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Virginia Outdoor Adventures: Hiking, Camping, Kayaking, Local Travel and more!
From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is a mecca for outdoor travel and adventure. Virginia Outdoor Adventures Podcast is your local guide to hiking, camping, kayaking, travel and so much more. Get the information and the inspiration to plan your own adventure, right here in Virginia. Lets Go!
Virginia Outdoor Adventures: Hiking, Camping, Kayaking, Local Travel and more!
Forest Bathing and the Power of Nature Connection with Ana Ka’ahanui, Capital Nature (Ep 69 Part 1)
Immerse yourself in nature’s healing embrace with the transformative power of forest bathing.
Ana Ka’ahanui, co-founder of Capital Nature, uncovers the secrets behind this mindfulness practice rooted in Japanese culture.
More than just a walk among the trees, Ana shares how forest bathing can lower blood pressure, enhance creativity, and offer a sanctuary for mental and physical well-being in our fast-paced world.
We dive into the principles, benefits, and practices of forest bathing, emphasizing its ability to help individuals reconnect to nature in everyday settings and the joy it brings through mindful sensory experiences. Let’s Go!
Join us next week when Ana shares her most memorable and transformative forest bathing experiences, additional ways to connect with nature, and resources for taking your mindfulness practice to the next level.
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Mentioned in this Episode:
Connect with Ana Kaahanui: Website I Instagram (Personal) Instagram (Capital Nature) I Facebook (Personal) Facebook (Capital Nature) I Email: ana@capitalnature.org
Ana’s upcoming Forest Bathing Walks in the DMV
Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs (ANFT)
ANFT Certified Guides
Forest Bathing Finder
Some of Ana’s favorite books on forest bathing, nature and trees
The Nature Fix (book)
Night Magic (book)
iNaturalist (app)
Seek by iNaturalist (app)
City Nature Challenge (global)
City Nature Challenge (local)
Virginia Master Naturalists
NOVA Park’s Roving Naturalist
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Contact show host, Jessica Bowser:
jessica@virginiaoutdooradventures.com
From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is a mecca for outdoor travel and adventure. Virginia outdoor adventures Podcast is your local guide for hiking, camping, kayaking, travel and so much more. Get the information and the inspiration to plan your own adventure right here in Virginia, I'm your host. Jessica Bowser, immerse yourself in nature's healing embrace with the transformative power of forest bathing. Ana ka AHA Nui, co founder of capital nature, uncovers the secrets behind this mindfulness practice rooted in Japanese culture more than just a walk among the trees, Anna shares how forest bathing can lower blood pressure, enhance creativity and offer a sanctuary for mental and physical well being in our fast paced world, we dive into the principles, benefits and practices of forest bathing, emphasizing its ability to help individuals reconnect to nature in everyday settings and the joy it brings through mindful, sensory experiences. Let's go Virginia. Outdoor Adventures is sponsored by breaks, Interstate Park brakes Park is a hiking destination in the heart of Appalachia. Every trail features something that will awe you, including geologic formations, scenic views of the canyon, stream crossings and wildlife viewing. Trails range from easy to difficult. The convenience of lodges, campgrounds and luxury cabins inside the park means you'll never need to wander far from the trail. Come see for yourself why breaks is known as the Grand Canyon of the South. Download the digital trail guide at breaks park.com or click on breaks Interstate Park in the show notes of your listening app. Anna, welcome to Virginia outdoor adventures. Thanks so much for having me. Jessica. I'm really happy to be here. What do you love about Virginia's outdoors? What do I not love about Virginia outdoors? There's so many different places for us to practice forest bathing. Contrary to popular belief, people think that they need to get in their vehicle and drive miles and miles out into the forest or the mountains to do forest bathing, but actually you can do it right in your own backyard or right in your local park. And so what I love, especially about me living in Northern Virginia, is there's so many places within 510, three miles, that I can go and practice forest bathing. Can you tell us a little bit about what forest bathing is, and how is it different from a hike or a walk in the woods? Forest bathing is a little more intentional than a walk in the woods. So for example, it's not a hike, it's not for exercise, necessarily. It's not for identifying species or trees. So it's not like a fitness activity. It's it's really a mindfulness practice. It's all about slowing down. It's all about connecting to nature and whatever green spaces or force that you're in. It's all about making observations, slowing down and making observations. And so I think if somebody was on a jog in a park or a forest, you know, they might not be slowing down enough to see what's on that tree or what's on that bush, or, you know, what little bug is on the ground. And so it's a mindfulness practice where we can just slow down to be more connected through observation, I can understand why people would want to make that connection with the outdoors. In fact, this topic is a topic that my listeners requested when I put out a listener survey last fall, so I was really excited to see that people are more interested in slowing down and being more mindful when they're outdoors. So Anna, what are the origins of forest bathing? I've heard it comes from Japan. Is that true? Yes, basically, you know, we all have been communing with nature since the beginning of time. But the term forest bathing actually originated in the early 1980s in Japan, and the term that they came up with is called Shinrin Yoku, or they would say shindin yoku, and it means to take in the forest atmosphere with all of your senses. And the reason that they came up with this term is because right after right in the early 80s, they noticed that their working population was pretty stressed out. After the tech boom, there were high rates of depression, anxiety, chronic disease, suicide rates were very high. And so they knew that they needed to do something to help their people. And so they decided to conduct some tests. And so they took groups of people, and they did some diagnostic tests, such as heart rate variability, their stress hormone levels, their blood pressure. They tested all these things, even things like creative thought and things like that. And then they sent groups of people out into nature, into the forest, and then also people into the city. And when they sent the people, when they sent them out for an exposure for the day, and then they brought them back. They did those tests again, those diagnostic tests, and they noticed. Asked that the people that had been exposed to nature had lower blood pressure, had better heart rate variability, had better creative thinking and less ruminative thinking. And so they're like, What is this what is this magic that's happening when people are outdoors? Obviously, when people go for a walk in the woods or outside, they usually feel better. You know, what is this magic? What they discovered is, is that certain plants and trees, they have a an above ground communication system of organic compounds called phytoncides. And that's fighting with P, h, y, t, o, n, C, I, D, E, S, phytoncides, it literally means plant killer, but basically it's a defense mechanism and a communication mechanism between trees and plants, and how it works is trees and plants, when they're being browsed by predators like bugs or beetles or something like that, they can feel that and know what's actually eating them. And so they're actually able to change their chemical composition and smell to give warnings to area trees and plants to warn them, like, Hey guys, we're being eaten right now. You better put up your defenses, and so the fight inside. What they discovered in these medical tests is that when humans ingest them, when we breathe them in, when we're walking around, it just provides tremendous physical and mental benefits. Why do you think forest bathing has become so popular? I feel like some people would hear the term forest bathing and think it was just like, woo, woo, right? Like, there was, I start, I start all of my forest bathing walks with I have bad news. We're not getting naked today. And that usually makes people laugh. Because, you know, when people tell others that like, Oh, I'm going on a forest bathing walk today, usually the first question they will get is, oh, are you going to get naked, or, Oh, are you going to get in your bathing suit and run around? And so it's, it's just a, it's a, it's the term is weird for people to understand, but if they can just think about it as just bathing in the atmosphere, not physically bathing, like jumping in the water, jumping in a tub, or something like that, then they can kind of understand it a little more. But people need it now more than ever, because people are really busy, they're really stressed out. You know, there's a lot of people that are having mental health issues. And so obviously, anyone can do this. It's a free and easy way to get some help, you know, from nature. And so, you know, we evolved to be in nature. Our senses were developed over time, to be receptive to fractal patterns in nature and things like that. And so we've come in our sort of like industrial age or whatever, now that we're all working and everything, we're not spending as much time outside when I think deep down, I think our bodies and minds really crave that. And so forest bathing is all about reconnecting, possibly even remembering, even maybe thinking back to when your child and like the wonder that you had as a child experiencing nature. So people, people, when they go on our walks, they can have all different types of responses. There's all different ways that people can respond to a four spinning adventure seekers will find endless opportunities in Grayson County, where many of Virginia's iconic trails and landmarks excite hikers, cyclists, paddlers and happy campers alike. Imagine this. You're hiking on one of the most scenic sections of the entire Appalachian Trail through the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, summiting mount Rogers or white top mountain, the two highest peaks in Virginia, or strolling through the valley of elk garden, where the now extinct Eastern elk once roamed. Or maybe your perfect day is on the water. Grayson County is home to the New River, one of the oldest and most scenic rivers in the world. Enjoy a leisurely class one float with the family or adrenaline packed class three rapids. Navigate the waters using the New River float calculator to plan your trip. The app factors flow rate, water levels, weather conditions, vessel type and more to calculate float times from point A to point B. Prefer two wheels. You won't want to miss the Grayson gravel traverse a 72 mile mixed surface gravel bike route that connects the Virginia Creeper trail and new river trail over well maintained and remote roads featuring a variety of challenging climbs in the foothills of Virginia's highest peaks, this overlooked gem of Virginia presents some of the best gravel cycling in the state, mostly unwritten and undiscovered after a day of adventure, there's nothing like gathering around a campfire under a sky filled with stars. Grayson County offers plenty of spots to pitch a tent like the New River campground or cozy up in a rustic cabin at the buck wild reserve. Discover why Virginia is for outdoor lovers, start your Grayson County adventure at the historic 1908 courthouse and visitor center, or access the visitors guide online by clicking on visit Grayson County in the show notes of your podcast listening app. I love what you just said about the wonder. The first time I did a forest bathing walk, I. Isn't really sure what to expect, and it really does introduce you to all of the senses and what you're experiencing in the moment, but you start to pay attention to things that you didn't pay attention to before, and I thought that that was one of the biggest benefits for me, or having that experience, was that now when I go out, even if I'm just on a hike. And I'm not necessarily in the mindset of practicing forest bathing, but I just want to be more mindful. On my hikes, I find myself, like, stopping to, like, really examine things, or if there's like, a really bushy patch of moss, and it's like, Oh, this looks cool. And then I touch it and it's really spongy, and I'm like, Oh, wow, look at that. And it's something I wouldn't have experienced if I hadn't thought to slow down and start to pay attention to these things. So I really enjoy that part of it, the sensory and paying more attention and the sense of wonder that comes from it. My favorite word is wonder. So my favorite word is wonder. My second word is joy. And that's kind of like how I try to operate, you know, try to bring that to people. And I love watching people experience the wonder of nature and giving them sort of the permission to do it. Because I think sometimes people don't sometimes, when we're touching things on my walks, they say, Oh, I didn't know that I could touch that moss or that mushroom, you know, I didn't know that was okay. And so that whole giving the permission and the validation of like, Yes, you are allowed to smell this flower, you are allowed to touch this little, you know, beetle or something like that, you know. And it's really awesome to watch people just kind of sort of awaken in a way, or reawaken actually, you know, they may have again done this, maybe as a kid when they were, you know, playing outside or something, but they haven't done it in years and years and years. I actually had a woman on a walk recently. We were talking about trees and bark, and she said to me afterwards, I never knew that trees had different barks. I just I thought all trees have the same bark, and I never noticed that they were different. And so just just something small is like looking at the bark of a tree. I just think is it can be really a revelation to people. Let's talk about the physical and mental health benefits. Let's start with the physical Can you just list what some of the physical health benefits are from forest bathing? Sure. So one of the biggest ones is the production and increase of NK or natural killer cells, and those are the cancer fighting cells, the infection fighting cells. Studies have shown that people's percentages of NK cell, or NK cells do increase lowering the blood pressure is another one. And I have actually been on walks where we've had blood pressure monitors for people, where we can test our blood pressure before we go out, and then do it at the end of the walk. And sometimes that's effective. Sometimes, you know, a lot of times when we're outside, like there's adrenaline going and all the times of different factors. So it's not like a medical setting. So sometimes, you know, it's not always perfect. But a lot of people who I've spoken to have who have done this, have said, Oh, yeah, I definitely had the lower blood pressure heart rate variability is another thing. We need to have a good variable rate on our heart and so it helps with that. Let's go into the mental if we can. Yeah, let's talk about the mental health benefits too. Yeah, less ruminative thinking. So people that usually have kind of, like, spiraling thoughts, kind of have less of that. After a forest bathing walk, people tend to be, you know, calmer. I I've had people on my walks that's at the beginning of the walk, say, you know, I came here today very anxious. I really didn't know what this was going to be, and then afterwards, they just felt very relaxed and, you know, kind of at peace. And so everyone experiences it a different way. I kind of tell people that there's no right or wrong way to do force bathing, so there's no like, expected outcomes, like, it could just be totally different for each person, which is great. It's just whatever. What I tell people is they're going to get out of the experience what they need personally, everyone's going to have a little bit of different outcome. So no wonder it's become so popular with all the physical health benefits and the mental health benefits, I can see why this would almost be addicting. If you come out feeling so much better than you did before you go in. Then, of course, you're going to want to do this more often. It's like, why don't we do it all the time? You know what I mean? Just like, it's free and it's easy, anyone can do it, which is great, and the fact that you can do it anywhere during COVID, I was certified through an organization called the association of nature force therapy guides and programs. And we are 2500 plus guides in 65 countries on six continents. And so we're all over the place. And during COVID, some of us pivoted to virtual nature immersions, where I might be set up with my phone on zoom out in a park somewhere, and people would be dialed in from their living room, from their patio, from a local park bench, from a local park while they're walking, and we can still do some of the same activities that we would do in person. And it actually it has a really different and cool kind of aspect to it, because I've had, I've been on, I've led Virtual Box, where people were dialed in from Africa and Jamaica and London, and so you're, you're getting to hear from these people, experience their nature, where they are, and then sharing it with the rest of us. Is there a specific technique or approach to. Forest bathing, or is it simply about spending time in nature? So it's interesting. The organization that I've been trained through a NFT, we have a specific method that we use where it is. It's made up of invitations. And so invitations are sensory exercises. So there might be where the guide set some parameters. Like, Hey guys, we're going to do this for the next 10 minutes. Here are your boundaries. So you're going to send you out for 10 minutes. Don't worry about the time. I'll call you back, and then I'll call people them. We'll call people back. Sometimes using animal sounds, which I love. I only have two animal sounds in my repertoire right now, and that is coyote and American crow. And so basically, sometimes I give the group an option to like, Hey guys, do you want to do coyote or crow? And then I'll do them, and then they'll decide which one they want me to call them with, because they have to do it back to me. And that's part of a guide. Thing is like, we need to know where everyone is out there. And so if I have everybody howling like a coyote, I kind of know, like, where they are in relation to me, so that they'll come back to me, and so we do these invitations. And the best part, in my opinion, and which makes this different from a hike, is that there's opportunity to share between the invitations. When we come back together, we gather in a circle, and we have the opportunity to share with the prompt, what are you noticing? And in my personal opinion, hearing how other people experience the natural world is just fascinating to me. It brings up so many different things for people, it might bring up a memory like, oh, this reminds me of when I was on a farm with my grandfather in Columbia, you know, or something like that. Or this is when I went and picked apples with grandma in Vermont, or something like that. So people have opportunities to share. However, sharing is completely optional and silence is welcome. And so I always tell people like they don't have to feel like they have to say anything for the entire program. They need to do them whatever feels right for them. And so there's no expectation that there's any sharing. But from my personal opinion, that's where I think a lot of the cool, transformative stuff happens is when you're hearing and being able to relate to others and how they connect to nature. Talk a little bit about engaging the senses. I know that that's a really big part of forest bathing, and it includes sight, sound, touch, smell, and, to my surprise, even taste. So how do all of those play a role in the experience guides? When we're trained, we're trained to train to do all kinds of invitations, it's like we have a little playbook, and based on the location that we're at the time that we have the demographic, how old the people are, their kids or their adults, we can decide which invitations to use. Some might be a little more active than others, some might be a little more passive. And so one of the first invitations that we do, that's part of our program is called pleasures of presence, or we call it pop, for short. The guides call it pop. And so basically, it's kind of like a guided meditation, where I invite people, we're usually standing in a circle, and I invite people to close their eyes, if they're comfortable doing that, and I'll just kind of walk them through some breathing. First we'll do some slowing down and breathing, but then just focusing on hearing for a while, like focusing on sounds that are far away, focusing on sounds that are close, even the sound of your own breath and things around you. And touch, I have people touching their own fingers and their skin and their clothing and textures so that they can kind of, you know, people don't usually kind of sit there and kind of feel their skin, and kind of feel, you know, just what it feels like to be their skin. So we do touch smelling. We do we do smelling where we smell. And I have people if they're comfortable doing so I have them maybe turn their head from left to right, or up or down, like an animal would be in the forest, because that's how they're catching the different scents. And so when they're moving around, like, if they move to the left and, you know, sniff up, they might smell different, something different from like what's on the other side of them. For taste, it's funny, I have them taste like what's in their mouth and things, but I also have them imagine that I have a straw in their mouth, an imaginary straw, and they sip up and taste the air of where we are. And that's a kind of a really cool sensation, because people, you know, it's like, you don't used to tasting the air, but you know, for a lot of people, the air has a taste. And so that's a quick, easy one, you know, sometimes, if we're in a place where their herbs are something that we are, we know are safe, you know, we might, oh, let's, you know, here's a spearmint leaf, or here's lavender or something like that, you know, we might. We might do a little tasting that way. We just do all of these things together, just and that, we do that whole pop for the first, you know, first invitation just kind of gets people slowed down and kind of into it. I would call it dropping in. They're like dropping into the experience, whether you're after a relaxing picnic or a two week vacation, leave life's daily pressures behind and reconnect with nature and family at a nearby State Park, you'll find plenty of programs, events and activities among 42 parks, plus 1000s of campsites, hundreds of cabins, more than 500 miles of trails and convenient access to Virginia's major waterways, from Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean. There's something for everyone at Virginia State. Parks. Discover your next state park adventure by clicking on Virginia state parks in the show notes of your listening app, the first four the sight, sound, touch and smell, those seem pretty obvious to me, especially when you're in the outdoors, but the taste one always throws me. And the first time I ever did a forest bathing experience, the guide was having us pick leaves and things from the trees and actually put them in our mouths. And then I found out later on, I did a podcast episode about wild edible plants, and that guide was like, you don't want to do that if you don't know what you're putting in your mouth. And I was like, oh, okay, so what's the right answer here? Yeah, so I probably unless I am a Virginia Master Naturalist. So I did have studied a bunch of nature nerdy stuff in the area, which includes plants and trees and things. I'm I'm a dendrophile. I'm a lover of trees, and so I love to learn about trees, and I love to teach about trees. And part of what my nonprofit capital nature does, we have been, you know, contracted by organizations to lead tree identification walks and neighborhood tree walks. And so if I'm aware, if I know exactly like this is what this bush is. For example, Spice Bush is one of my favorites, and it has the really sort of pungent smell. So we'll, we'll, if I see one when on or on a walk, I'll have people pause and take a little sniff of the twigs. You know, that type of thing. Other guides like they might use the Spice Bush to make tea, because we do end after a series of invitations. We do end with a tea ceremony. It's in reference to the Japanese culture, but it's not the Japanese tea ceremony. It's just literally an act of reciprocity. It's like bringing in nature into yourself. We always offer the first cup to Mother Earth, you know, and then we have tea together, and then that's really where you get the real taste. Because real taste. Because I'm usually guides, pick teas that they like that are, you know, of natural, like, there's a tea that I love that has all kinds of stuff in it, from passion flower, cardamom, spearmint, skull cap, you know, lavender, like that, you know, so that that gives them the taste. Oh, that's the one you shared with us the other day. You had it with you recently, yeah, yes. And I'll admit what it is, it's Yogi bedtime. So there's a smelling exercise where I have, we have passed the Tea around, and I have everybody hold on to it, and then I have them sniff and yell out what they smell. And there's so many things in the tea that I use that like, you know, 10 things will get yelled out, and they're all right for all right, which is great, anyway, yeah. And then I kind of confess that it's that it's Yogi bedtime. And, you know, I always just tell people, like, having a couple sips of this tea is not going to make you pass out or fall asleep. I mean, it's just a very soothing it's just a very soothing tea. Oh, that just sounds lovely. I mean, I usually carry tea with me almost anywhere I go, but especially out when I'm outside, I think I'm just going to start enjoying it in a completely different way now, in a more mindful way, yes, for somebody who is new to forest bathing, what are some simple ways to get started? I mean, you've been talking about leading forest bathing walks. But what if somebody doesn't have a forest bathing walk happening near them that they can join? Can they still get started on their own? Definitely, people can go forest bathing anywhere. People can forest bathe from their couch, as long as you can see some nature and possibly hear nature, you can do forest bathing. And so even if you're hanging out with a potted plant in your house, a living being, like I said, when we during COVID, we when we did the virtual immersions, when I had people doing a sit spot with a tree or a sit spot with a being. The people that were hunkered down in their homes went and got, you know, their plant, their a plant from their kitchen or something, and were able to spend time with that being. So it's, again, not having to go out into the forest. And so I would just encourage people to go, possibly, to any sort of green space that's nearby, and it could just be a little pocket park. It doesn't have to be this huge regional park or up in the mountains or anything, and just slowly walk around and just look just look at things. Look up, look down, look for textures. One of my favorite activity invitations to do is texture treasure hunt, where I send people out to just to sort of like, feel bark and feel leaves and and things, and bring back for show and tell, like, one item to share. It's really interesting to see what people what people gravitated to in terms of texture, and they all kind of do, like a show and tell. And so basically, show, there's just so many textures, you know, in nature, that people don't really notice a lot of the time, because they're not really paying attention. So just again, they don't have to be on a on a lead walk by a certified guide just to get started. They could just be slow and observatory. And, you know, be observational. Just try to notice and just see how it makes them feel. Like, how does it make them feel to touch the bark of the tree that's on the corner there? It's a tree that's been there for the last five years they've lived there, but, oh, I'm gonna actually touch this tree now. Oh, look, it has grooves. Oh, look, there's little bugs on it. Oh, my gosh, you know. So there's all this discovery that can happen, so that it's all about that it's all about just getting in touch with your senses and then just making that connection. I think I just had a realization as you were saying that. So I work from home, and. And several times throughout the day, I'll just walk out into my backyard and just look at all the plants. Now, I plant native plants because, you know, it's good for the birds and the bugs and the environment, and so I take a lot of pride in my plants, and I like to go out and just see how things are progressing out there and and what might be new, but I do it because I need a break, like I need a mental break, I need a physical break. And after sitting at my computer for hours, stepping outside, even if it's just for a few minutes, completely changes my mood, like it's the smell of the air, it's the sound of the birds, it's the sunshine, the breeze on my skin, and then also making observations. So I think I've been forest bathing all along and didn't even have, you absolutely, you absolutely have, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, that's exactly, and that's, that's what we're encouraging people to do. It can be in short dosages, like that, short bursts. It doesn't have to be. My walks are typically a two hour walk. You know, that's a kind of an average is two hours but, I mean, we can do them in you know, I have some colleagues that have done, like, really quick ones for like, 30 minutes, you know, that type of thing. But for me personally, to two two and a half hours is kind of the sweet spot for me. And I actually, for my groups, I like to keep them around 12 to 15 people, just because you have the element of sharing. I've led groups of over 30 before, but, you know, you want to give everybody an opportunity to share. And when you have that many people, you know sometimes we have, in the DC metro area, we have probably over 40, close to 40, certified guides in the area. Not everyone is practicing, but we have, do have those people, and we keep in touch. We refer each other for walks and gigs and things like that. And so there's a lot of opportunities in the DC metro area for forest bathing in and I do mention that on my website, capital nature.org, I have a page for forest bathing, and I have a calendar there where, if other colleagues might want me to list their walks, I put them on there as well. Because I kind of feel like it's a yoga practice where, you know yoga, all the yoga instructors are different, right? So we have the same toolbox, but we all execute differently. And so I, after I lead a walk, I say, I say, You know what? If you liked this, definitely come see me on another walk in another's place. But if you want to experience another guide, please, you know, go on one of the walks of one of my colleagues. Does your website have any listings for other parts of Virginia by any chance? Basically, it's wherever the guides are. So most of the guides that I'm in contact for this sort of sharing of walk information, or DMV, DMV folks, right? But in terms of finding a guide, there are, there are two ways. It's called forest bathing finder. And so you can go there, and you can pop in, I think, your your address, your state, or something, to see you know what might be in your area. Also the organization that I've been certified through their websites, a n, f t, dot Earth, they have a section on their page that says, find a guide. So any of the guides that are certified through us have the option of being listed, being listed on their director. For example, if I was visiting my brother in Texas recently, I think I said to him, hey, you know, go on the website and just look up Texas and see if you have any forest bathing guides here so that he could experience that in Texas. So there's definitely resources out there. Awesome. I'll put a link to that in the show notes, because people listening to this podcast are all over the stage and even outside of Virginia, and may want to try to find something closer to them. So I'll put that in the show notes. Anna, are there any unlikely places where you've led a forest bathing walk. Join us next week when Anna shares her most memorable and transformative forest bathing experiences additional ways to connect with nature and resources for taking your mindfulness practice to the next level. Virginia Outdoor Adventures is inspired by and supported by listeners like you, which is why your messages and feedback means so much to me. You can text me directly by clicking on Send Jessica a text message in your show notes, I answer questions, respond to comments and share your feedback on the show. Never miss a new episode. Sign up for my email newsletter and receive my listener resource guide with the top podcast episodes a Virginia outdoor bucket list and exclusive brand discounts for my listeners. Click on newsletter. Sign up in your show notes or visit Virginia outdoor adventures.com thanks for listening until next time adventure on you.
