Bonus episode: A walk in the forest meditation

Welcome everyone, to today's very special bonus episode of the Green the Web podcast. It's a podcast about ecologically and socially sustainable design and in this episode we will get into a forest meditation. Very special bonus meditation for you in this podcast. And I'm your host Sandy Dähnert, a UX UI researcher and designer myself.

And I love to connect nature, Mother Nature, Mother Earth with design practices, with the design research that I'm doing and really implemented deeply into the way I'm working and empathizing with nature over and over again. And for that I love to do nature meditations as well. And in today's episode I will love to take a walk with you in a forest to ground ourselves to really feel nature even if we are not there. And you can do that of course in nature you can do that at home. You can do that while walking, while doing other stuff. It's absolutely up to you and I'd really love to hear your feedback on the meditation at Instagram, at LinkedIn, via email. Send me a message what you got out of this episode. I'd really love to hear from you. And then let's get this meditation started, find a comfortable seat, lay down, take a walk. As I said, it's really up to you how you want to experience this meditation. Get comfortable. You can roll your shoulders a couple of times, release some tension and the jaw release some tension in your whole body and then take one deep breath in and out and another deep breath in. And out. And then for a moment feel your body. Feel your breath moving your body. And then feel into your feet. Imagine standing with those feet on a warm, soft ground in a forest. You are surrounded by trees, by all kinds of plants. A dense, beautiful green forest. It's a beautiful day. You can see the sunlight through the trees. It seems magical, calm and yet everything is moving with the wind blowing through the trees with birds flying by with butterflies right in front of your nose. And you can feel the soft ground underneath your feet. If you still have shoes on your feet, feel free to remove them and just be barefoot in this forest on this soft, warm ground. Feel Mother Nature right there with you. Surrounded by it. Immersed in it. And then you start walking through this forest. You feel the different textures of the ground below you? The ground earth itself. Some roots from plants. From trees. Some cold stones that you might find here and there on the ground. And you walk along this very narrow path through this forest, through all of those trees, all of those plants, and you look around and you see thousands of different types of green color of brown colors. You can see how sunlight changes the green on a tree. Different grains of moss, of tree leaves, of all kinds of different green plants that are around you. And you can touch all of the plants, feel the different leaves, the different textures. You can hear the birds chirping. What other animals can you see in this forest while you're walking through it? You know you are safe here in this forest. There is nothing negative that can happen to you. You are all safe. You feel free. You feel clear. And this fresh forest air fills your lungs, fills your body with new energy. The air feels light and slightly cold. You can feel how clean this air is that you can breathe in this forest. You can feel the nutrients in this air and how every single breath in and out calms you, grounds you, energizes you. And while you're walking through this forest, you can also see a small lake right in the middle of this forest and you tap your toes into the lake. This lake is crystal clear. You can see down to the bottom of the lake. It has beautiful colors lit up by the sun. And yet this water feels so fresh, so nourishing, so vitalizing. And if you want, you can get into this water. Take a swim in this clear, crystal clear, fresh water right in the middle of this forest. There is nothing that can happen to you. You're safe. You're welcome. This is your forest. And if you take the swim, then enjoy this beautiful fresh water right around you, right around all of your body. Feel the soft, gentle texture of water around you. And breathe long soft breaths. And then you get out of the water, see a big stone right next to the lake and can dry yourself up there. Enjoy the sunlight, the soft, gentle touch of the sun. You feel free. You feel clear. You feel grounded. Feel the energy of this forest. Immerse yourself in this forest in nature. Listen again to all of the voices, all of the sounds that you can hear from the forest, from the leaves in the wind, from the lake, from the animals. Feel the gentle warmth on your body and at the same time this clear, nourishing air that you can breathe. And then take a deep breath in here and out and a second deep breath in. And out. And if you want, you can either stay here in this forest at this lake or you open up your eyes again. Come back to your body. Come back to your breath.

Thank you for spending this time with me and then see you next week.