One Artist Unplugged: Regan Stacey
Regan Stacey in her element.
Forest Bathing: The Power of Nature to Heal & Inspire
About Regan:
Regan Stacey is an artist and environmentalist whose passion is to re-connect humans to nature for the betterment of themselves, their communities, and our planet, Earth. In her nature-connection practice, she offers forest bathing experiences, spiritual life coaching, and mindfulness training. She is also co-founder of The Forest Therapy School, training forest therapy guides to share this work around the world.
You can find out more about her art and nature practice here: reganstacey.com
Forest Bathing: The Power of Nature to Heal & Inspire
It is through our most difficult challenges in life, the ones that make you question mortality and what you truly value, that growth can take root. We are all in a global pandemic. Each one of our lives is collectively threatened in ways we haven’t experienced since last century’s Spanish Flu, the century that also witnessed two world wars, a cold war (among others), and advents in modern medicine that have allowed us, to some extent, to take our health for granted. The coronavirus is a reminder that we are animals, mammals, subject to injury, disease, and death alongside all other life forms. We are temporary, ephemeral as the landscape, and with our consciousness, able to witness beauty, experience joy and gratitude, and through suffering, find hope.
I see many people finding solace in nature these days. This gives me great joy and hope for the future of our species and planet earth, for it was just two years ago that I, too, found solace in nature.
Facing a difficult breast cancer diagnosis, I followed an incredibly spiritual journey with the forest that took me to the edge of this dimension, to a place where our interconnectedness was palpable, and I could see we are never alone, and we never die. I walked in step with its wonders and listened for guidance. I learned to ask for help: “Help heal me, so I can heal you.” I knew I couldn’t be alone in having experienced something so profound, and I was comforted when I came across this John Muir quote, “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” I know that to be true. This relationship with the forest has forever changed me.
There are these times in life where, as an artist, you are afforded the opportunity to shift your work in response to significant life changing events. Since my own health crisis, my work shifted from an orderly abstraction to a wildly gestural one, and I venture to guess it will oscillate over time - the push and pull of letting go and reining in. The gestural charcoal drawings as of late are all done en plein air in communion with the forest. This is the letting go and letting through, an unmediated dance of breathing with the trees finding its way to paper.
Corona is shifting work, too, how can it not?
How can we arrive in a place where we can live without fear and trust in the process of life and what is intended for us on this earth, a place where we can trust in the path of our creativity as a viable form of expression and healing, necessary for our well-being, individually and collectively?
We can invite peace into our being through nature-connection. My journey not only changed my artwork, but it inspired a nature-connection practice, Awaken the Forest Within, where I reconnect humans to nature and themselves. One of the ways I do this is through forest bathing walks – slow immersive walks in nature, punctuated with sensory invitations, concluding with a tea ceremony on the land.
The practice of forest bathing asks us to slow down and open ourselves to a sensory awareness of our surroundings. Unlike a hike, which is often planned with an end goal, forest bathing has no agenda. We are invited to be, to wander and wonder, while taking in the health benefits of the forest. Its tangible benefits include:
Reduced stress
Decreased heart rate and blood pressure
Increased creativity
Increased focus
Improved mood and sleep
Boost in immune system
But it’s no surprise that nature helps us to relax, find flow, and be open to joy. Nature nourishes, heals, and restores us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It makes sense, especially if you consider the concept of interconnection – what indigenous people (and long ago all humans) have long known: nature is our ally and when we work with her, we feel more complete, whole, and connected. When we feel more complete, whole, and connected, we are better able to care for ourselves and others, balance daily demands, prioritize our time in ways that are meaningful for us, live in gratitude and with compassion, while honoring this one life we and all living forms are given.
For creatives, nature has often been a muse, a source of inspiration, sometimes a reflection of and sometimes a portal to the mysteries we have yet to discover. It can also be a place to rejuvenate, reactivate, and re-ignite our imagination, lend clarity, ground and re-center. In other words, whatever we need is always available to us in nature.
In the time of corona, this is one medicine that is readily available in any yard, park, nearby preserve or even indoors. If you can’t get outdoors in nature, make friends with an indoor plant, hold vegetables (seriously), smell spices, caress cotton - it all connects.
So the next time you approach the easel, so to speak, take one deep breath for your interconnectedness and know, as Julian of Norwich so eloquently explained hundreds of years ago, “All will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing shall be well.”
As my gift to you and in support of your work and well-being, I am offering a free forest bathing guided meditation – a sensory invitation. Click here for the audio file
To learn more about forest bathing and nature-connection, please visit www.reganstacey.com.
Regan’s Art
Regan’s Latest Series: “Forest Drawings”
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