4-step Visualization To Reconnect With The Forest

The benefits of a walk or a stay in the forest are multiplied if we take a few minutes to make a visualization.

The idea is by Clemens G. Arvay and is based, on the one hand, on scientific knowledge about the immunostimulating properties of volatile compounds emitted by plants and, on the other hand, on the close relationship between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems , which explains the effectiveness of relaxation and visualization in enhancing defenses.

The efficacy of visualization is proven in treatments such as Dr. Carl Simonton’s with cancer patients. As deep psychology suggests since Sigmund Freud, images constitute the language of the subconscious and by sending it the precise messages, regenerative and healing physiological processes can be triggered.

An exercise to connect with nature and strengthen immunity

The next time you go to the forest, leave the hustle and bustle of everyday life behind. Forget your thinking routines and open your senses to the environment: listen to the roots creak; note the rough bark of the trees and the soft moss on the ground. Inhale the scents of the forest with all awareness.

Think “I’m part of the forest”, convince yourself because that’s the way it is. Discover the life around you. Try to detect the presence of wild animals, even when you are not seeing them. The forest is teeming with life. Both above and below the ground.

The mushrooms you see on the surface are not isolated entities, but the fruiting bodies of a living being “fungus”, most of which is found on the ground under your feet. A fungus can span several hundred square meters and lives in symbiosis with the roots of trees and other plants.

Plants, fungi, bacteria, soil and animals form a vital space of extreme complexity. You have immersed yourself in this living tissue and you are mimicking it.

Opens the body to the healing compounds of the forest

The goal of exercise is to prepare the body to absorb and use the healing compounds found in the forest.

During the walk, think about the innumerable substances that all the inhabitants of the forest emit into the air. Now visualize your immune system as something equally complex, interacting and communicating with the forest and its effluvia for a long time. Even imagine the immune system as a kind of organic antenna emerging from you.

The forest and you are connected. Prepare for the visualization. Find a place where you feel good. Let yourself be guided by intuition, but the proximity of the trees is recommended (you can choose one with a wide trunk to sit on and lean on).

If you prefer to do the visualization without being seen, it is proven that we relax better when our hiding place allows us to extend our view over the environment and keeps us safe from prying eyes.

First step: relax with the help of your breath

In the chosen place, adopt a comfortable position that does not tire you – you can lie down or lean on a tree – and that shows openness to the forest. One way to do this is by placing your hands in your lap with your palms facing up. You can also slightly open your arms.

Relax and lower your shoulders. Close your eyes and focus for a few minutes on your breathing.

Bring your attention to the body, observe how when you breathe in the air flows through you – notice how when the air enters through the nose the abdomen rises and the thoracic cavity descends – and how it comes out again with each exhalation.

Breathe in a relaxed and regular way. Do not stop perceiving the sensation of inhaling and exhaling.

Visualization begins: the forest within you

Once you feel relaxed, start with the first visualization: close your eyes and imagine how the anticancer terpenes from the forest air penetrate your body (they really are!).

Observe first, in as much detail as possible, what the images that you create in your fantasy are like. A person can imagine, for example, a green and silver affinity approaching from the treetops. Or maybe you see shiny specks like sparks floating in the air.

When you breathe in, you perceive that this mist or those specks are inhaled through your nose and travel to the lungs and then to every corner of your body thanks to the blood. As you breathe out, millions of terpenes prepare to enter your body with the next breath.

Visualize how the cloud becomes more and more dense and active, surrounds you and penetrates inside you also through the palms of your hands and your face. The forest is within you, think: “I am the forest”, “I am connected with the trees and the bushes, with the mushrooms and the herbs”.

Take several deep breaths as you indulge in the mental images and feelings of connection.

Next step: increase your defenses

The next step in the visualization exercise is to communicate the healing agents of the forest with your immune system.

Find with the help of your fantasy an image that represents how your immune cells called “null” or “natural killers” are strengthened by theanticancer terpenes from the air.

You can imagine, for example, that these cells are like glowing stars in a sky, and that when they come into contact with terpenes – green haze or sparks – their rays sharpen and acquire the sharpness of metallic spikes.

These cells or stars circulate through the blood in search of a target (a virus, a bacteria or a diseased cell, which you can also imagine) without doing any harm to the body. When encountering pathogens, your immune cells activate, attack, and kill them.

Visualize that the defensive cells are becoming more and more. One becomes two, two into four, four into eight, and so on. The process is getting faster and faster: one hundred thousand turn into two hundred thousand, four hundred thousand … They sprout from your bone marrow as if it were a boiling galaxy.

Reinforce the whole process with your mind

The psychological technique supports what is actually happening. The anticancer terpenes from the forest air communicate with the cells of the immune system and they multiply.

The frequent walks can increase up to 40% the number of immune cells, according to research by Professor Qing Li. The messages that come from the outside and those that your mind emits are in the same harmony. They say: “More defensive cells!”

In visualizing this process there are no barriers to imagination. To continue with the example of the stars: you can imagine that they rotate faster and faster and are even more deadly in their fight against pathogenic bacteria and viruses.

The sharper and more emotionally intense the visualizations, the greater their ability to positively influence bodily processes.

Tips for meditating in the forest

Connect with nature and feel better by following these simple tips.

1. Open the senses

Close your eyes and watch your breathing, making it slower and slower. Then bring your attention to the ears. What sounds are you able to perceive?

Then focus on the smells. Where do they come from? Open your eyes and let your gaze discover shapes, colors …

Touch something that is close and that catches your eye. What textures does it have?

2. Stay focused

It attends with the maximum detail to every perception that the senses offer you.

If the mind becomes distracted, return to observation (you can count the breaths ten at a time).

3. How do you feel?

It converts the impressions of the senses into feelings, without forcing them. Are you filled with enthusiasm, joy, peace, a sense of shelter?

Reinforce your attention to these pleasant emotions, triggered by the natural environment, that have become part of you.

If you practice often, you can evoke these feelings anytime, anywhere.

4. Renew your connection

Direct your attention again towards the stimuli in the environment until you perceive it in its entirety.

Renew your awareness that you are connected and are part of the web of life with plants, animals, clouds, wind …