Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown is offering a Forest Bathing Walk at 12 p.m. on Saturday, January 4, designed to deepen the connection between humans and the natural world.
The event will be led by Linda Lombardo, a certified forest therapy guide and nature educator, one of the first on Long Island to receive certification from the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs.
Following the walk, participants can meet Maureen Calamia, author of The Enchanted Earth: Embracing the Power of Nature to Discover the Wild in You, who will discuss her book at a free talk and signing starting at 2 p.m. The book will be available for purchase at the event.
The Enchanted Earth is based on interviews with nearly 100 people, each sharing their “profound, moving experiences” with nature—whether it’s marveling at a sunrise or “connecting with a deer and looking into its eyes and seeing the profoundness of oneness of everything,” said Calamia, a Sweetbriar board member and volunteer.
In an interview with South Shore Press, Calamia explained, “I was inspired by our disconnection from nature on a global level. Humanity has moved so far away from our real roots, our ancestral roots, and deep connection with the natural world. And I, as well as many others like Linda and people involved in ecotherapy, recognize this as a big reason for our collective anxiety.”
The people interviewed for the book come from diverse backgrounds, including M. Amos Clifford, founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy; TV personalities like Pete Nelson, former host of Treehouse Masters, and Les Stroud, longtime host of Survivorman; as well as New York Times best-selling authors Pam Grout and John Perkins.
In addition, inspiring stories came from park rangers, shamans, filmmakers, and death psychologists, among others, Calamia said.
Nelson, for instance, describes his encounter with redwoods in the wake of forest demolition in California and how the energy became more welcoming once the “trees recognized he was coming with an open heart and love.”
The Forest Bathing Walk is designed to promote health benefits, including boosting the immune system, Lombardo said. She emphasized that the 90-minute walk is not focused on covering distance, and no exertion is required. Rather, “it is designed to slow us down” and foster a deeper connection with the natural world, she said.
As Lombardo told South Shore Press, “The stories that Maureen has in her book, these are the experiences too that anyone might have on a forest bathing walk.”
She explained that forest bathing is a slow, mindful connection with nature that began in Japan as Shinrin-Yoku, which means "bathing among the trees."
“It is very much a relational experience with nature...It’s designed for us to really become fully present in a place that separates us from our day-to-day lives, however, allow us to incorporate whatever clarity, whatever presence, we found on the walk into our daily lives,” she said.
The walk is open to those 15 and older, and registration is required through Sweetbriar’s website at https://www.sweetbriarnc.org.
Sweetbriar Nature Center, located at 62 Eckernkamp Drive in Smithtown, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating people of all ages about wildlife, with a particular focus on Long Island’s ecosystems.