Much of what follows has been adapted from guidelines provided at a forest bathing workshop at Path Hill near Reading (specifically the activities around "coming to your senses", "finding your nature ally", and "spending time with a tree".
The bit that I have added relates to the creative element of drawing and writing textual prompts which can be used in parts two and three of Tree Love.
Part two of Tree Love involves using an AI (Artificial Intelligence) model to transform your drawing and textual prompts into a short video. This gives you a sense of how a computer intelligence might reinterpret your intentions. An example of this process.
And part three involves drawing in a 3D VR space.
It is important to note that part one can be done without needing to do parts two or three. It works as a standalone activity that people find valuable.
But I would advise that if you do part one, you do also try parts two and three.
Tree Love started as an activity that I originally did alone, intuitively, during the 2020 pandemic. I developed and refined the practice in 2021 and 2022. I'm interested in how you can think of Nature and Technology as connected.
Since 2023, I've been leading a series of workshops where I've explained the process and guided different people through it.
I find it's an interesting, relaxing and creative process. It is a way of connecting with Nature and giving yourself space to devise art.
This part of the process, which draws on the practice of "forest bathing", is similar to meditation but I prefer it because it takes place outdoors and feels much simpler to follow, as it's based upon sensory experience of the place you are in.
Please note these are guidelines only and should be adapted to fit your own preferences.
I believe it will work better for you if you change the process based upon what you think might work better for you.
The three principles I would advise you to work with are:
So, try to keep still, and when you do move, move slow. Work in silence wherever possible.
You are effectively trying to mimic a tree or plant in your bodily state.
To conduct a Tree Love workshop, you will need to find a large area of uninterrupted nature, where there are lots of trees, such as a national forest or woods on the outskirts of a town.
If it is difficult to find an area like this, you could also think about using a garden or orchard.
A public park will also probably be fine.
Try to find somewhere with lots of trees or plants of different varieties, or simply an area which you find attractive or comfortable in which there is a lot of nature.
It is OK if the area is not private, you will not be doing anything that is unsafe or that other people cannot wander into, but it is better to select a secluded spot as Tree Love requires concentration which can be broken if there are too many other people about.
Some examples of different sites in different countries where I have conducted Tree Love workshops:
Once you have decided on a site, consider recruiting a few more people to work with. Tree Love works better if there are more people.
All the activities involve an element of individual concentration and then there is a follow-up "sharing" activity.
The sharing is easier with other people as it involves vocalising your thoughts and feelings, and you might find commonalities between your findings and another person. It also just provides an opportunity to "decant" or offload what you have been thinking about in silence.
This is not to say that you cannot do Tree Love alone, just it is easier and more fun with others.
Now, pick a day and time that works for everyone. Tree Love part one takes place entirely outdoors, so you might want to think about weather. I have done a workshop in the rain, but it was hard, as there is a requirement to stay still for an extended period. So, if you are working in adverse weather, you might want to think about whether there is shelter that you can use.
In terms of timings, you want to set aside two or even three hours ideally, based upon the actual workshop taking at least an hour, or longer, and then allowing time to find a space and have a debrief afterwards. The longer you are prepared to spend doing Tree Love, the better.
As a group, walk into the area of woodland or trees. If possible, try to minimise all talking, unless there are questions related to the activity you are doing.
Asking people to do this (stop talking) might make things a little awkward, but it is worth doing, I think. Tree Love is quite an awkward process at first, but this awkwardness does settle and begin to feel comfortable.
Collectively, find a space that feels right to everyone. It might be a clearing, an area by water, a sheltered or exposed area. The specifics of the area do not matter, what matters is that everyone feels happy there.
You could, for example, think about avoiding areas where lots of people are walking nearby, or if there are lots of mosquitoes about.
Now, prepare the area ie put out your sheet or chairs.
The first Tree Love activity is called "Coming to your senses" and involves spending five minutes on each sense (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting), with the outdoor area as your backdrop.
If you are unable to spend five minutes on each sense, you could shorten eg to three minutes, or even less. But a lot of the effectiveness of Tree Love as a process comes from giving yourself more time to experience the trees.
Someone needs to be a designated timekeeper and use the stopwatch function on their phone or watch to keep time. It is best if one person does this rather than everyone.
Five minutes is quite a long time, but it is important to try to stick to the timings and give an equal length of time to each sense. It may feel uncomfortable for some, but those feelings will pass. The idea is that you are trying to very intentionally change your focus so that you feel more a part of the forest.
So, first, you ask everyone to spend five minutes looking around.
Participants can be asked to consider all the different things they can see, such as trees, leaves, twigs, sunlight etc.
Encourage everyone, with as little talking as possible, to take in a full 360 view as well as looking up and down.
I sometimes suggest people look at the furthest things they can see, as well as the nearest things. You can consider the assorted colours of things, the varied sizes of things etc.
So, for example, I often look at all the different tones of green that might be present, or diverse types of leaves. Or consider the shadows cast onto the ground by the sun.
I tend to ask people to focus on the specifics of objects and almost form a mental catalogue of everything they are seeing.
Ask everyone to hold onto their thoughts as they look, as you can share them afterwards.
Alternatively, people can also write down things if they feel they might forget them.
After five minutes, ask everyone to move onto using listening. This is best achieved by closing the eyes and listening out for different things that can be heard. Ask everyone to try to consider what they are listening to; can they separate if out from other things and name it?
As with seeing, you can listen for the furthest and nearest things. Consider all the things you can hear, such as bird song, the sound of the wind through the trees, the noise of passing cars or aeroplanes overhead, or people speaking.
To explore the sense of touch, you can keep your eyes closed and simply touch the ground, exploring different textures.
You can rub things to see how they feel. Or a tree trunk can be held. Encourage everyone, if they feel comfortable doing it, to remove their shoes and socks and explore the ground with bare feet. Feet can be pushed into the ground.
Smell follows on well from touch, as people can now smell their hands and fingers. You can vigorously rub eg a pile of leaves or dirt collected from the ground and then cup your hands around your nose and breathe in deeply.
What we are trying to do here is immerse into the forest and get a sense of what it is, beyond just a visual appreciation.
Think about the different smells, the layering of them, the complexity.
Finally, we will explore taste. The way I tend to do this is through licking my fingers or chewing a leaf or twig.
It is important that everyone feels comfortable in doing what they do, there should not be pressure. I often explain at this point that I am not accredited in any way; everything is done at a person's own risk.
Where I know that it is unsafe to eat certain things (eg if we are working near yew trees) I would adapt these instructions eg ask people to stick out their tongues to get a sense of taste.
The whole "coming to your senses" activity should take about 30 minutes (longer sometimes, or shorter if you do not have enough time). Once you feel that you have finished, everyone should be encouraged to share their thoughts about their sensory feelings.
What did people think or feel, based on their sensory experience, of each stage?
Try to ensure everyone involved has a chance to speak. As facilitator, I try to avoid going first unless necessary, it is better if the pace and tone can be set by a participant.
Everyone should be encouraged to feel safe and secure so that questions can be asked.
I usually try to get a sense of conversation going, particularly if not everyone knows one another.
This activity takes 5 - 15 minutes and involves asking everyone in the group to explore the area they are in and look out for a "nature ally". This is an object or item which "invites" them to engage with it. So, it might be a twig, or leaf, or small branch that has fallen from a tree.
Something that speaks to you personally, for whatever reason. So, for example, it could be a leaf that has a particularly striking colour, or a twig with an interesting texture. Think about the "coming to your senses" activity and try to consider objects that are interesting in terms of touch or smell, rather than simply how they look.
It may also be a large object, such as an entire branch, which cannot be moved.
The purpose of this activity is to encourage people to explore their surroundings in a slow, still, and silent way, thinking about all the different sensory experiences they have just had.
Once everyone has found an object (or objects), they can then share what they find interesting about the item to others in the group.
I would caution against cutting a piece of live wood from a tree, try to find your ally on the ground if possible. If you do feel you want to remove leaves, or a twig, from a tree, you can ask "permission" from the tree to do so. So, for example, you can internally voice or ask aloud.
If people are comfortable to do so, you can now spend a few minutes allowing everyone to explain their object to others and why they have chosen it.
The next stage is to ask everyone to make a drawing of their nature ally. And then add some text to the drawing which explains the meaning of it. These can be single words, or bullet points, or phrases.
It is important, in terms of using these drawings and text for the next stage of Tree Love, that the drawing and text are kept separate. I tend to give everyone a piece of A4 printer paper, folded twice to make four rectangles.
And a drawing can be made in one rectangle, with annotations below.
This gives everyone the chance to make two drawings.
The idea is that the text and drawing can be given to an AI model to see what it devises based on these "prompts".
As with everything else, there is no right or wrong way to make a drawing, or to write the text - be as creative as you like. Some people make highly detailed, observational drawings. Others opt for more abstract drawings. And similarly, with text, some opt for single, striking words, whilst others write poetry or long lists. The important thing is that the drawings and words carry meaning for the person who has made them.
It is better to use pen over pencil, so that the drawing has more clarity. And it is also a good idea to use assorted colours.
This stage might take a further ten or fifteen minutes.
If people are uncomfortable with drawing, they can take a photograph instead, but it is a better to encourage everyone to draw. The artistic quality of the image is not so important, and the AI can be used to modify it anyway.
The point of drawing is to enable people to focus upon their nature ally and think about it in all the sensory terms explored in the "coming to your senses" activity. So, it is an opportunity to accentuate certain aspects, if that seems appropriate.
Drawing is also a bit more effective than a photo in terms of working with the AI. As the aspects you are interested in can be drawn out and emphasised which can be more difficult with a photo.
The final part of "Tree Love part one" involves the participants each selecting a tree and spending 15-20 mins exploring it in detail.
There are lots of different ways to do this, but here are some things to consider:
Finally, you might want to make another drawing.
All my drawings of trees tend to work off the principles of "apophenia" or "pareidolia". I tend to look for different shapes in the tree that are not tree-like, but which make me think of other things - for example, I regularly see legs, arms, eyes, faces, bodies etc.
Having conducted several workshops with lots of different people, I now know that some people have this tendency in quite a strong way, as I do, and it comes naturally to them to see things in trees. But others do not at all.
So, draw whatever you see and then try to write some words which explain or annotate the drawing.
All these drawings and text can be used with the AI in Tree Love part two.
There is no right or wrong drawing, no right or wrong way to write. The point is to use your experience of "working" with the tree to specify your thoughts and feelings.
After this, you might want to spend some time sharing your drawings with others in the group.
The last step, which should not be missed, is to thank the site for allowing you to experience it in this way. You can internally voice "thank you" or say it aloud or say thank you in a way that feels appropriate to you.
And the other thing to do to finish is for everyone to collectively eat and drink something simple eg a few nuts and a swig of water.