I offer walk and talk sessions in the outdoors, see ‘What Nick Offers‘ for details.
I offer walk and talk sessions in the outdoors, see ‘What Nick Offers’ for details.
Forest Bathing Session at Weilangta.
Our first forest bathing session at Weilangta forest went well.
With a lovely warm morning and a fairly still day we were met with tiny trickles of water in the coastal range creeks feeding into the Sandspit River.
The bush land is starting to dry out being mid summer.
We encountered yellow tipped black cockatoos, and tawny frogmouths with many songbirds in the trees and bushes.
It was a peaceful and enchanting atmosphere with these sounds, and the light breeze through the trees.
The walk was easy going with slight inclines and a natural turn around spot about twenty minutes in.
There are also some nice places to sit and soak and listen by the Sandspit River near where it crosses under the dirt road.
Our next Forest bathing session will be in two weeks at Strickland Falls in the foothills of kunanya/Mt Wellington in South Hobart.
FOREST BATHING WALK @ WEILANGTA FOREST
My first forest bathing session will be at Wielangta Forest Walk near Bream Creek/Marion Bay.
A one hour guided session on an easy walk through the rainforest.
https://nickhalladventuretherapy.com/…/forest-bathing…/?
I have thirty years experience as a bushwalking, outdoor activity and river guide combined with training experience and a private practice in person centred somatic therapy.
We will be meeting at the Weilangta reserve carpark at 10am next Tuesday 10th February.
Bring good shoes, a raincoat and warm enough personal clothing, and a drink.
$20 per person, I will be holding ongoing sessions here, and at forest locations at the base of kunanyi Mt Wellington.
https://www.google.com/…/Wielangta+Forest+Walk+Picnic+Area
What Do Farmers Do?
I recently purchased a pretty new but second hand ag bike to join a trip along the Oodnadatta Track with a group of friends.
The Yamaha AG125 is a farm bike, and I found out when I went to have it checked for registration that it is only a farm bike! It cannot be registered for road use in Australia.
So it was not able to be used for the outback trip, even though it is a capable and suitable piece of equipment.
I advertised the bike for sale online, thinking that there would be someone with a farm who would just love a farm bike with only 600 k’s on the clock, and for $1000 off the new price.
I got an enquiry from a young farmer in the middle of Tasmania who had discussed the matter with his partner and they had decided it was time for a new bike. Having a reliable purpose built farm bike on a farm makes a whole bunch of things easier.
I delivered the bike on the Nick Hall Adventure Therapy ute. It was a beautiful day for a countryside visit/tour and I had a great conversation with the new owner about bikes, and farming. I am always very impressed with farmers knowledge and understanding of the land and weather and growing conditions. It is actually very inspiring to find people so dedicated to, and informed about, what they do.
Farmers grow our food, this is what they do.
This makes them invaluable.
Forest Bathing – What is it?
Forest bathing is a practice or process of therapeutic relaxation where one spends time in a forest or natural atmosphere (like an uncrowded coastline/beach), focusing on sensory engagement to connect with nature, and breathing in the air.
Forest bathing is also known as sylvotherapy, and, emanating from Japan, shinrin-yoku.
Sylvotherapy/Shinrin-yoku is a wellbeing and healing practice that involves mindful connections with natural places.
It promotes physical and mental well-being through activities like sitting or walking in a forest, sensory engagement, and even physically embracing trees to connect with their energy. Potential benefits include reduced stress, lower blood pressure, a strengthened immune system, and improved concentration and mindfulness.
In Japan, which is two thirds covered in forest, the term shinrin-yoku was created by Tomohide Akiyama, who was the director of the Ministry of Forestry, in 1982. After several studies were conducted in Japan during the 1980s, forest bathing was seen to be an effective therapy method. Akiyama knew of these studies along with the findings that showed the beneficial health effects of the compounds, such as phytoncides, and of the essential oils that certain trees and plants emitted. He officially put forward shinrin-yoku as a recognised practice, promoting its benefits to his public and establishing guidelines for its implementation.
Shinrin-yoku/forestbathing has been developed as a response to the increasing urbanisation and technological advancements and was put forth to inspire individuals to reconnect with nature and as a means to protect the forests and the natural lands. It was understood that if people spent time in natural forests and like places, and were able to find therapeutic comfort within them, they would value and protect them.
The Japanese calligraphy for Shinrin-yoku, forest bathing.
Practicing forest bathing/shinrin-yoku/sylvotherapy means spending time in nature, amongst the trees and grass, and mindfully engaging within a forest atmosphere or other natural environments. It is usually done by sitting in or walking through, a forest. Walking would be done at a slow and gentle pace. These practices would be done without carrying any electronics or other distractions, and taking the time to soak up the surrounding nature.
It involves using all five senses and letting nature enter through those senses. Some examples of exercising this can include:
- Listening to forest sounds, i.e. birds and insects.
- Touching the ground, the trees, and the leaves.
- Smelling the flowers and other essential oils of the plants and trees.
- Observing the surroundings and scenery
- Tasting the crispiness of the air while breathing
How To Be Not Overwhelmed (in Nature and Elsewhere.) The Restoration of Spontaneity.
Here are the slides from my recent presentation at the Outdoor Health Australia forum in Lennox Head, New south Wales, which turned out to be another very beautiful and exciting part of Australia.
“How To Be Not Overwhelmed (in Nature and Elsewhere.) The Restoration of Spontaneity.”
Mindfullness, nature contact, nature immersion, experiential, deep ecology, person centred.
Hi, I’m Nick Hall. I have been immersed in person centred adventure therapy since 1994. I now offer my private practice Nick Hall Adventure Therapy where we do walk and talk sessions, and small adventure therapy sessions canoeing, swimming, stand up paddle boarding and forest bathing. I have worked in adventure therapy groupwork, as a river guide, with torture and trauma victims, at the Aboriginal Health Service in Tasmania, and run my own groupwork program Community Rites Of Passage. I have presented internationally and around Australia. I am a foundation member of Outdoor Health Australia. I also present on empathy, high functioning group formation, and deep ecology.
This is an experiential workshop held in the outdoors. It focuses on learning to identify what overwhelm is and when it is occurring internally, and then moves to using this awareness to manage this situation, whether it occurs in an outdoor setting, or elsewhere in one’s life. This workshop is for anyone, of any experience, who wants to explore the functioning of overwhelm in themselves. It is intended to be a gentle exploration, an introduction.
Days Off.
Occasionally I get asked what I do on my days off.
All the normal stuff…
Well, my version of the normal stuff.
Today I was collecting firewood.
Soul Searching
Soul Searching?
Carl Jung had much to say about the soul later in his life.
He was a victim of lifelong learning.
I can recall him saying in an interview something like “There is a treasure buried in the field.” He was talking about the existence of the soul, and how conditioning, and some of the workings of the human mind bury this fact, this reality. The reality of the soul.
In this he was not talking about the route of organised religion, which very much tends to bury truth in dogma and doctrine, mindless repetition. He was talking about our own personal search for our own personal soul, and what this means.
I found a quote, easily online, as one does.
“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire. Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.’
And then I thought to myself, also as one does, “Who said that?”
The next step in this moment in time tends to be ask AI.
The provided quote is a combination of phrases from two different people: “The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire” is attributed to Ferdinand Foch, while “Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold” is a quote by Bob Marley. The final sentence, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul,” is a quote from John Muir.
Ferdinand Foch
- This quote from the French general and strategist Ferdinand Foch emphasizes the potential and strength of an ignited human spirit.
Bob Marley
- The reggae artist Bob Marley expressed the importance of spiritual wealth over material gain with this statement, prioritizing wisdom over riches.
John Muir
- The naturalist and conservationist John Muir spoke of the essential need for natural spaces to nourish the body and soul. He believed that “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul”.
You may have noticed that I did not put quotation marks on this AI response. This is because this is not a quote, or someone’s work, it is a piece of data processing, a piece of essentially soulless writing, mournful numbers until the presence of the soul is added. Somewhere there is a soul involved.
How do we tell the workings of the soul apart from everything else?
For us there are two or three possibilities.
There is the technical world, the world of constructive and destructive cause and effect.
There are the workings of one’s mind.
There is the world of relationship and connection.
A mentor of mine described this as “Shit happens, little mind, and big mind.”
Little mind is our brain in our head.
Big mind is our wisdom, our clarity, both felt and put into language, our endless generosity as we move through life always open to learning new things.
Big mind is also our awareness that we are a part of everything. That we are, in fact, everything.
To be in touch in every moment with one’s soul, one’s big mind, it is necessary to free one’s self from the workings of little mind, isn’t it? To be passively aware of these workings, and learn and know, what is true, and what is false. What is wise and nurturing, and what is stupid and miserable.
How to achieve this?
Somewhere in you you may recognise this:
By wanting to achieve this, by being aware of your desire to be free of the workings of little mind, as little mind is only out for itself. And then doing absolutely nothing about this, so totally passive is the road to freedom, to peace.
And while one is waiting one can learn how to do things effectively, and how to be gentle in letting go, and how to be kind.
It may make sense that in letting go of what does not work, eventually, what is left is what does work, and this is the treasure to which Carl, and many others, refers. The treasure that is you, as part of everything, not separate from it. Real spirituality, not invented spirituality. Humble, and passionate, quiet and immense. Timeless. Beyond belief.
Adventure Scrapbook #3
Canoeing on Browns Rivulet, Kingston.
Therapy dog Lexi wants to drive.
Talking with the Montrose Bay goose.
Walk and talk at Cornelian Bay, New Town.
GASP pink window got broken, now looks beautiful in a different way, Elwick.
A bandana from Project Hahn. The organisation where I learnt wilderness group work.
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos next to the track at Geilston Bay.
kunanyi from Risdon Brook Dam.
Gum tree in blossom, Dodges Ferry.
Therapy dog Billy on his day off.
I do beach walks along beaches around Hobart. Let me know if this is what you would like to do.
Nick Hall Adventure Therapy 