This past week was a tough one. I was fighting off a cold from hell—still am actually. And my son and I were training for a karate tournament (as well as driving to and from it). So there’s no new Gaian Reflection today. Instead, I ask you to use the 20 minutes you would have used to read this newsletter to go outside and hug a tree, hang from a tree, talk with a tree, build a relationship with a tree, or even be a tree. I realize I’ve written an essay on all of those, which you can read another time. But for now, just go outside and connect with a tree. Maybe just say hello, or even thank you. Or try one of the other exercises below.
- You may suffer from floppy fin syndrome, but don’t worry, hanging from a tree is a great way to heal this.
- Simply hug a tree. This is an exercise I do now with forest bathing classes. It feels really good, if you can let go of your self-consciousness for enough time to get a nice tight hug. (This essay, from back when I was blogging about raising my baby son, is about his instinct to hug a tree. I realized then that it’s a natural, joyful, and powerful exercise—though it took me many more years before I tried it myself!)
- Sit down and have a chat with a tree—I promise, you’ll benefit from your conversation partner’s wisdom.
- Or start building a deeper relationship with a tree. Get to know it, its role in the land community, its inhabitants, its cycles.
- Finally if you have no trees around you, be a tree. At least for a bit. The Gaian Tree Meditation is a great physical and mindfulness exercise.
Stay Healthy and Go with Gaia,
Erik
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