Your Guide to Forest Bathing – Book Review

This small book by M. Amos Clifford carries a great message – how to be in the forest in a unique way, just to notice and meld into the forest, as a part of it. No need to hike, to exercise along the path, to meditate or to contemplate how lovely it is to be in nature. Mr. Clifford speaks of the gentle practice of forest bathing as a means of “self-care” and of “healing the relationships between people and the more-than-human world.” 

Mr. Clifford gives step-by-step guidance, to notice what you are noticing and to bring the forest bather into a beautifully embodied sensory awareness of nature as few have ever experienced it. When I read Your Guide to Forest Bathing the first time ( The books, which I find to be yummy, are read at least twice), I was enrapt with the guided invitations, such as “walking in forest time.” Rather than accomplishing exercises, the author guides his readers to become a part of the ecosystem of the forest. 

Even if you never planned to visit the forest, Mr. Clifford has a gift of poetic expression and imagery that weave a graceful path through the reader’s imagination making his book well worth your time.

This recommendation is from bibliophile Terryl Mackey