A walk through the Forest
Last weekend I went on a long walk through the forest, beginning at the city centre of Berchtesgaden and stopping at the Obersalzberg. Lasting about 2 hours and leading uphill on a serpentine trail, it is my favorite walking route through the thick forest.
Already the first trod is liberating. The rustling of the leaves beneath the footwear, the chirping of the birds make me plunge into a different world.
I breathe deeply and relish the green thankingly. I smile and new thoughts appear. So many thoughts that I can hear them while the silence of the forest gradually settles into my soul. I focus my thoughts and begin with gratefulness. Grateful for such a beautiful walk through nature.
Sounds like a fairytale? It wasn't always like that.
It took a while before I had reached the state depicted above. Often I had cried, often I was angry, desperate and all the negative emotions that did not let me come to rest surfaced and tormented me maddeningly. I walked and walked and rather wanted to enjoy the sporty factor instead of appreciating the nature around me - actually I was running away, dubbing that exercise "nature trip".
Only over time I learned to stop, to look around myself, to turn around, to observe, to greet my fellow humans that passed me by, to smile and to facilitate my thoughts.
This experience put emphasis on the beauty of nature, so much that I felt that my thoughts were being recycled by the trees like oxygen. Everything comes back clean and crisp. I felt a deep connection and gratitude.
This fundamental experience, the first tender buds of this experience, drew me back to nature in regular intervals. Afterwards I just felt better, felt an inner composure and felt closer to myself. Little by little I learned from nature simply just to BE.
It's a process that everyone can discover and allow to happen for himself, I just suggest a method that helped me feel my power.
Once you have ventured this step into loneliness - the term 'loneliness' in this respect is not a negative term, but a means to mirror of ourselves, even though we are gregarious we exist as individuals at the same time - you will be rewarded namely with the feeling of being a human in close communion with nature.
We enter this world on our own and we leave this world on our own - thus we can draw on this loneliness.
I made out for myself that it is absolutely making sense to leave the cell phone at home because one learns to face up to these thoughts, emotions and inner movements and impulses when there's no external distractions - thus no cell phone!
Once I am in the forest or nature, I sit down on a stone, a bench, a meadow or any seating possibilities afforded by nature to rest after a long walk.
I am aware ….
Gorgeous how everything around me lives, smells and blossoms and how negativity inside of me diminishes ….
I observe myself, I feel my breath, I listen out to my inner voice and perceive the beautiful things, great people, nature coming to the fore. A growing sense of gratitude.
I understand it as follows:
1. Spirit
Even if dark thoughts hover above us these will swiftly be dispelled by the life of the forest. They can't stay. Nature does not only breathe around us, we breathe nature.
The cold, brisk, clean air gets into your lungs and while exhaling, we say goodbye to gloomy thoughts. And so, step by step, we become one with nature, ground ourselves and arrive in the NOW.
Good hormones are released, a pleasant feeling arises, we feel body, spirit and soul and we can enjoy every stride and every breath we take as human beings.
Through feeling comfortable and letting go of sorrow, our consciousness and self-awareness increases. We rejoice in the landscape. We relieve stress and we feel like moving.
2. Body
When I walk through the forest, I like to spread my arms and while passing the trees, I touch the barks. Sometimes I stop and touch the tree with both hands; interesting structure if you think about it and realise it consciously.
In our daily routine we usually only serve two activities actively, namely "seeing" and "hearing".
Tactile sense is rarely used. Free movement within nature, free from all of civilization's facilities allows us to be "human", we smell nature consciously, we perceive nature's air on our hands and our face. The mind gets sober, we gain balance.
Nature makes addictive not only because we enjoy the feeling of "being away", but also because it allows our bustling mind to get some peace. We are a part of nature and this is echoed in us. Try it. Once or twice a week a trip to nature without cell phone.
How do you do this? I am looking forward to your feedback.

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