Training in Forest Bathing and Nature Connection with Adore Your Outdoors – what was it like?
A personal reflection for those wondering whether to begin training in Forest Bathing – by Shiv-Shakti Sharma.
Shiv-Shakti’s Journey: Finding Belonging and Trust in the Forest
“August always carries a certain weight for me. It is the month of my mother’s birthday and my own, a time when questions of belonging and self-worth rise to the surface.
This year felt different.
There was a sense of courage moving in beside the vulnerability. A sense of connection gathering around me like a shawl. The training with Sonya and Adore Your Outdoors has been part of that shift, gently reminding me that kindness begins with how I meet myself and how I allow myself to belong in the world.
1. Finding My Truth and Inner Child
I was invited to the live immersion week with the “Hazel” group of Forest Bathing Guide Training students, and something in me felt ready. I arranged my life so that I could attend, immersing myself once more in the generosity of nature and the safety of the group. Jane and Hettie welcomed me warmly, and their openness reminded me that when we work with Mother Earth, we do so collaboratively. The land meets us where we are. It never asks us to be anything other than ourselves.
Training in Forest Bathing, this incredible practice, has helped me understand that I am not an oak, nor a hazel, nor a yew.
I am Shiv-Shakti in all my fullness, shaped by compassion and rooted in connection.
And I am learning to stand in that truth without apology.
A great deal of my inner work during this training has centred on my inner child. She is with me more consciously now. I acknowledge her rather than push her away. I remind her she is safe, seen, supported and allowed to exist without judgment. This work has been hard at times because the wider world often feels overwhelming and noisy, resisting change and clinging to old patterns of fear. The training has helped me step away from those habits. The forest does not rush. The river does not apologise for flowing. The moss does not ask permission to grow. Nature teaches that belonging is never conditional. Its kindness is steady and unspoken, simply offered by being alive.
2. The Immersion Week: Collaboration and Guiding
The immersion week of the Forest Bathing Guide Training Course itself was a blend of nerves, excitement and recognition. I joined Jane and Hettie as co-guides and volunteered to lead the introduction and the scrolls.
Stepping Forward at Houghton Lodge Gardens
Standing before the group in Houghton Gardens, I felt my heart beating in rhythm with the trees around me. I spoke deeply about the venue, though not quite enough about forest bathing itself. It made me smile later. Authenticity matters more than precision. That morning reminded me that guiding is not about flawless delivery. It is about sincerity, presence and trusting that the land will support us. The act of guiding becomes a collaboration between human and more-than-human beings.
Recording my introduction was a real milestone. I had been putting off the recordings homework, avoiding the sound of my own voice. Yet doing it in that moment, with real people in front of me, felt honest. The participants’ feedback was generous. Their kindness settled something within me. Guiding does not need to be perfect. It needs to be heartfelt, rooted in shared humanity and in the sense that we are all learners and contributors, rather than performers.
The Honour of Guiding Mystery Scrolls
Leading the Mystery Scrolls invitation felt like a privilege while training in Forest Bathing. I used bark from the London Plane trees as offering plates and white feathers that had drifted down from above like quiet blessings. The elements came alive in the process: the feathers carried the whisper of air, the bark grounded us in the earth, the River Test called out from nearby with the energy of water, and the sun shone fiercely overhead, igniting the fire element. Humanity was there as well, exploring inner landscapes as much as outer ones. During the sharing circle afterwards, we held space for one another with gentleness and respect. That invitation left a lasting imprint on me. It reminded me that connection is never one-sided. We create it together. We breathe it into being. This practice, at its heart, is an act of collaborative kindness.
3. Lessons from Loss and Flow
The River Test became another teacher throughout the week. We would move from the patio down to the benches beside the river, where there was no shade at all. The sunlight touched everything, and the water shimmered with a feminine energy that felt familiar. Sitting there exposed to the elements made the river feel even more alive. Watching its movement reminded me that life is fluid. It adapts. It continues. Confidence, joy and trust also move like that. They ebb and flow. They return in gentler forms when we allow them. Training as a guide has taught me to trust that movement rather than fear it.
Alongside the beauty came grief. Our neighbours replaced their fence at home, stripping away all the ivy and cutting back the bay tree. Seeing this made me cry. Ivy had been home to the Red Admiral butterflies. The bay tree had offered shelter, structure and presence. Their removal created an ache in me, a reminder that even in my own garden I cannot protect everything. The new fence stood tall in the sunlight, stark against the memory of what had been there before. That moment taught me something important about vulnerability. Loss and renewal sit side by side, just as grief and growth do. The training helped me see that guiding others often invites me to guide myself, gently and without judgment, through my own emotional landscape.
Integrating everything from the month felt like weaving a tapestry. Nature became mirror and mentor. The butterflies, the river, the laughter shared during the immersion week, even the shock of the garden changing – all of it whispered lessons of belonging and transformation. The practice keeps showing me that there is no need to hurry. Nothing in the forest rushes. Everything unfolds in its time. Kindness has its own pace. Belonging has its own rhythm. My own unfolding has been shaped by the grounding, the stillness and the spaciousness the training has offered me.
4. Stepping into Confidence After Training in Forest Bathing
My personal journey through training in Forest Bathing has been rooted in questions of identity, safety, confidence and worth. I have had struggles, especially with trusting my voice, accepting imperfection and recognising that my way of being is allowed. I overcame these moments by leaning into the land, by letting the trees steady me and the river remind me of flow. The best parts have always been the moments of connection—those small flashes when participants soften, laugh or breathe differently. Those moments feel like shared kindness in motion, revealing a collective belonging that cannot be manufactured.
I feel ready now to offer my own Forest Bathing sessions to the public.
Not because I have mastered everything, but because I know how to walk alongside nature rather than against it.
I can guide from a place of sincerity, compassion and curiosity. I can create spaces where others feel safe enough to let nature speak to them in the ways she already speaks to me. Guiding feels like a continuation of my deepest values: to meet others gently, to honour their stories and to leave each space a little better than I found it.
Training in Forest Bathing and Nature Connection with Sonya has been a journey of coming home – to myself, to my inner child and to the ‘more-than-human world’ that holds us with such tenderness. I hope that anyone considering this path knows that it does not require perfection. It requires only willingness, openness and a heart ready to listen.
Kindness carries us the rest of the way.”
Comment from Sonya, Forest Bathing Trainer and Guide in Hampshire, UK:
From my perspective, Shiv-Shakti taught me much during the training.
As a neurodivergent student, she gently guided me to adapt my teaching methods to better meet diverse needs. She also courageously opened my eyes to some of my own cultural appropriation and facilitated necessary discussions around white privilege and unconscious bias within the wellness space.
Watching Shiv-Shakti transform into the beautiful butterfly that she is has been an incredible honour. I now consider to be a trusted friend and someone I would happily turn to for advice, as she is so rooted in kindness and generosity of spirit she’s an inspiration to everyone she meets. She’s also very funny and had us all in stitches many times.
Open, authentic, playful, kind and generous – these are the qualities of an excellent Forest Bathing Guide. Good luck Shiv-Shakti!
Find out more about our twice accredited Forest Bathing Guide course here: https://adoreyouroutdoors.co.uk/forestbathingguidetraining/
