Join us for 3 days of guided Forest Bathing using The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) method. Daily immersive walks where you can connect with Limina’s ancient trees, streams, meadows and ocean. 3 to 5 nights of accommodations at Limina, 3 meals per day, spiritual direction session, plus unstructured time to use all of Limina’s amenities.
The essence of forest bathing is sensory immersion in the ambience of the forest. You walk slowly and notice things. You feel the touch of the breeze on your skin; you notice the sounds of the brook and the birds and the movement of trees in the wind. And you take that noticing in, give it hospitality, let it land inside you. Forest bathing is not the same thing as hiking. The destination in forest bathing is “here,” not “there.” The pace is slow, not fast. The focus is on connection and relationship.
From “Your Guide to Forest Bathing” by M. Amos Clifford
The primary goal of Forest Therapy is to support the wellness and health of participants through guided immersive experiences in forests and other natural settings. A Forest Therapy Guide facilitates safe gentle walks, providing instructions—referred to as “invitations”—for sensory opening activities along the way. These walks follow a standard sequence. They begin with guided sensory attention and embodiment activities that establish contact with the present moment and place. Next come a series of connective invitations, often improvised in the moment and adapted to the needs of participants. These may be followed by wander time and/or sit spot. The walks end with a ceremony of sharing tea made from foraged local plants. Guides are not therapists. Support for wellness, personal development, and perhaps healing comes to participants from their interaction with natural environments. Guided activities have as their sole aim creating and sustaining safe, meaningful, and relational contact between participants and nature. Guides do not diagnose participants, nor do they enter into agreements with participants about specific complaints and goals for wellness. Apart from simply helping people to connect with nature, guides aim to be agenda-free. We view the healing contract, if any, as existing between the forest and the participant. –From ANFT Forest Therapy Guide Training Manual
‘In the practice of forest bathing we immerse our senses in the special qualities of the fluid, oceanic ambiance of the woodlands. We walk slowly so we can focus our senses on the myriad ways the living forests surrounds and touches us. Feel the breeze on your skin, hear the gurgling voices of the brook and the calls of birds, see the movement of the trees in the wind. By giving attention to your senses, you turn down the volume on the cacophony of inner thoughts. Your senses bring you into the present moment where you can take in all the forest has to offer, welcoming it, letting it settle inside you. When the forest is allowed its place within you, it supports your body’s natural capacity for Wellness and healing’. Your guide to Forest Bathing – M. Amos Clifford
‘Most people live in a world that has been “tamed” and is starved of heart-centered and embodied knowledge. Most people have been conditioned to think of nature as separate from themselves, which has caused harm to humans and the More-Than-Human World. The More-Than-Human World has its own kind of wisdom and the ability to sense and feel, and these offer the possibility of a kind of communication between people and the More-Than-Human World…
The retreat begins Friday October 6th and concludes on Monday October 9th after lunch. Guests may extend their stay one or two additional nights to enjoy the quiet healing of Limina. Our time together will include plenty of time to rest, meditate, share rituals and stories alike, and eat wholesome meals.
Meet Bill Catania, Your Retreat Leader
Questions? Contact info@liminarenewal.com.