Was ist Waldbaden?

Mindful hikes

Combining the power of nature with the benefits of group dynamics

In our fast-paced world, which is all about performance and functioning, we are getting further and further away from ourselves and our origins: nature. We experience stress, pressure and feel trapped in an unchanging daily routine. In addition, many people lack interpersonal connection and a valuable exchange that goes beyond small talk.

Yet qualities such as resilience, inner balance and a sense of purpose are extremely important in order to be able to face the growing challenges of our time appropriately. On mindful group hikes, we immerse ourselves in the forest atmosphere, come into the present moment and move from thinking to feeling.

What can you expect on a mindful hike?

Mindful hiking in a powerful environment (sometimes slower and sometimes faster)
Perceiving with the 5 senses
Elements of forest bathing
Guided meditations
Impulses for self-reflection / coaching input
Non-judgmental exchange in the group
Breaks and time for yourself

Moving from thinking to feeling helps us enormously in everyday life to become more aware of our intuition and actual needs and to consciously align our actions accordingly in order to create a life according to our wishes. There is so much more to each of us than we can imagine and my great concern is to reawaken this spirit of adventure and belief in ourselves that we all had as children, as well as to show that it is possible to break new ground and that so many things can be healed through loving attention to ourselves and a connection with nature.

You don't have to be a social butterfly to benefit from a Mindful Hike, because the whole point is that everyone can come as they are and feel right now, even if their mood isn't at its best. The open conversations are meant to be inviting, but they are not an obligation.

The level of difficulty, duration and altitude are indicated on the individual hikes, but it is not at all necessary to be a competitive athlete, because the slower hiking and the change in focus means that you usually don't even notice that you are going uphill. At the moment, I am in Arosa, Switzerland region, but I plan to venture into other regions of the world in the future and offer multi-day mindful hikes where we can really immerse ourselves in the wild nature.

The practice of forest bathing probably has its origins in China and is over 2500 years old. It has been popular in Japan since the 1980s and is called “Shinrin Yoku”, which means “immersion in the forest atmosphere”. You don't have to be spiritual or go hugging trees (although that can indeed be a very nice experience) to use the healing power of the forest, many studies in medicine and psychology prove the effect several times over. In many parts of Asia, forest bathing is even recognized by conventional medicine and is prescribed by health insurance companies. We haven't got that far here yet, but we are very lucky to have the forest on our doorstep almost everywhere.

How does the forest work?

A number of different factors are responsible for the positive effects of forest bathing: the rustling of the leaves, the buzzing of the insects, the chirping of the birds, the different shades of green, the flowing shapes and, above all, the pleasant scent of the forest have a calming and relaxing effect on our psyche.

Speaking of the scent of the forest, it is caused by “terpenes”, volatile organic substances that are secreted by the trees and to which our immune system reacts immediately. A forest is usually a closed system and the highest concentration of terpenes is (can this be a coincidence?) at human nose level. So the longer and more often you spend time in the forest, the better, but just one visit to the forest is enough to do something good for our body, mind and soul.