Last week, I wrote about gratitude — how it’s not about ignoring reality, but about noticing what still holds us when life gets hard. This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about where I feel that holding most viscerally. Not just intellectually, but in my body. And lately, the answer has been: the forest.

A Return to the Woods

A few weeks ago, my mom fell and broke her hip. It was sudden, unexpected, and as you can imagine — a lot. I’ve been spending more time at my childhood home while she recovers, taking care of her and helping manage the swirl of logistics that comes with this kind of life disruption. And in the midst of it all — the stress, the grief, the full-hearted caregiving — I found myself being pulled outside.

Near the house I grew up in, there’s a forest I used to run through as a child. I probably hadn’t walked its trails since I was around twelve. But one morning, I laced up my shoes, stepped into the eucalyptus grove, and something in me exhaled. I don’t know that I fully appreciated it as a child — how magical it was to live just steps from towering trees and the crisp scent of eucalyptus. But as a 50-year-old woman, walking those same dirt paths, I felt something shift.

The rustle of the leaves, the coolness of the morning air, the stillness that seems to hum with life — it didn’t just calm me. It helped me remember myself. Not just the self I am now, juggling caretaking and business and big decisions — but the child I was. The girl who made forts out of sticks and let her imagination run wild under those same trees. And it also helped me imagine the woman I’m still becoming. The one who is learning that peace doesn’t mean escaping the hard parts of life. It means walking with them — sometimes, literally.

The Science of Forest Walking (It’s a Thing!)

What I experienced on that walk isn’t just poetic — it’s physiological. Researchers in Japan have been studying the healing effects of forest walking for decades. They call it shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing.” And it turns out, spending even just 20 minutes walking in a forest can:

• Lower blood pressure
• Decrease cortisol (the stress hormone)
• Increase heart rate variability (a marker of nervous system regulation)
• Improve mood and concentration
• Boost immune function

Why? Because forests are like nature’s co-regulators. The sights, smells, sounds — even the negative ions in the air — help shift us out of sympathetic “fight or flight” mode and into a more parasympathetic “rest and digest” state.

Walking on uneven terrain also engages the body’s vestibular and proprioceptive systems, which are essential for grounding and sensory integration. Add in the rhythmic bilateral movement of walking (hello, stress cycle completion!), and you have a perfect recipe for nervous system regulation.

Forest Walks as Emotional Anchors

When I stepped into that eucalyptus forest last week, I wasn’t just walking for exercise. I was walking to feel again. To remember that I have a body. That I have breath. That I am held — even when everything else feels uncertain. There’s something about being in nature that helps us access emotional truth without overwhelm.

As I walked, I found myself reflecting on so many things:
🌲 Who I was as that barefoot 9-year-old girl.
🌲 Who I am now, midlife, navigating the fullness of this chapter.
🌲 Who I want to be, looking ahead to the next decades — not in terms of career or productivity, but in terms of aliveness.

In the forest, I didn’t have to solve anything. I just had to be.

Don’t Have a Forest Nearby? Try This

Not everyone lives near a eucalyptus grove (or a forest at all), but that doesn’t mean you can’t tap into this kind of grounding. Nature’s nervous system is everywhere — if we know where to look. Here are some ways to create a “forest walk” experience wherever you are:

🌾 1. Find Your Pocket of Green

Seek out a local park, botanical garden, or greenbelt. Even a tree-lined sidewalk can offer the same sensory cues if you slow down enough to notice.

🌊 2. Walk by Water

Bodies of water (like lakes, rivers, or the ocean) offer similar benefits. The sound of waves or moving water is incredibly soothing to the nervous system.

🌼 3. Create a Nature Walk Playlist

If you’re in an urban setting, noise-canceling headphones and a nature sound playlist (birds, wind, water) can help replicate the sensory environment of the forest. (Next week’s blog will explore this in more depth: Healing Through Music and Sound.)

🌞 4. Bring Nature Indoors

If mobility or location are a barrier, even looking at images of nature or tending to a few houseplants can have calming effects on the brain.

What to Do While Walking in Nature

You don’t need a perfectly curated nature walk for it to work. But if you’re someone who benefits from structure, here are a few grounding practices you can try:

🌀 The 5-4-3-2-1 Walk

As you walk, mentally name:

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can hear
• 3 things you can touch
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste (even if it’s just your breath or water)

This brings you into the present moment — gently, somatically.

🌀 Rhythmic Breath Walking

Pair your steps with breath:

• Inhale for 4 steps
• Exhale for 6 steps

This activates your parasympathetic nervous system and builds coherence between your body and breath.

🌀 Memory Mapping

As you walk, reflect:

• What memories live in this space (or spaces like it)?
• What parts of yourself feel reawakened by this walk?
• Who are you honoring by being here — a past version of you? Someone you’ve lost?

This kind of inner dialogue can help integrate old wounds, forgotten dreams, or long-held hopes.

🌀 Walking as Offering

Try dedicating your walk to someone. Maybe it’s your future self. Maybe it’s someone who can’t currently walk. Maybe it’s your mom, like mine, who is in the middle of recovery and strength-building. Walking with intention can transform even the most ordinary path into something sacred.

This Week’s Practice: Let the Earth Hold You

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to let the earth hold us. To trust that there is a kind of regulation available to us not just in therapy or meditation or breathwork — but in the outside world.

In trees that have stood for hundreds of years.
In soil that has weathered storms.
In leaves that know when to fall, and when to grow again.

So here’s what I’m inviting this week — for myself, and for you:

🌿 Find a natural place nearby — no matter how small — and walk with intention.

Let your feet land softly. Let your breath slow. Let your eyes wander. You don’t have to feel anything specific. You don’t have to come away “healed.” You just have to show up.
Let nature’s rhythm meet your own.

A Glimpse Ahead: Sound as Medicine

Next week, I’ll be exploring the idea of Healing Through Music and Sound — another way our nervous systems process, regulate, and reconnect. Just like the forest, music is another form of co-regulation.

Think of the way certain songs can make you cry, dance, or settle. The way certain tones, frequencies, or rhythms seem to bypass logic and go straight to your heart. So if you’re someone who loves the sounds of the forest — birdsong, rustling leaves, the whisper of wind — you might also be someone who finds healing in sound. We’ll talk about that next week. But for now, maybe this week’s walk is sound enough.

Final Reflection

As I’ve walked through the forest near my childhood home these past few weeks, I’ve been holding so many layers of life:
💔 My mom’s injury and slow recovery
💫 My memories of growing up in that space
🌱 My hopes for who I want to become next

And in all of it, the trees have stood steady. Not asking me to be anything other than what I am. Not trying to fix it. Just… being. And maybe that’s what I needed most. A reminder that sometimes, presence is enough. That healing doesn’t always come in a flash — but in footsteps. And that the earth, in all her quiet beauty, is always there — waiting for us to come home.

What I’m Loving This Week 

•  Sound: The wind moving through the leaves. There’s something uniquely soothing about the whispery shhhhhh of tall trees in the breeze.
• Practice: “Memory Mapping” while walking. This week, I’ve been intentionally asking myself: “What part of me lived here before I learned to be so busy?” As I walk, I let memories rise naturally — of the little girl I was, of forts built in the woods, of moments I’d long forgotten. This walking practice isn’t about fixing anything. It’s about letting the forest help me remember the parts of myself that got quiet along the way.
• Tool: Insight Timer App – Nature Soundtracks & Walking Meditations. Insight Timer continues to be one of my favorite tools for mindfulness on the go. They offer free forest soundscapes, guided nature meditations, and even specific “walking meditation” tracks that support nervous system regulation. If you need support bringing the forest into your daily life, this is a powerful (and portable) tool.
•  Quote: “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” — John Muir
•  Song: “Ends of the Earth” by Lord Huron — A sweeping, atmospheric song of movement and wonder that suits a trail beneath tall trees.

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