Forest therapy and work seem like strange bedfellows at first, but sometimes the very best relationships are formed by the most unlikely pair.
I am working with several organizations — banks, tech companies, and education providers — to bring the benefits of forest therapy into the workplace. I am seeing its potential to help cultivate a future of work that actually works for us, centered on authentic and enduring connections.
I spend a fair bit of time thinking about work. How we work, why we work, the role of work in our lives, how we might reimagine work, and what we might learn by reaching out to something bigger than ourselves for guidance. How can nature help as we try to map out our future steps?
I also spend a fair bit of time speaking to other people about how they are navigating the world of work in these uncertain times. I recently co-authored a book, This Working Life1, that explores how to harness your curiosity, courage, and creativity to grow more meaning and joy in your work. In all this thinking and all this talking, it’s become evident that the future of work is deeply human. Gone are the days of people as cogs in the machine, grinding it out day after day. Employees do not want to be seen as mere workers — they want to be seen as human beings, with rich and full lives that stretch far beyond the borders of the office. They want to be free to be themselves at work and be valued for their own unique superpowers. They want to feel connected: to themselves, to their work, to their colleagues, and to the world.
But the COVID pandemic has ripped a hole in the social fabric of our lives. It has challenged and changed how we work, and sparked a monumental shift in how people connect with their colleagues. It has forced the physical separation of teammates who once sat side by side, and shared casual conversation by the coffee machine. It has turned Zoom into a verb; one that comes with its own special brand of fatigue2. It has blurred the boundary between work and life — working from home, for many, quickly looked a lot more like living at work. The relentlessness of it all has fueled an epidemic of stress3 and burnout, and exacerbated feelings of loneliness and isolation that already haunted4 far too many workplaces.
This is a critical issue for employers. Managers now need to be very intentional about cultivating a genuine sense of connection in their teams, or risk dramatic consequences for staff wellbeing. This is where forest therapy comes in. Through in-person and remotely guided walks, I am bearing witness to the power of nature to bring people together.
We often hide our humanity away at work, bury it under a mask of ‘professionalism’ but our humanity is actually our greatest strength. Forest therapy helps people interact in a more open and personal way. It creates a space where people can simply be, rather than feeling the need to do. It helps people to unfurl. People give from a place that is deeper than they usually give from and receive more than they expect.
I worked with one organization that sent every employee a potted plant the week before our virtual walk. On the day of the walk, each participant sat with the same leafy being, and was offered the same invitations — and they all noticed something different. One woman shared that her plant had arrived at her door a little worse for wear, and she had spent the few days prior tending to it. This experience reminded her of caring for her daughter, who has an ongoing illness. This came as a quiet shock to others on the call; her colleagues had had no idea what she was struggling with at home. Other participants have given insight into hobbies, their fears or dreams, made an unexpected joke, or let their inner child surface for a moment. Others still have noticed different textures, smells, sounds, patterns, and details in the spaces around them.
Whatever the reflection, whatever the noticing, I believe this helps people see their colleagues in a different light. It is an opportunity to get to know someone beyond their job title and begin to understand the way they experience the world. There is so much power in this. It is the basis for deeper human connection, based on empathy and understanding. When people feel connected, they are more motivated to work together, and more likely to feel a sense of psychological safety at work. It leads to an increased sense of job satisfaction. It makes our days feel more meaningful. We feel nurtured, valued, and energized.
Forest therapy doesn’t always feel comfortable or normal in a work setting, particularly in very corporate environments. I am often met with an initial hesitancy, particularly over the remote videoconferencing offering (which is carefully crafted to mitigate the effects of Zoom fatigue5). And you know what? I get it.
Monique Ross is a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide based in Queensland, Australia.
Image by Britt Spring Photography
I began my guide training near the end of 2020, just weeks before I became part of the phenomenon dubbed “The Great Resignation” and walked away from a media career that was no longer making my heart sing. My training was facilitated online, and I completed several virtual walks alongside the Gingko cohort. I remember the first time I stood in an area of sweeping bushland near my house and dialed into the Zoom call. I was excited, but also, I admit, a touch skeptical. I listened to my inner voice of doubt. Just how impactful could a remotely guided forest therapy experience actually be? Surely the fact that I was looking at a screen would be a distraction; a barrier to connection, both with others on the call and the world around me? There was no way, that little voice whispered, that this could be as good as a ‘real’ walk.
I was, of course, wrong. My training and those remote walks changed my life. They completely transformed the way I exist in this world, and the way I relate to it. They deepened not only my relationship with nature, but my relationship with myself and with other people. So I know that a virtual walk is a real walk. It is different from an in-person experience, but no less valid, and no less powerful. When I tell this story to hesitant managers, I gently offer them a compassionate challenge: let me try to prove you wrong, as I was once proved wrong. Let me show you.
Employee wellbeing programs have been around for a long time, be it step challenges or lunchtime yoga classes or subsidized gym memberships. I have often felt that in some workplaces, these were an exercise in box-ticking; a bribe of sorts to encourage overworked people to keep overworking themselves. A bribe that came with an implicit punishment for anyone who dared accept it. Now, however, I get the sense that hearts are really in it. Managers are genuinely concerned for the well-being of their staff, and are also looking for ways to care for themselves. I am seeing a shift: not only are employees being offered forest therapy, but they are actually being supported to attend — on paid work time.
Forest therapy has many other benefits for our working lives. Studies have found that slow, intentional time in nature can heighten our cognitive performance and productivity, boost our creative thinking and problem-solving skills, and combat stress and burnout.
When talking to workplace managers about the evidence for forest therapy, I often mention Attention Restoration Theory, which was proposed by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. The Kaplans assert that our ability to focus on an intellectual task is like a muscle, which gets fatigued after a while. In this state, we’re distracted, depleted, and impatient. The Kaplans state that exposure to natural environments encourages more effortless brain function, allowing the mind to recover and replenish its attention capacity.
A cognitive state they call ‘soft fascination’ is crucial on the road to recovery. In this state of gentle distraction, we engage different parts of our brain, creating space for relaxation and thus restoring the brain’s capacity to focus on an intellectual task.
Listening to the chatter of birds, watching light glisten on the water, smelling the perfume of a flower, feeling the grass beneath your feet are all forms of soft fascination. Taking a break to engage with nature in this way can actually help you return to work with greater focus, and improved memory and problem-solving skills. We tend to be far more productive as a result.
Letting your mind rest also spurs what neuroscientists call “creative incubation”6, a state where you can nurture new ideas and come up with creative solutions to problems. When you let your mind wander, it can unconsciously make connections7 you aren’t able to when you’re actively thinking about things. It’s why so many breakthrough ideas and solutions pop into our heads in idle times — when you’re in the shower, or gardening, or doing the dishes.
Nature can also help us combat stress, which the World Health Organization has classified as the health epidemic of the 21st century. Roger Ulrich’s stress reduction theory proposes that natural environments promote our recovery from stress, while urban environments tend to hinder the same process. You don’t even need to be outside to recalibrate, simply looking at scenes of nature can have a positive effect.
Biophilic design has also been embraced in the creation of work and office spaces. The headquarters of Apple, Facebook, and Amazon look, at least in places, like veritable greenhouses. I’ve heard of companies providing rooftop gardens for their employees to grow vegetables and herbs, and others who encourage walking meetings so staff can soak up fresh air and natural light. The feeling that ‘green is the new black’ has scientific backing: employees who work in environments with natural elements have reported8 higher levels of wellbeing, and the inclusion of plants in office spaces has been found9 to produce higher morale and smoother relationships between employees. Forest therapy in the workplace feels to me like a natural extension of all this.
We are social animals. Feeling connected to each other is a basic human need. We also have an innate need to connect with nature, especially within our built environment. The future of work, whatever it may look like, needs to have a genuine connection at its heart. When we feel connected — to our work, ourselves, other people, and the world — we do ‘better’ work. This is often framed in corporate environments as the ultimate goal, but I see it as a slice of something much bigger. The pie itself is more holistic: true connection benefits life itself — both for people and the planet.
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1 https://www.thisworkinglifebook.com/
2 https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/
3 https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide
4 https://newsroom.cigna.com/business-case-addressing-loneliness-workforce
5 https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/
6 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612446024
7 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3990058/
8https://interfaceinc.scene7.com/is/content/InterfaceInc/Interface/EMEA/eCatalogs/Brochures/Human%20Spaces%20report/English/ec_eu-globalhumanspacesreport-enpdf.pdf
9 https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/the-relative-benefits-of-green-versus-lean-office-space-three-fie