There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the distant, but surely coming, summer.
-Gertrude Jekyll
If you’ve ever tried to “think positive” while your body is screaming, you already know who wins.
Pain wins. Exhaustion wins. A nervous system on red alert wins. Any pep talk given to said nervous system is bringing a Post-it note to a tornado.
And then we blame ourselves! Because obviously the problem is a personal moral failure, not a human being a human.
In forest therapy, we take a different approach. We don’t try to out-think the body. We learn to listen to it without judgment. In doing so, the body finally gets what it has been asking for all along. Safety.
Biology’s Rebellion: The Dangers of Overriding Nature
Many people living with chronic pain think they should be able to cope better.
They should be stronger.
They should push through.
They should be more grateful it’s not worse.
But here’s a humdinger of a thought. When your body is sending powerful distress signals, your conscious mind has very little leverage.
The attempt to escape from pain is what creates more pain.
Neill Williams, on the Success Genius Podcast, explains it beautifully. When you are hungry, exhausted, or in pain, your biology overrides your attempts to think or feel differently.
The vagus nerve, your internal communication highway, links brain, heart, lungs, digestion, and the stress response. If that system is dysregulated, focus, creativity, decision-making, and connection all suffer.
Your body is a boundary of your soul. Treat it with care.
As I’ve said before. This isn’t a motivation problem. It’s a nervous system problem.
And until the body feels safer, it will keep turning up the heat.
Rushing: The Trap That Keeps Us in Survival Mode
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
I dare say, we hurry through the day, override our limits, stay stimulated late into the night, fall into bed, wake up feeling four days past our bedtime, and repeat.
Then we wonder why our system is constantly braced for danger. We keep hitting refresh on the same nervous system and expecting a software update.
From a survival perspective, it makes perfect sense. Nothing in that cycle signals “You can stand down now.”
So the body continues to send messages. And they are rarely gentle. Whispers don’t usually create change. Pain often does.
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.
“I Would, But I Simply Can’t.”
I often hear how wonderful forest therapy sounds.
I wish I could. Maybe someday. When life calms down.
But healing asks for time. Attention. Slowing down. Repetition.
Until then, forest therapy remains a lovely idea instead of lived remedy.
Word to the wise. Your body will keep requesting the appointment. It has an unlimited follow-up policy and will keep calling until someone answers.
If you don’t schedule a break, your body will take one for you, and it probably won’t be at a convenient time.
-Unknown
The Remarkable Power of Non-Judgmental Awareness
Here is where the shift happens.
When we practice noticing sensations without evaluating them, we step out of the inner fight.
Instead of:
- This is bad.
- Why am I like this?
- I should be better.
(There are no gold stars for hating life correctly)
We try:
- Warmth
- Tightness.
- Pulsing.
- Cool air on my cheek.
No argument. No story.
Judgment activates defense. Awareness invites regulation.
The nervous system reads neutrality as safety.
The organism knows.
Nature: The Ultimate Stage for Inspiration
The forest is a masterclass in non-urgency.
Nothing is asking you to be different.
Everything belongs. You. Belong.
Research into nature exposure consistently shows reductions in cortisol, blood pressure, muscle tension, and rumination.
But experientially, I’ve seen something even more important. People soften. Attention and breathing widens.
The body begins to renegotiate its alarm state.
Nature provides gentle sensory anchors. Light, texture, birdsong, air movement. These allow awareness without overwhelm. For someone with chronic pain, this is crucial. We are not adding more intensity; we are expanding capacity.
Astravore: (n) A soul that keeps feeding on hope even after disappointment- light-hungry, resilient, unbreakable. -ViviJan
You are larger than what is happening to you.
Silencing the Alarm: A Lesson in Balance
Imagine a car alarm that has been blaring for years.
You wouldn’t yell affirmations at it and tell it to be quiet.
You would look for the threat it thinks it perceives.
Non-judgmental awareness in nature is how we open the hood.
Each calm moment says, “No one is breaking in right now.”
Over time, the alarm system recalibrates.
My Story
I’ve experienced moments in my forest therapy practice when I wanted to do it all perfectly. To follow all the “right steps.”
When I go in with this focus I notice the pain is still there. The frustration is still there. I start thinking about all the years of pain I have ahead of me. Of financial strain. And the weight it adds to every relationship.
Then I remember to just breathe. Focus on today. Right. Now.
I start to feel the breeze on my face and hear it making its way through the trees around me. I sense the solid earth beneath me.
The pain does not vanish. But it’s not the only voice anymore. It has just been hogging the microphone in my head. 🎤 🤫
There is support available here whenever I need it. In the birds and the trees and the solid ground. This may sound odd. But this shift in thinking moves the pain inside a larger field of safety.
This is regulation. I just keep coming back to it.
The best way out is always through.
– Robert Frost
A Gentle Invitation to Explore
- Find something in nature that feels steady. A tree, a rock, the shoreline.
- Let your eyes rest there.
- Now widen your awareness to include three additional sensations that are neutral or pleasant.
- Move back and forth between the discomfort and the wider field
You are teaching your nervous system that pain can exist without emergency.
Do this regularly and the vagal pathways that support calm begin to strengthen.
Don’t just do something, sit there.
The Real Result: Persistence in Life
When regulation improves, people often notice clearer thinking, better sleep, and easier connection. Not because they forced positivity, but because their biology finally cooperated.
You are no longer fighting upstream. You are being carried. Like these little bitty icebergs I watch on the river. Floating by. 👇
The Closing “Peace”
If we keep living in a way that ensures the alarm stays active, nothing changes.
But when we make space, even small, consistent space for non-judgmental sensory awareness in the forest, the body hears something new.
I’m safe. I can soften. I don’t have to shout today.
And maybe, that is where my healing lingers. I just have to take time away, to meet it there.
The body always leads us home… if we can simply learn to trust sensation and stay with it long enough for it to reveal appropriate action.
Take care, my friends. I leave you with these February thoughts that gave me a little chuckle:
My February workout plan is mostly just shivering until my muscles get tired.
Love is in the air this February, but so is the flu, so please stay back.
SUNBEAM ACRES 