The average person probably cannot imagine what kind of healing a forest holds. I have had the feeling and I know the healing first hand. Sometimes this world goes just a little too fast for humans. And when that “too fast” keeps on spinning faster and faster each year, a trip to the forest is just the right healing and just the right prescription for big-city syndrome. No matter where you go in our city, no matter what time you go, you will always see an abundance of people. Sometimes the crowding is so much a human just wants to hold both hands up to the world and shout, “STOP!” Stop the world, I want to go into the forest and see what real healing there is in nature. I want to see what real healing there is in listening to the streams flow, perking my ears up to listen for the birds; I want to find the silence in the middle of the forest, the silence like no other silence in the world.

To me, that is what it is all about. Why would any sane individual want to go into the forest and camp out on the forest floor without even bringing a tent? (As students of Outward Bound, we made makeshift tents from tarps and cords). But, still, why? Why does anyone want to live in the forest?

Only the camper knows the answer to those questions. Everyone who enters, goes to the forest for their own individual reasons, all different, as varied as the number of stars in the sky. Everyone who enters the forest goes in for a different reason and everyone comes out with different experiences and just as many different memories. Only you can say what you need to go there for.

This is about you – and your own adventure into the forest. But just for a moment let me tell you what I thought about going there. I had always wanted to go camping but yet never had the experience or the opportunity. Then finally one day, the opportunity was presented to me and I jumped at the chance to venture into the forest with Outward Bound. From that one trip to the forest, I learned great lessons. I came out of the forest a different person. I was renewed. And I had a memory of my trip that could cure me of any problems anytime that I would just think of the trip.

What can you gain from living in the forest? Everything depends on you and your attitude and your willingness to be honest and open with yourself. When you live in the forest you are forced to deal with just what is happening at the moment it is happening. And so, you are relieved of every sad memory and every harsh memory and you are relieved even of your present day problems. Nothing is important at that moment except that moment. You deal with hiking through the forest. You handle your daily plans of walking, cooking, bathing, carrying your gear, finding your direction, looking out for yourself, your own safety. Once you venture out into the forest, you are relieved in a way that you cannot be relieved in a large city. If you go with friends, you stick together.

Unity is strength, and in numbers, even in the forest, there is safety. So, you deal with your days in compartments. I do not remember worrying about the day before or the day after when I was traveling through the forest. No matter what day it was -that was the day that I was concerned with. That is living one day at a time – naturally. These are things you deal with while living in the forest. Not too many people would feel comfortable wandering into the forest. Going into the forest with Outward Bound makes all the difference in the world. On any Outward Bound trip (wilderness excursion) there are skilled instructors, most of whom are emergency medical techs or experienced in related fields. So you meet your instructors and right off, you feel confident and safe that this trip, this wilderness excursion—you can do!

I share these ideas and experience with you because I want you to know that no matter what your problems are, you are totally capable of leaving them be for a day or two or for a week, if you just put them aside and give your spirit rest. Living in the forest, even if for only a week at a time, is a natural healing for some of life’s many problems. Have you ever been so stressed that you could not relax for even a moment? Have you ever been so stressed that soft music or warm milk would not even help you relax. Have you looked for answers but found none? If you feel like this you might want to venture out into a park, a natural setting and see if that makes you relax. Look into the lake, listen to the birds, look around you and take in everything that is natural.

Camp out in a state park for just one night and see what that does for you. If you can tolerate camping out for one night, you might want to inquire about going on an Outward Bound Wilderness trip. This is the kind of trip that can change your life. I say that because after I took my first trip with Outward Bound, I recognized that the experience, the trip made a permanent mark on my life, on my memory. Nothing can ruin my day -if I just think of my trip. Nothing, yes, absolutely nothing can ruin my day. I remember the trip and I say, wow, I handled that; I can handle anything. And that is just the way that I feel .

Staying in the forest for one week is a hard job. There are many jobs inside of that and there are many tasks to be completed. We looked for firewood; we started and watched the campfires; we used the compass to find direction. Here and there we located water to drink. (The “we” that I speak of is the group of campers that went on that trip. There were eleven of us; three were instructors). We hiked, scaled rocks, took a ropes-course adventure, cooked, cleaned up the camp, made our own tents, and continued on to other campsites. We practiced “leave no trace” , meaning that we left the forest the same way that we found it. We did it all and we were proud of our accomplishments.

The reward of our forest journey was complete relaxation. This relaxation lasted a lifetime. It has been many years since my forest trip, yet still to this day, I reap the benefits from my first outing into North Carolina. I learned that being in the forest is one of the most healing experiences that a person can have. I learned that it is better than medicine because it was natural and without side effects. I learned that this was the trip that I waited a lifetime for.

Yes, I imagine right now you might be saying, “Big Deal”. You might be thinking, “How can sitting on the forest floor with all sorts of insects make anyone heal?” You might be thinking, “She is daft; she has no idea of what relaxation is”. And you might be thinking that this is the most idiotic idea ever (the idea of walking into the forest and coming out one week later). You could be thinking all of those things. And perhaps for your life, and your present circumstances, that might be right. But if you are reading here with an open mind, then you are thinking, “Hey, that might work for me”. Think one step further. Have you ever walked into a park and looked at the lake and just felt like that was the most soothing place on earth? If so, you know what I mean and you probably can imagine how living in the forest for a week can heal some individuals. If you have an open mind and if you think , “Maybe” , then you might want to investigate the possibilities of being an Outward Bound student.

You relax by:

• Being in the present moment
• Paying attention to your very present needs.
• By not being concerned about the time (We took our watches off and handed them over to the instructor).
• By really enjoying our cooking and meals.
• Doing what is natural (cooking over a campfire; looking for firewood).
• By knowing we were a team (eight students and three instructors).
• By helping each other and by remaining united as a team.
• By observing nature and noticing that all natural beings live in their present moment.

Those are some of the ways that living in the forest helps you heal. Once you leave the forest, if you take your lessons with you, you can keep that healing throughout your lifetime. You can bring up your forest memories in a moment and then know that you truly can do anything that you set your mind to do.

I learned a lot from my Outward Bound Wilderness experience. And if you want information about the school, you can check out this link http://www.ncobs.org

The author of this article is a published writer, living in the United States of America. Her articles art, and writing has been published in a number of newspapers. The author is an alumni of North Carolina Outward Bound School.