Shin rin Yoku -Sunshine and Rain

It's pouring here.

I went out to feed the chooks and sneezed a lot. I have a scary sneeze. It frightened the chooks. I went back n the house and sneezed some more. I look an antihistamine. Turns out - having never had hay fever before, I’m allergic to winter! Those who know me will think this amusing. Living “Down south” I am always rugged up. But I still go out. I love coming back to warm fires and wine!

So I have had a good muck about in puddles with the dog today. It was soggy and silly and my hair betrayed me and I now look like a porcupine. The bush was dark green and shiny and smelt like petrichor, wet eucalypt- oily tangy. sharp, smudged with mud and slop. I plopped along. Head down so I didn't trip over and land on my butt, with occasional bursts of staring up to get wet cheeks and drops in my eyes, cold, loud. Green on green shiny leaves and slick.

yet just the other day, I walked in glorious sunshine, warmth and still, light shining through the canopy of Jarrah and Karri and dapple daze. It smelt like dust, haze and late summer days. Leaves crackled. Bushes rustled. Birds sang cheerfully and I smelt a gorgeous Hakea all honey sickly perfume and lazy heavy in the still.

Dexter doesn't care what the weather is. I know the Northern Europeans say there is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. So long as I am warm, I am like the Dexter The Happiest Dog in the Universe, I really don't mind.

Because each experience in nature is unique. Even if they are in the same place, the same forest or track, my happy place, my experience can leave me alive, giggling and crazed, or sleepy sultry calm. That is the Joy of a Shin rin Yoku - get me out of my head and into feeling. Feeling and not thinking, and centred and at one with my day.

There is so much to discover in the bushland whatever season or weather. Not just about the place you are visiting, but in yourself. The wonderful thing is not just leaving feeling at one with the world, but knowing, because I've studied it, how truely good it is for me inside as well. For my heart rate and hormones, my cortisol levels. How it is lowering my blood pressure and reducing my inflammatory markers.

How it is making me connect to others and find my place in the world.

Whatever the weather, Shin rin Yoku is the bomb!

Get in touch if you want to try it out for yourself.

Jacquie Xxx