Walking through the forest, off the beaten path, being in silence, touching 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 NIKIN's TIKTok department accompanies me to the forest bathing and asks me this in advance. In fact, the word "bathing" is somewhat misleading. So let me tell you right at the start: you can go forest bathing in full clothing and without a life jacket. The practice is about walking through the forest with mindfulness and, as tour guide Roland explains to me at the end of the experience, "about coming down". Aha, all clear. 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 know more about the history and the different providers, I recommend this article. For our first forest bathing experience, we chose 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 spaces. For the two of them, this is a matter of the heart, as Peter explains to me right at the beginning with a smile, because: "What you value, you protect. That's why we want to get people back into the forest." The forest for our experience is near Muhen AG. But the two professional forest ambassadors (as it says on their official business card) have other locations as well.
Touching moss and eating bark
The exact start for the mindfulness tour is a forest house. From there, it's a relaxed walk next into the forest on a wide, well-worn path. Then Peter suddenly turns off into knee-high undergrowth. I'm a bit taken by surprise and look a bit sceptical, but Roland says: "Just check for ticks later." Noted. Indeed, the undergrowth thins out considerably just a few metres into the "wild" forest and now I walk softly on old foliage and small green plants. Our tour guides encourage us to walk mindfully, i.e. to be aware of every step we take. Moss and leaves should be touched or smelled. This reminds me of my childhood, when I was always curious and could occupy myself with the smallest things for hours. 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
In fact, the piece of wood is quite okay, especially since 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 take out small mats and instruct us to sit quietly in the forest for 10 minutes and breathe consciously. At first I'm a bit stiff, but then I relax and listen to the silence, which is actually not so quiet after all. Because everywhere you discover sounds, life and little things, like a spider on the forest floor, which I had overlooked before. When I share this with the group, Peter nods in agreement and explains: "There are over 7 million organisms in one hand of earth. A forest is full of hidden life."
Seeing the forest in the mirror
Now we go to next, but this time blindfolded to enhance our other senses. Then we are given a small mirror to hold either under or over the eyes. This exercise is also about focusing on the forest and its senses. Finally, we create a forest picture together out of 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 influence on us. After just 10-15 minutes in the forest, the body releases relaxation hormones," the two forest ambassadors explain to us. On the way home, Fabian asks me if I would like to go forest bathing again. Of course, because it's true that the forest brings you down. But I'll skip the bark-eating next time.
