In the practice of forest therapy, the question always is, “What are you noticing?”
It’s a powerful question, with so many ways to answer.
The first way can simply be to report: what you’re seeing, what you’re hearing, what you’re smelling, what you’re tasting, what sensations you’re feeling in your body, or on your skin.
But as you deepen into the three hour forest therapy experience the What are you noticing? question can become much more profound.
If you’re a leader, what are you noticing becomes your secret superpower.
What are you noticing allows you to see with the eyes of a mouse down close, but it also allows you to rise up and see with the eyes of a hawk, seeing the bigger view, the wider view, the longer view, and in strategy or team sessions, both of those viewpoints are invaluable.
What are you noticing also invites you to hear more. To hear between the words, to even hear the emotions that are being expressed.
What are you noticing allows you to sniff out the truth of what’s going on, or to sniff out the trends that are undoubtedly going to be changing your industry in profound ways.
What are you noticing allows you to heighten your sense of what’s happening around you and inside of you. If you are suddenly nervous, little butterflies in your stomach for no discernible reason, it pays to pay attention to that, because maybe there’s been a change in temperature or temperament of the people around you or the industry that you’re in.
What are you noticing?
The more you practice noticing, especially outside, away from the input of other people, social media, technology, the news, all the beeping and buzzing and binging and binging that happens in our everyday life, the act of disconnecting yourself from that and tuning into the practice of noticing will be a skill you carry into a boardroom, a negotiation room, a strategy session, an employee discussion, or as you evaluate a new opportunity.
So, the question is: what are you noticing right now?
Warmly,
Angie