on the forest and your senses. Finally, we create a forest picture together from branches, stones and leaves."Well, how do you feel after forest bathing?" Roland asks the group at the end. After more than an hour in the forest, I am indeed more relaxed than before and feel very peaceful. "The forest has this effect on us. After just 10-15 minutes in the forest, the body releases relaxation hormones," the two forest ambassadors explain. On the way home, Fabian asks me if I would like to go forest bathing again. Sure, because it's true, the forest brings you down. But I'll skip the bark eating next time.
