Nature Connection Santa Barbara

💧 ➡️ 🍄‍🟫

Both can exist at the same time 🌼

I’m grateful for the chance to share forest bathing with health professionals on June 8 as part of this UCLA continuing education course. 🌳 Clinicians will experience and learn about several evidence-based nature interventions that improve patient well-being.

This is a hands-on day — no PowerPoint presentations! 😀 If you or someone you know is a clinician and looking for continuing education credits, please check out the link in bio or below ⬇️

https://medschool.ucla.edu/events/nature-as-medicine

Had a wonderful time this afternoon taking out a group of colleagues for urban forest bathing. 🌳 The staff at was doing a series of staff trainings today and wanted to give some space for employee well-being as part of Mental Health Awareness Month. 💚 Staff added treasures they found in the park into this circle — a threshold everyone passed through at the beginning and end of the experience.

I love guiding colleagues because I get to infuse some team-building into the experience. People get to contribute in a different way, bond over a shared experience, and get a little silly in a work-appropriate way 🥸

Thank you to everyone at SB Public Library for the chance to give back to you — you offer so much to our community 📚🤝🖥️🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒🧭🌈🎤🎨🪴♻️ and are appreciated!

New leaves 🌱
I invite you to look for any signs of new beginnings today

Couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day with these humans who came to forest bathe as part of a partnership with the .

We came together to connect with nature (which includes each other) using our senses. Here, folks were invited to use a sheet of paper to notice “komorebi” — a Japanese word for light leaking between leaves. 🍃 I like offering this invitation, shared with me by , because it is a reminder that even in times of darkness there is also light.

We ended with a poem by Joy Harjo to remind us of our interconnectedness. I’m sharing it below in case you would enjoy it too —

Remember
by Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

https://poets.org/poem/remember-0

One spot left! 🌿 I am so excited to be partnering with for this very special experience. We’ll begin with forest bathing as a group — connecting with nature using our senses — and the have the chance to enjoy some nature-inspired reads in the park or to take home 📚💚 More details at link in bio

I’ve been thinking a lot about aliveness — what makes me feel alive, what reminds me that I’m alive.

Something that never fails to remind me that I am a living, breathing animal on this earth and kick me out of autopilot is seeing another animal that has died. Maybe something else reminds you of this, like seeing an ambulance go by, for example.

So today I invite you to do something that reminds you that you’re alive. Maybe it’s feeling the sun on your skin, doing something that makes your heart beat faster, placing your hand on your chest and feeling your breathing, or sitting in companionship with other beings. See if you can turn off autopilot and remember that you are a living, breathing animal on this earth 💚

I’ve noticed that the plants are looking a bit thirsty with the lack of rain, so I was delighted to see some dew for them this morning 💧