Tranquil Wellness Walks

11/10/2025

Water plays numerous roles in maintaining our bodily functions. It is an indispensable nutrient for every cell, initially serving as a building block. Water regulates our internal body temperature through sweating and respiration. It facilitates the metabolism and transportation of carbohydrates and proteins in the bloodstream, while aiding flushing out waste primarily via urination. Water acts as a shock absorber for the brain, spinal cord, and fetus. It contributes to saliva production and lubricates the joints. Water not only sustains and regulates bodily functions, but it also offers significant psychological advantages. The sound of running water, such as that from a river or waterfall, deeply influences our mental state. Researchers propose that these soothing sounds can alter neuronal waves in our brain, promoting a calming effect and encouraging relaxation. Furthermore, the sound of flowing water serves as a type of “white noise”, providing a range of psychological benefits. As you listen to the sounds of the creek, focus your mind on the calming sound of the creek without associating it with anything, allowing the sound to envelop you, helping your brain release any linger stresses. This practice will guide your body into a profound state of relaxation.

11/10/2025

Listen closely as the wind rustles through the leaves, causing the trees to sway in a graceful dance. Trees are among the most common and cherished mediums through which the wind expresses itself. This soothing sound known as psithurism (sith-err-in-um), which has been described as salubrious. The naturalist and foundering member of the RSPB, W.H. Hudson, noted in his book Birds and Man (1901) that psithurism is indeed beneficial. He referred to the sound of the wind in the trees as “very restorative” -a mysterious voice that the forest shares with us. He believed that spending an hour listening to the wind in this way is a worthwhile experience to seek out. So take a moment to immerse yourself in the soothing sound of the wind as it dances through the trees, allowing your mind and body to embrace relaxation with the gentle whispers of the breeze.

11/07/2025

"Many experts say that kids-and adult as well-need to get out in Nature more and are healthier and better adjusted if they do so. Stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces, one authority said. I second that, and I would add one more thing: Whether you go out into the countryside or your own backyard, go out barefooted whoever safe and possible. The stress level will drop even more".

Tips to Earthing in today's lifestyle:

1) Walk into the wilderness and choose the grassy areas instead of asphalt roads. Try to walk barefooted or at least with a covering that allows the electrical contact or exchange. You will notice the difference in your mood and your health. It will keep you alive with joy in your heart.

2) As often as possible expose any part of the skin of your body to the Earth or grass, or any natural water, lake, stream or ocean. In your garden.....moist grass is a perfect conductor.

3) Use the trunk of a tree to lean on a rob it of some of its electricity for your health's benefits.

4) Bathing, especially in ocean water (because of the salts) or lake or river, is extremely good for you. If you can, walk barefoot in these waters. If you have ever done it you have already seen the benefits on your nervous system, your sleeping, your appetite, and your attitude. When you are linked to the Earth and involved in the electric exchanges, you start feeling like a human being again.

~Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever, written by Clinton Ober, Stephen T Sinatra M.D., and Martin Zucker

11/01/2025

November 1st: Recognizing Worldwide Bereaved Siblings Month

November is dedicated to Worldwide Bereaved Siblings Month, a time to honor those who have lost a brother or sister. Throughout this month, we invite you to connect with someone you know who has experienced this loss. Even if it has been years since their sibling passed away, a heartfelt acknowledgment can provide comfort to the grieving sibling.

"The Unseen Grief...Losing A Sibling

Sibling loss is a strange kind of sorrow, one that often slips quietly beneath the surface of public mourning. When a brother or sister passes away, the world tends to look first toward the parents, the spouse, or even the children of the deceased.
Yet the sibling, standing somewhere in the middle, is often left to grieve in silence.
People don’t always know what to say to someone who’s lost a sibling. They might offer a polite condolence before shifting focus to the ‘closer’ relatives. Society rarely talks about how that loss shatters the foundation of who you are.
Your sibling is your co-author in childhood, your mirror in family dynamics, your link to shared memories no one else can fully understand. When they’re gone, part of your personal history disappears with them.
Here’s the thing…this overlooked grief can be isolating.
You might feel as though you’re expected to be strong for your parents or to move forward before your heart is ready. Even well-meaning friends sometimes minimize it, assuming the pain is somehow less than that of other losses. But the truth is, sibling grief is just as profound, quieter, and less seen.
It can make you feel invisible, mourning someone while being expected to hold everything else together. There’s an ache in realizing that no one will ask how ‘you’re’ coping, because few realize how intertwined your lives truly were. It’s not just the loss of a sibling, it’s the loss of shared birthdays, inside jokes, old arguments, and
that lifelong familiarity of being known from the very beginning.
Honoring this kind of grief means giving it a voice. It’s recognizing that your pain matters too, that it deserves empathy, not dismissal.
Sibling loss may be overlooked by others, but for those who live it, it’s a defining loss, reshaping who you are and how you move through the world.
In speaking about it...you reclaim space for healing.
And in remembering your sibling out loud, you remind others that every bond we lose leaves its mark.
No matter how quietly the world acknowledges it."
~Gary Sturgis

11/01/2025

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"Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky. Its leaves harvest sunlight to photosynthesize, so trees compete by shadowing their neighbors. If you look closely you can often see two trees pushing and shoving with languid grace. Trees are great and beautiful machines, powered by sunlight, taking in water from the ground and carbon dioxide from the air, converting these materials into food for their use and ours. The plant uses the carbohydrates it makes as an energy source to go about its planty business. And we animals, who are ultimately parasites on the plants, steal the carbohydrates so we can go about our business.

In earing the plants we combine the carbohydrates with oxygen dissolved in our blood because of our penchant for breathing air, and so extract the energy that makes us go. In the process we exhale carbon dioxide, which the plants then recycle to make more carbohydrates. What a marvelous cooperative arrangement— plants and animals each inhaling the other’s exhalations, a kind of planet-wide mutual mouth-to-stoma resuscitation, the entire elegant cycle powered by a star 150 million kilometers away."

Carl Sagan ; Cosmos "One Voice In the Cosmic Fugue"
❤☮🌎

10/26/2025

Today’s Forest Bathing walk took place at the stunning Snow Peak Campfield Long Beach. Despite the wind and rain, participants courageously embarked on a mindful journey through the trees and trails. They engaged in a gratitude activity, explored symbiotic relationships, experienced the soothing effects of rain, and marveled at the vibrant array of colors showcased by nature’s splendor. By the end of the walk, participants reported feeling more relaxed, appreciating the rain more deeply, fostering a stronger connection with the natural world.

10/19/2025

Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully. ~Norton Juster

Book: The Phantom Tollbooth https://amzn.to/3KX6YGb [ad]

Painting: 'Dawn, East Bergholt, Suffolk', 1899, anonymous

10/17/2025

Why is it so hard to live simply anymore?

In today’s world, the idea of a simple life has never been more alluring and yet more elusive. We move through crowded schedules, constant noise, and endless digital distractions, often without stopping to ask: Is this the life I want to live? Over time, the pursuit of productivity stretches us thin. The days blur into one another, and we begin to question not only the purpose behind all the striving, but whether it brings any lasting sense of fulfillment.

A simple life where one lives intentionally, holding on only to what truly matters, sounds like peace itself. It’s the kind of life where a person knows what they need, understands what they want, and lets go of everything else.

But how possible is that today?

Ironically, even the basics of life, shelter, food, healthcare, community, have become harder to obtain and maintain. Simplicity isn’t just about having less; it’s about not being crushed by the weight of survival itself. Leaving behind the chaos seems almost like a luxury now. Many long for less, but are trapped in a world that demands more just to get by.

The longing for simplicity isn’t just nostalgia. It’s a quiet rebellion against the burnout, a way of remembering that life doesn't need to be so complicated to be meaningful. But getting there and truly living simply, is now one of the hardest things to do.

Do you feel drawn to the idea of a simpler life, or does it seem out of reach or even unappealing? And if you are trying to live more simply, how are you managing it in a world that makes even the basics feel complicated?

Painting: 'Night (after Millet)', 1889 by Vincent van Gogh

09/29/2025

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOypKxUjzBL/?igsh=MXUyZDJ4ZnN6d20w

09/08/2025

Most of a mushroom’s life happens out of sight. The fruiting body that rises from the soil is just a glimpse of a much larger organism. Beneath our feet runs the mycelium, vast underground networks that move nutrients, send signals, and bind the forest into a living system. Research has shown that these networks redistribute resources, warn of stress, and nurture new growth. What old traditions intuited about the wisdom of fungi, science is only beginning to confirm.

Spores carry this intelligence outward. Carried on wind and water, they seed new webs of life that continue the cycle. Each mushroom that appears is part of a larger whole, an expression of the forest’s capacity to remember and renew.

To notice mushrooms in the woods is to glimpse the hidden mind of the forest itself. Intelligence is not only found in human thought, but in the relationships that sustain life, in the cycles that turn decay into growth, and in the balance of systems that have been adapting for millennia. 🍄✨️