The healing power of trees If the activity of “forest bathing” has you packing extra sunscreen and your birthday suit, stand corrected. Read on and we’ll save you the police fines. BY LEAH SOBON // PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA CRANDLEMIRE
“TAKE A SHORT WALK THROUGH THE FOREST and imagine you’re in a really slow-moving train or bus. You’re sitting beside the window and that’s the only place you can look out. You can’t look around like you normally do. You’re seeing trees and detail come into your view and then leave.” These words are part of a series of “invitations” that make up my introduction to the practice of “forest bathing.” I’ve joined forest therapy guide Neil Baldwin at his treed acreage a 20-minute drive southwest of Owen Sound. The idea, Baldwin has explained, is to focus on one sense at time—in this case sight—and pick out details I might not otherwise see. Later, he talks me through different levels of visual focus—from macro to micro—and then to the auditory field. “Focus really hard to not just hear, but to listen. It could be the sounds of the pine needles under your feet. It could be the sound of birds. It could be something scurrying in the forest, a twig breaking in the distance.” As a human race, now more than ever, we seem to be collectively searching for ways to de-stress and reconnect. With the crisis of mental health steadily on the rise, practices such as forest bathing RIGHT An invitation to slow down— think wandering, not hiking. 108
SUMMER 2022 ON THE BAY