What the Forest Gives Us

Why do we find a walk in the forest soothing? What do spruces and oaks have to do with our happiness in life?

Our senses work more acutely in the forest than usual because they are stimulated in so many different ways. We enter a world in which there is so much to discover. A cracking in the branches, birdsong and the smell of humus. The air tastes fresher and our feet step on uneven, softer ground. These multi-layered perceptions in the forest are more conscious for some, less so for others, but they always make us feel more alive.

In everyday life, we often focus our attention on a very specific focus; a conversation, an email or street noise; this quickly exhausts us mentally. In the forest, our attention is also extremely active, but the stimuli there are less penetrating and targeted. This allows us to regenerate our attention, our working memory and our self-control. Even a short walk in the countryside can calm us down.

Away from the usual paths, deliberately away from the trail, your legs and feet experience something different, you look more consciously and discover nature much more intensely . With a little experience you can recognize animal tracks of wild boar, deer or badger. Dozens of woodlice crawl under a piece of broken bark, caterpillars crawl through the wood and centipedes scurry away. With a little luck you can spot shimmering beetles or colorful bugs. An incredible amount goes on in secret and everyone in Germany is allowed to go into a forest, even a private forest, as long as you don't destroy anything, show respect and are not in a nature reserve.

Anyone who consciously encounters other living beings also finds a different way of accessing themselves.

If we immerse ourselves in the moment , we can deepen the experience of the forest. Many of us are often preoccupied with our past - or worry about the future. But the most intense experiences happen to us when we immerse ourselves in the present. Therefore, we should make a conscious decision: I am taking the time now , going into the forest and opening my senses, so to speak.

Trees communicate with each other via their roots and fungal threads. Predatory insects attract other insects with signals. Many species live on just one tree and death is also important for the forest ecosystem . It is important to know the functional relationships in the forest habitat so that we can be aware of our role and our responsibility towards this ecosystem.

For some, wild nature is completely alien . They grew up in the city or never really got to know nature. Or they have become more and more alienated over time because their everyday life no longer has any contact with the forest or nature. There are also people who are afraid of the forest itself. It is dark and spooky, or people are afraid of wild animals, spiders and snakes. But the forest always leads you back to yourself. In terms of our ancestral history, we Northern Europeans come from the forest. It is our home . The forest has something nourishing and healing about it - but also something dangerous. That is why it is important to treat our natural home with care.

The more experiences children have in or with the forest, the more openly and easily they perceive nature as adults. People who have never been to the forest would never think of consciously visiting this place. Through contact with the forest, children can gain incredibly valuable experiences . They balance on a tree trunk, discover a tunnel in the undergrowth and climb up the roots of a fallen tree. Children gain more confidence in their bodies and the forest stimulates their imagination. They experience that their needs are respected - I can run away if I want to run away; I can scream loudly if I want to scream loudly. You could say that many children come out of the forest a head taller than when they went in.

The perfect path for forest visitors should be winding and as close to nature and as rich in discovery as possible. Narrow paths that repeatedly lead over small viewpoints and then back into the thicket. This allows for a lot of “aha” moments. The smaller paths are generally the more interesting ones.

The forest is analogue - therein lies its great power

Nature is analogue. And that is precisely where its great power lies. The forest gives us the opportunity to step out of our everyday lives, which are increasingly dominated by technology, digital offerings and stimuli. The forest slows us down. There is a lot to see and admire, but there are no flashing monitors, no beeping incoming emails or calls (assuming you switch your cell phone to silent or leave it in the car). The experiences we gain in direct contact with nature ground us. Anyone who goes for a walk in the forest quickly notices that - unlike in everyday life - they don't need a new kick every few minutes.

We all long for sensory experiences that give us the feeling that we are truly connected to the world. To a certain extent, only nature can give us this feeling. Emerging from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, from the greed for ever more stimuli, many people fall into an attentive calm in the forest. A calm that our brain needs to regenerate and that fewer and fewer people find in their everyday lives. Such experiences in the forest escape the usual logic of acceleration and escalation. The deep satisfaction that we experience in nature cannot be increased, nor does it even need to be increased . It doesn't have to be more action-packed or faster next time. Instead, you experience that you can be happier with less . And that is perhaps the greatest gift the forest can give us.

Thank you for your interest

Best regards

Sophie & Chris