Journey Couture: Breaking Free of the Prescribed Life

Forest Bathing & Nature's Healing Power | Kona Cloud Forest Sanctuary, Hawaiʻi

• Melissa LeAira

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Forest Bathing & the Healing Power of Nature | Inside Hawaiʻi's Kona Cloud Forest Sanctuary with Nadara Rose & Brooke Olenski


What if one of the most powerful healing modalities on Earth isn't found in a bottle or a prescription—but in the forest itself?


In this episode of Journey Out of the Bottle, I sit down with Nadara Rose and Brooke Olenski of the Kona Cloud Forest Sanctuary to explore the remarkable story behind one of Hawaiʻi's most treasured ecosystems and the science-backed healing benefits of reconnecting with nature.


🌿 The Legacy of Kona Cloud Forest Sanctuary
  • Founded in 1982 by Norman Bizona, the sanctuary was created on land that had been deforested for cattle ranching. Through the intentional planting of fast-growing canopy trees, he demonstrated how quickly a damaged watershed could be restored.
  • Today, the sanctuary is lovingly stewarded by his daughter, Nadara Rose, along with her son Drew and partner Brooke Olenski, whose mission is to be a voice for the forest while reconnecting humanity with nature.
  • As the only tropical cloud forest in the United States, this rare ecosystem captures moisture directly from passing clouds, supports Hawaiʻi's coffee industry, replenishes the island's aquifer, and nourishes surrounding marine ecosystems.

🌱 What You'll Learn About Forest Bathing
  • The Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku (Forest Bathing) and why it has been prescribed for health and stress reduction since 1982.
  • The concept of biological softening—how our nervous systems naturally begin to regulate when immersed in nature.
  • How spending just 10 minutes outdoors can significantly reduce cortisol levels.
  • How breathing in phytoncides—natural compounds released by trees—may support immune function while increasing serotonin and dopamine.
  • The benefits of grounding (earthing) by making direct contact with the Earth.

🍃 Practical Ways to Experience Nature's Healing
You don't need to disappear into a rainforest to experience these benefits.
Brooke shares simple practices you can begin today through mindful moments and micro-meditations by engaging your senses:
  • Notice the rhythm of your breath.
  • Listen to birdsong.
  • Feel the texture of a tree.
  • Smell the air after a rainfall.
  • Slow down long enough for your nervous system to remember what it already knows.

🌎 A Bigger Conversation
This episode goes far beyond conservation.
We explore what Brooke calls a form of "subversive activism"—inviting people into nature's healing rather than convincing them why they should care. When people experience the forest for themselves, protecting it becomes a natural response.
Perhaps the most profound reminder of all is this:
We are not separate from nature—we are nature.
Healthy forests create healthier people, and healthier people naturally become better stewards of the planet.
Whether you live in the middle of a city or beside an ancient forest, this conversation offers simple, meaningful ways to reconnect with yourself and the living world around you.
Resources Mentioned

If this conversation inspired you, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who could use a reminder that sometimes the greatest medicine is simply stepping outside.

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SPEAKER_03

Welcome to the Journey Couture Podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Liera, and this is where conscious living meets adventure. Join me as I travel near and far, exploring people and places and ideas and experiences that are inspiring a more intentional, connected, and regenerative way of life. Along the way, we will meet railblazers and visionaries who are following their paths of castle. From farmers and stewards of the earth to skillers and artists, change makers are creating a rifle and a racing of the castle of the planet, one story at a time. Alright, well enjoy the Hi, welcome to this very special podcast episode. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to spend time at one of the most remarkable places I've ever visited. The Kona Cloud Forest Sanctuary on the big island of Hawaii. As someone deeply passionate about regenerative agriculture and medicinal plants and the relationship between people and nature, this place completely captured my heart. And today I'm going to take you there with me. Please enjoy this show and visit the show notes afterwards with all of the links because there is some really good stuff happening here. Hi. Hi. I am so good. And I'm I'm so grateful. I think this is my third time at your home. Yeah, is it? It is in such a short period of time. Just so I feel like I know you and um I've really enjoyed our exchanges, and you've been a medicine for me. Thank you. And um, what I wanted to do in recording with you today was taking some time and to for you to share your family's legacy. Yeah. This is a legacy, and I'm I am in awe. First, I was like, oh, I'm impressed, but that's too much of a 3D kind of matrix word of like, oh, I'm impressed of you. But what what you and your family are doing for the earth and the people that live on this island, but it reaches much farther than that because I'm gonna take this back and I want to share it with everyone.

SPEAKER_01

What this is a miracle, what you what you all are well, it's you know everybody, everybody makes a difference, right? Every there, and we are just another ordinary legend. We're just ordinary people leading from our hearts and doing something that feels purposeful and is of good for our community and for you know, we're planting seeds in every heart that visits. And whatever happens with those seeds, however long it takes for them to germinate and crack open something new to bloom. That's our that's our intention, you know, really connecting people back to nature, yeah, and which is the true essence of who they are, right? Yeah, we're all interconnected, right? Connected with all of these beautiful native Ohia trees that we're surrounded by. Yeah, so really my father was the one who inspired the vision to reforest the section of the sanctuary where we do our mindful eco tours. And he started doing those over 35 years ago. And so when we um about four years ago, when my son Drew and his partner Brooke and I decided to take over so that my dad could retire, that was when we were, yeah, we we just went into the forest and we knew that we were here to carry on something very special, but we weren't exactly sure at the time what our role should be. We thought, are we here to protect the forest? You know, is it, you know, what what does the forest want? So we decided that the forest would always have a seat at the table. I love that. Yeah. And so when we went into the forest and we meditated on it, the forest really spoke to all of us and we all got the same download. Yeah. And that was we don't need you to protect us, we want you to be a voice for us. So we want you to, so we are here to be a voice for the forest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I love it. Because as you were speaking, um it really made me think that it's a it's a tangible way to crack people open. It is. They get to see um the the flourishing and the the the life, the growth that happens in a tangible way, and then it it it does. It I think it infuses us with that knowing of growth does not stop, right?

SPEAKER_01

It can't be stopped, and everything is everything is temporary, right? So, yes, um, we try to we try to make it accessible to everyone. It is an opportunity to have very profound spiritual experiences, and a lot of people come here and just like something really remarkable happens for them and within them, and other people might not feel anything at all, right? So it's just what their capacity is to receive love, right? And um, but by not using spiritual language, um, we make it accessible to everyone no matter what their beliefs are, and then they come in and they just organically feel what they feel, right?

SPEAKER_02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03

And each plant is growing at its own pace and growing it in its own direction, but yet and so many metaphors in that the forest speaks to everyone differently, and every plant and tree growing within the forest has a story. Yeah, yeah, and that's really the purpose of this podcast is to bring forth um not just interesting people, um, but people who are using their voice, their passion, their purpose to bring to others as a gift.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, thank you. And thank you for being also voice for that, right? Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, thank you. I am grateful and I uh I'm grateful that I've been reminded over and over again through beautiful opportunities to to have the land keep coming to me and saying, you know, yeah, we need you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we need you to be the voice. The beautiful thing that it reminds me of is that my father, one of the things that inspired him originally was um when in his 20s he worked for Peace Corps and other nonprofit organizations, and he went around to these little villages all over the world and tropical regions, and he'd sleep in hammocks for weeks and he'd teach them how to be self-sustainable through agriculture, or he'd identify what kind of disease their crop might have, or how they could be more how they could market what they already have. And um one of the things that he discovered as he was doing that, he witnessed a lot of deforestation that was already happening way back then in the 60s and you know early 70s, and there was no way to share it. There was no social media. So he was on the forefront of that environmental conversation, but he didn't know how to share that. So he as a professor, when he later became a professor at the University of Hawaii, he started with the students. Yeah, and he started with every, he started writing a lot of articles. He's been writing um an article, a weekly article in our local newspaper for the last over 25 years. And he just he started sharing, he started sharing. So it's so beautiful that now there's so many other platforms available to spread the word totally. It's his article online that people can it's through um West Hawaii Today and the Hawaii Tribune, and it's the garden article. The garden article. His name is Norman Bizona. Okay. Sir Norman Bison, yeah. And Norman started the Cloud Forest Sanctuary.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Can I would love for you to share that story? So, well, why don't you introduce yourself and then tell us the story of Norman and the sanctuary?

SPEAKER_01

Great, I would love to. So I'm Nadara Rose, and I'm Norman Bizona's daughter. And Norman, um, just going back to a little fun fact about how what really inspired him. He grew up in Portland, Oregon. And when he was about 10 years old, 11 years old, his mom got a job in um in Okinawa. And so she left him with her parents, and she went to Okinawa and she got all settled. And then she sent a telegram and said, Please put my son on this boat and send him to Okinawa. And so he, at a very young age, with no cell phone, no way to be in touch with family or anything, he took two houseplants and a journal, hopped bravely on a boat, and it took a month to get from the United States to Okinawa. And when he got there, it was like tropical everything and palm trees, and he fell in love with it immediately. And he started reading books like Tarzan and Swiss Family Robinson, and he um started painting and drawing pictures of palm trees, and he's a great example of the power of manifestation because at that young age he just knew that he wanted to, he knew that he wanted to have he wanted to, he said originally his dream was to have an island of his own with all his favorite animals and all his favorite people. And so as time went on, he uh eventually did find this property in 1982, and it was deforested. Um, it was a remnant of the Hui Hui Ranch, which at its prime was about 80,000 acres. It had been much of this side of the island had been deforested for the cattle ranching industry in the 1800s, and so about 50 miles of an original originally the cloud forest extended about a hundred miles on this side of the island, and about 50 miles of it got deforested for cattle ranching. So this was a remnant of that, and it was damaged by pigs and cattle, and he thought, wow, this is a great opportunity to reforest, demonstrate that we can reforest in a relatively short period of time. And his intention was really to bring back the watershed. So as quickly as possible, how do we bring back the watershed by choosing intentionally selecting trees, canopy trees that will grow quickly, shade out the grasses, and then plant the sub canopy. And um so these are the natural, the native, the most abundant native tree in Hawaii, the Ohia Lehua trees. They grow very, very slow and they're very resilient, and they're the most abundant tree on the island. However, because they grow so slow, like these are hundreds of years old, he he selected other trees that would grow quickly. And which are that's which are a combination of trees that from around the world. Um there's some eucalyptus, there's four different varieties of eucalyptus actually, and then there's some blue marble trees. Okay. Um those are probably the primarily the ones that he used for the reforestation because they in this environment they were very um thick and when they were small, and then as they mature, they get tall and then let in a lot more light. So in the beginning, they shade things out and then they open up the forest for the light, more light to come in. So yeah, so that's kind of how it got started. And then 40 years later, we have a thriving cloud forest ecosystem where we can educate people on the importance of protecting this ecosystem. We can teach what it what's the difference between a cloud forest and a rainforest, and how does it impact our community down below? What are the human impacts that are threatening it, and just inspire people to care for this ecosystem as well as all the natural spaces that are surrounding around the world and you know wherever they come from around the world.

SPEAKER_03

Wait until you see this forest. I just could not get over the fact that that what is happening in there. And it's happening a lot of places on the island, but but that it's it's a it's a baby, right? I I assumed when I went in there, I was like that this was just hundreds of years old, that it had been here for centuries, right? Like right. Rainforests to me seem so old, right? Right, but because they're dense and they're thick and they usually are right, but the fact that this one has grown to a full-grown cloud forest in 40 years.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so this forest is only 40 years, whereas it's the only cloud forest, tropical cloud forest in the United States. So you'd have to go to Puerto Rico or Costa Rica, and those are thousands of years old, so they look really different, you know. And so this is this is a very unique and rare ecosystem. It's very different from the rainforests on the other side of the island, which are more at the sea level and and lower elevations. Yeah, so very different things grow up here at the elevation. Explain what what is the difference between a rainforest and a cloud forest? Yeah, absolutely. Some of the main differences between a rainforest and a cloud forest. Um, a rainforest is usually at lower elevation, but always at lower elevation. Cloud forests usually start at about 2,500 foot elevation. And here in Hawaii go up to about 5,000 foot elevation, but in some parts of the world go up to 8,000, 9,000 foot elevation. So they're higher elevation. But one of the most interesting things about the difference between a cloud forest and a rainforest is that if you cut down all the trees in a rainforest, it will still rain there. You'll still get the same amount of rain. In a cloud forest, if you cut down all the trees, you won't get you'll get a fraction of the moisture and the water because what happens is as it heats up down below on the hot lava, yeah, it rises and pulls the water from the ocean. And then it has to find trees to condense on. Otherwise it'll just pass right on by. And once it condenses, then it creates the clouds. And then the other difference between a cloud forest and a rainforest is that a cloud forest typically gets about half as much. Like the other side of the island gets about 160 inches of rain a year. In the cloud forest, we get about 80 inches of rain, and then down at the coastline about 40 inches of rain. So most of the moisture up in the cloud forest here comes from horizontal precipitation versus vertical.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So the little droplets of water that just dropping from the canopy of the trees, and I mean it's it really is magic. Yeah. You know, it's magic all around us. We can all make a difference, and this is just our family's way of contributing to good in the world.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah. So what are the benefits that the cloud forest provides to the rest of the community? And equally as important, if that were to go to go away, what would happen?

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's a great question. The cloud forest creates a natural shade over our agriculture belt, which is about a thousand feet below us. So we are because of the clouds. Right. So during when the when the when the uh clouds, when it heats up and the clouds are created usually in the middle of the day, the mid-afternoon, you have a nice shade cover over our whole coffee industry. And so coffee trees need to have shade. If we didn't have the cloud forest, then you would have to put in um man-made shade over the trees, over the over the coffee trees.

SPEAKER_03

So the cone of coffee would not exist. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. We have to have the cloud forest for the for the coffee industry to th thrive. So that's one of the big things. And then also it provides through the aquifer, it provides um water to the hotels and restaurants and residences down below. And also it goes all the way into the marine ecosystem. And so when you're swimming in the ocean and you feel that cold water here and there, it's a spring from the aquifer coming from the cloud forest, and it protects our marine ecosystem by keeping it balanced. So those are some of the main things that it impacts. Yeah. And it would change the whole climate if people continue to what's happening is a lot of people are moving here from the mainland. They don't know these things, but they buy 20 acres up here on the mountain on the slopes of Hualalai, and they they just bulldoze the whole 20 acres. And they're like, I want a view. So they blow they just bulldoze it for their view. And if people continue to do that, then it's gonna change the climate on the side of the island, and it will get too dry and hot, and and then we won't, you know, we'll impact those things that I already mentioned, but also it will become a fire hazard like Maui was. Maui was originally also a cloud forest a long, long time ago, and then it became a fire hazard on the mainland.

SPEAKER_03

We've been brainwashed to believe that having a manicured lawn is beautiful, yeah. And now it's forced upon us to you have to, you know, in most hoas, if you you know, there's no free living, right? Like you have to have your lawn perfectly manicured. And I want to say, lay off the grass. If people well let's say everyone, right? But like even if a fraction of HOAs around the US said, let's let the lawns grow. You know, a little permaculture, agroforestry, and and each region will have its own different, but you know, getting the fertilizers and the um seed and everything that that company to re-engineer and to provide their consumers with something they'll still make money. Yeah. And then we get to buy the most beautiful plants that will grow in our region and stop with the the emissions from um the lawnmowers. Yeah. Um, right? And you can still have a view. So the people who come here they think they have to have this perfectly manicured lawn because that's what's been told to them. Yeah. But the view, I mean, if you want a view, you can just take a little window out of the forest down to the ocean.

SPEAKER_01

You don't have to clear cut the whole thing. And they don't realize that when they're clear-cutting in this area, they're clear-cutting these OHIA trees that take hundreds of years to get big. And it's so there's a lot of you know, a lot of importance to protecting the oh the OHIA Lehua trees. But to your point, yeah, I was in Seattle not too long ago, and I spent some time there, and my mom lives there, and my son. And I they I noticed that people are doing that, like on the little curb sides between the road and the and their sidewalk, yeah. People are starting to plant their vegetable gardens. And yeah, so there's and there's no matter where you are in Arizona, there's always plants, drought tolerant plants. If you're in an area that doesn't get a lot of water, so there are definitely startings, just bringing awareness. That's what our goal really is. Every visitor that comes through the sanctuary, it's really just to elevate and a greater level of respect and responsibility. And the biggest thing is just awareness. Because once we have awareness, that's when change can really happen, right? So when people, when people walk through and they see what's possible and they feel what's possible, then they it just plants a seed and then they go home and they're like, huh, maybe I could do, maybe I could plant a few trees in my yard, maybe I could contribute to the neighborhood and to community projects that are happening, and it and then we just get more and more people. If we had just think of one every person around the planet, my dad always would say, if every person on the planet plants a tree, one tree a year, well, billions of new trees every year. Yeah. So it doesn't, it's not, it doesn't have to be a big yeah, one tree. One tree. And here's Brooke.

SPEAKER_03

Hi Brooke. Okay, so what we'll do is I'll just have you um introduce yourself, you know, maybe your your role at the sanctuary, and then I'd love to cover like the topic of of the forest fading.

SPEAKER_00

What we're about to talk about, I'm so passionate about, so I'm so excited that we get to dive into this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I went on a tour in the sanctuary last week, and Brooke was leading the tour, and um it's it's palpable how passionate you are about this. And um, I was immediately awestruck at you know, you you know coming into this family, and then you just it's like the land is your baby, yeah. And I felt that. Yeah, and your your ability to just um tap into the energy of the the group that was with us. And and I could tell that you're in flow and you're not following some script that has to be, you know, followed. And it's like the flow of the forest, and it really allowed all of us to really. sink in and it was a I I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't anything that I expected. Yeah. Um, I didn't know the term forest bathing or Shinrin Yoku. Am I saying that right? Okay you are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I love in the story.

SPEAKER_03

You were like, what is Shinrin Yoku? Yeah. So yeah, I'm going to turn it over to you to be the expert here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well thank you for that reflection. It was such a gift to have you on the tour. Yeah. That was so special. And thank you for the mirroring as well of how authentic it felt and how in flow with the forest it felt because that's the number one thing is that we're moving with the forest. We're going to move at the pace of the forest and the medicine of the forest. But to introduce myself, I just realized I didn't do that yet. My name's Brooke Wolensky. And um when you spoke to how it feels like even though I've I've come into the family this is my own baby. And it really feels like myself, Drew, my partner and Nadara, my mother in love who yeah the the connection there we are almost like this this divine triangle of creation like it's as if it's this soul contract that we're meant to be working together and co-creating together and stewarding this land together. It it is yeah it gives me goosebumps every time I think about it. And when we talk about Nadara's story and how you were just interviewing her and her whole journey of helping her dad here on this land when she was 18, 1920 and had this vision of how she wanted to be stewarding this land because she knew that this was a gathering place to help heal the world. And she didn't know what that was going to look like yet. But little did she know it was going to have to take her birthing a son that son growing into a grown man calling in his partner and then that's the creation of us three. So it's it took patience and presence and just holding that vision for her. And I really feel like that magnetized us into a mission that's greater than us. Like it's greater than just myself. And it's a a legacy that I get to be a part of the multi-generational stewardship of that's just going to continue on. And it's so humbling to really reflect on what stewardship means in that way. Yeah. And so when we talk about the healing benefits our mission here at the sanctuary is connecting humanity back to nature. And that's part of that is really rooted in mine and Drew's experience of where we were in our career before coming here. We both met working in the sciences. We are both working for Noah so like N OAA like NASA but for the ocean and we working with scientists realized that there is such a deep passion for connecting to nature and stewarding the earth but there's a disconnect and the disconnect comes with the lack of just connecting with the natural environment. So if I'm a scientist and I'm giving a presentation on why it's important to protect this certain algae, the people you're presenting to they will be like oh wow that's fascinating for the time of the presentation maybe it lingers with them after but give it a week and they're over it you know and it's because no one formed a tangible connection their own heart connection that changed their personal life. And so we've realized that when you connect is when you care and that and when you connect is when you care to make a difference and you care to bring that home to wherever you live. And when we look really on the deeper part of it we create these experiences we continue the tours that grandpa has created because it really started with him showing his reforestation project and his mission of connecting people back to nature. And his whole mission has always been if every person planted one tree we could reforest the world in our lifetime right so that's what people think they're coming for is they're coming for an ecological tour of connecting to nature. But really the deeper the deeper thing we're hitting is like well you are nature and so there's this bridge that just naturally intrinsically forms when you spend time in nature and that's where we get into the healing benefits of nature that when we restore nature when we have healthy forests we have healthy people just intrinsically and when we have healthy people intrinsically we have healthy environments because people know that it's the cyclical this relationship that we have and so that's what we're really here to just to reconnect and that nature is the medicine nature is the doctor so our role is just to help build that bridge. So you come we build the bridge we help you walk across that bridge and then we get to step back and let that connection be formed and I always like to share in the forest bathing journey that we because we are nature nature is truly the most incredible natural sound bath it's the most harmonious environment on earth you can ever immerse yourself in. So when you think about even going to the like near infrared light saunas or like these amazing vibrational healing devices yes I'm such an advocate for those things but if you want to just experience potent frequency healing go lay your body on the earth. Yeah yeah you know it's like just be find there find a local park it doesn't have to be a rainforest it doesn't even have to be a big experience like grass the earth is the earth the earth is the earth and it's the most harmonious frequencies and and it's not just sound it's not just the song of the birds or the sound of the wind it's literally every sensory system of our body is biologically designed to soften in nature. So just by looking at the colors just by seeing the fractal patterns just by touching the earth just by smelling the air just by listening to the sounds tasting the medicine the the teas or whatever food you're eating every aspect of how we even just interact with nature we are biologically designed to soften because we are nature.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah I always say I always say like plants saved my life yeah plants saved my life and and with each um evolution and growth or season that I I flourish more I I have this now sense of like making love to life. Yeah because it it has taught me that like I can well all of our food should be coming from real plants.

unknown

Right?

SPEAKER_03

It can be medicine and food all comes from this and and and um just a a quick fact that I heard um I don't know if it's true still but it's you know that there was a study done and the largest amount of mass on this planet is is biomass. Yeah is is plants.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But I when you said you know getting on the ground I just I lately I've been like even if I just get on the ground I'm like oh I can I can smell the dirt. Yeah. You know hopefully there's no pesticides. But like just to just to imagine because everywhere under every piece of earth are the insects worms whatever is happening down there. There is movement. And if you just get quiet enough you can hear you know that that and even if you can't hear it you know it's there. I mean just take a little scoop and you can see there's life happening right underneath and so it's almost like this little mini for me I've envisioned like um not like acupuncture but like a little stimulation coming from the earth. Yes. Have you seen or heard of the earthing movie? Yeah so I recently it popped up on my purview and I was like I'm gonna go to Hawaiian ground. Yes you know walk around in the forest that documentary is so profound.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah if anyone hasn't watched it it's it's so incredible because the this man who rediscovers what's already indigenously known is that just by putting your body your bare body on the earth you are connecting to the electromagnetic frequency of the earth and it's where do people think electricity comes from exactly well when you have electricity in your home you can't just have electricity you have to ground it to the earth like that's how your electricity works because otherwise it could start fires because the energy can't go anywhere in dispense anywhere it has to go into the earth and so same thing with our bodies if we're just wearing rubber shoes all day long that energy just reverberates back up into our knees and like sitting here like my feet hurt in these shoes. I'm gonna take them off but when we talk about inflammation in the body it's like that's where a lot of hip joint pain and knee pain and back pain actually you can dispense so much of that by just putting your bare feet on the earth every day and letting all of those negative ions just it's like clogged it's just let it out of the body.

SPEAKER_03

The body the earth wants to receive that yeah yeah um yeah maybe just uh even go deeper with the the forest bathing like that that term yes and and the shinron yoku yeah so shinrin yoku yeah good job no you're you're enhancing I've written it it takes it doesn't come fully naturally yet but I have I have to think about it still but I like it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah I love it. So Shinrin yoku is a term that was coined in Japan in 1982 by um doctors by medical doctors that would prescribe nature bathing being out in nature as as a literal clinical prescription for any kind of chronic disease illness anything that their patients were navigating and they would specifically prescribe certain practices in nature because they knew that nature like we are just saying is this incredibly harmonious environment. So when we know that everything in life is vibrating we learned that in science class right we all took some type of science class where we learn about molecules and atoms and everything has a vibration so is it vibrating in dissonance or in resonance and nature is vibrating in harmonious resonance. So that's again where it goes deeper into this practice of this clinical prescription and what people were finding is there's immense benefits. Just being in nature for 10 minutes can lower your cortisol levels your stress hormone by over 15% just 10 minutes and just being in any type of natural space if you just look at the fractal patterns of the leaves those fractal patterns are mirrored in art therapy so you'll see that when they're working with complex PTSD patients being able to work with art therapy to mirror the patterns in the branches it harmonizes both hemispheres of the brain if you're just smelling the air any kind of natural environment there's something called phytocytes that the plants and trees release it's a compound and when you breathe it in into your body it will naturally release happy neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin that tell our body it's safe to feel good and it's the immune system of the plant while we breathe that in it's also increasing our immune system as well. And um yeah just touching the earth like what we talked about just listening to the song of birds is shown to calm our nervous system through research. Yeah just looking at the color green is actually shown to lower our stress hormone. So it's like we can share I mean and then we get into what you were saying with plants right just drinking teas eating food from the earth drinking structured water being in the sun just standing in the sun lets proteins form that allows for every organ to thrive in your body it's it's remarkable and the cool thing about it is you don't have to breathe a certain way you don't have to think a certain way you don't have to move a certain way you literally get to just be and you step into this harmonious environment that's designed to soften every aspect of our being so someone um mentioned the word inevitable to me a few years ago and it's just kind of been percolating for me and this is this this is a perfect use for that that component of life it is inevitable that if you step into nature any nature you will feel better.

SPEAKER_03

It's like a guaranteed like I don't think anywhere else can you guarantee yeah yeah that kind of outcome it is inevitable.

SPEAKER_00

It's inevitable it really is and we see that actually so much with our guests. So what we offer here and what we create is these guided experiences that let us form these different bridges of connection to nature. And really the ultimate result is what we're speaking about right now is just this time in nature to slow down and regulate and come into that present moment and we open up into that inevitable sense of harmony and resonance. And guests will come from all over the world that don't even have any relationship to nature or so-called right everything's nature but that they don't know their relationship with natural environments they don't like nature they'll have all these narratives of I don't like jungles I don't like forests everything grows I come from the middle of a city and I've never even been to a forest before right yeah and there's this preconceived notion of what they have about nature. And when we create this guided journey through the forest by the end of it by the middle to end they're crying they're opening up they're moved they're inspired oh my God what I need to go home and find a park. I need to find something yeah and so it's inevitable. It's like just give yourself 10 minutes to just be in a natural environment and we can I can guarantee you're gonna feel a difference.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah so one of the things that I I loved about this tour is it's you're just kind of prompting you're opening up ideas for people to to get in touch with nature because if you don't have a relationship with it you don't sometimes even know where to start. It's like dating like I don't even know anything about this and you know right but you prompt like little just hints and clues as to like touch the tree. Yeah feel the texture yeah listen to the sound because if you don't know where to start you don't have that um that relationship yet it's you're doing it you're just giving some beautiful little hints yeah um and you can't help but be activated in some way yeah even if you do have a relationship I I I do have a relationship and I still had such a profound experience there because I was thinking about it differently like oh I'm bathing right here. Like it's literally washing over me through me around me and I can and I don't have I can feel it. So it was just yeah like giving them some tools that they can take back that is easy to do anywhere. Yeah you're driving by a park and you're like oh there's a tree I can go hug it like even if you just think about it yeah right there's a connection there like hey tree yeah right like every time I pull up to a stop sign now I'm like oh there's a tree shading me thanks yeah it's a newfound sense of awareness of the environment and when we form that connection yeah you have a whole new just perspective or a sense of respect or gratitude.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah and those prompts are so important and that's why we really advocate for guided experiences. To share a little bit of my background as well I am a trained somatic facilitator. I guide the sound bath experiences yoga facilitator um health and wellness life coach and and I really have found that the guided practice even if it's just a little bit gives whoever's being guided the opportunity to just surrender. And when we have the opportunity to just surrender and trust that what we're being guided into is something that we can we can soften into there's a whole deeper found sense of connection there. Because you're not thinking about it. You don't have to like process like should I go hug that tree now? Should I go do this? Right. What are the different ways it's just like okay I'm being guided and not to say that that's like how it has to go but there's just such a quick connection and a gift that can come with those new prompts that can be brought forward.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah yeah yeah it's just little ideas suggestions invitations to to get to it because yeah most people I mean even if you do have a relationship it's like oh I'm not gonna just go over and start hugging this tree. Some people do but it's it yeah it's a really beautiful practice and um perhaps we could go on one some other time and like actually give viewers like the opportunity to witness you and you're guided I would love that. But I'm we're gonna see pictures and I'm gonna go over and take some some video is there anything else you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah I was gonna say just on that point I think is the most important thing is for anyone who's interested in experiencing the healing benefits of nature my simple invitation is just focus on the senses. So when you're standing outside if you can just close your eyes and just smell the air do you notice a smell in the air if you just close your eyes and listen to the sound do you notice a bird is it over to your right or your left like can you begin to orient yourself and notice more than just like oh yeah I hear all these sounds but like really hone in on the sounds really hone in on the smell really hone in on the texture touching it giving yourself the opportunity to come into the senses immediately is the quickest doorway into the body and it is instant it's profound and so it doesn't have to be this big complicated connect to your guides and call upon your ancestors and all these things right it's like just tune into a specific sense and spend time with it there. Even just a couple moments and there's a lot that opens up there. And it's actually when we listen to the senses when we tune into the senses when you take a moment to smell your food or yeah just taste the tea that you're drinking that's where we learn to listen to all of life. Yeah listening with the senses is the doorway into the body and the doorway into listening to all of life coming into the heart getting downloads clarity inspiration it's all right there in the body so just tuning into the senses gives us that initial doorway.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah yeah I mean and we are nature so even if you're not if you're in the middle of the city and there's not one plant around you at all you know even for a moment if you can tap in and try to hear your heart. Yes right exactly um and then imagine what the sound would be like with the blood coming out of it. Yes if you could hear that um oftentimes the only time we pay attention to our heart is if it's beating really fast and then we're concerned about it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah yeah yeah yeah you know it's like oh it's in there like hearing the sounds of your own body yes right and and a really simple one too that I always love to invite is just the sensation of your breath. So when you're breathing the air into your nose just noticing how it tickles your nostrils or even just the sound of your breath very gently coming in and out just noticing that sensation of your own breath in the middle of your city in the middle of a room that is nature. Yeah it's the easiest way to anchor in for the natural rhythms of nature.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah yeah and you you take a drink of water or whatever liquid you know and you imagine it you know like watering your system you know and it goes in and it and there's a sound to that and a feeling you can feel it sometimes like if especially if it's like really cold water you can feel it going down. You're like oh but oftentimes we just don't pay attention to those but you that's what nature provides is it it provides us with our own innate nature.

SPEAKER_00

And the big question is like okay well why would we do this? Right. Like why would I sit there and focus on the water coming down my body other than like this idea of tuning into nature and it's it's really just what you're speaking to and what I know you practice as well is when you're coming into the sensation of the present moment it cuts out the future the past it just brings you here into the body and that will innately inevitably calm your nervous system it's gonna calm your nervous system it's gonna regulate your body whatever anxiety whatever stress whatever anger is in the body it's going to bring you into a new grounded relationship that will inevitably soften your nervous system and calm and and that is that's the place of liberty and inner peace that we all want to experience. Whether we know how to name it or not we all want a fact Sense of peace. And just focusing on the senses, the sensation of your breath, the water coming through your body, the feeling of your heart, the texture of your hands touching your clothes, that will naturally calm our nervous system. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I call it micro meditations. Yes. Because we don't have time to, I mean, most of us don't be very um conscious in in setting aside a time to sit and meditate and get quiet and shut everything else out. And and quite frankly, most people don't meditate because they don't have that time and they think that's the way to do it. And I personally, this is how I was like, I can even just take a few minutes and I I teach a practice called Ladihan, which is a blindfolded moving meditation. And for me, that that cracked open everything. That even just these micro moments of just shutting my eyes and like feeling around for what I'm doing, you know, like I'm gonna do the dishes. I know the soap is around here somewhere, and like being able to, and and so again, these micro meditations where it's like I don't have to sit and get quiet and cross my legs and call in my ancestors, like you said. I can I can be in the middle of doing something very important, and like I don't have time in my day, but like for a moment I'm gonna make this meditative for even just a moment. Exactly. And um and it and it will calm, yeah, and that's where it becomes then you start to make love to life because then the mundane becomes profound. Yes, and maybe it won't happen right away, and maybe it'll never happen, but it it really is inevitable that it will happen. Yeah, it really is.

SPEAKER_00

It really is, and it's like, yeah, it doesn't, like you said so beautifully, it doesn't have to be an hour-long meditation to start, just starting with I call them uh mindful moments. Okay, yeah, so I like those micro meditations, mindful moments. And when we give ourselves that, just starting right there, you don't need anything, you don't have to think a certain way or be prepared or read a certain book, just tuning into the senses. And when you're in that practice and you're doing that throughout the day, what you find is oh, where would this happen even that much quicker? Like you'll start to recognize how quick you regulate. You'll start to recognize, oh, just tuning in with my breath. Okay, how quickly am I regulating? I'm starting to calm my body. And then when you start to recognize that relationship with yourself of how quickly you regulate, how much you soften, okay, that anger, that anxiety like lifted drastically just by me tuning into my breath. Right. Then it comes back around to oh, where does this actually happen that much quicker? Where do I regulate that much quicker? In nature. So it's like then you just bring those micro moments back into nature, and it just creates a full circle of, oh, once you come to that realization within your own being, in your in your home or in an office, or like in the middle of a building where you feel separate from the natural world, when you recognize the power of those micro moment practices, those micro meditations, then once you anchor into that and you bring that out in nature, you're invincible. It's like nature is now gonna just like it's just gonna amplify it times a million. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I do want to also just say, because this was a challenge of mine for a long time, and I have to believe it's for everyone, is is that you know, we live in a world where you're not gonna be in Zen all the time.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Even if you go out into nature, the minute you leave, it could be five minutes before you're back into like, yeah, you know you get a call. And so not not taking that as a defeat or a um, you know, like now it's gone, and it's I I I won't feel Zen for another, you know, 30 days until I can get back into it. It's it's natural that that it will ebb and flow.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Um, and don't lose faith or don't lose like um don't get don't get um discouraged when that the anger, the frustration, the stress, and the stuff comes back. Just know that you can have the power to to start really regulating that.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. A hundred percent. Yeah, there's the quote by Abraham Hicks, and it's it's something, forgive me if I don't get this right, it's like you can never get it wrong, and there's nowhere to get to. Like there's nowhere to actually get to. And the same way that the sun rises and then it sets, that darkness comes, but then you trust and know the sun rises again. It's not like night stays forever. And the story of the Buddha is he reached enlightenment, and then the next day, Mara, the the demons or the the dark energy or the fears or the anxieties or whatever we want to call it, they showed up again the next day after he reached enlightenment. And so it's not, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03

I have reached enlightenment like a thousand times in the last three years, and and I'm back in the depths of hell, like two. But it's it, we are a cycle, yeah, just like nature.

SPEAKER_00

And it's because life lifes, life lifes, and it's not about like getting to some peaceful place where our whole reality is in internally at peace and nothing's gonna disrupt us. It's actually the opposite. It's getting to that place within ourselves where we can repeatedly come home to ourselves, repeatedly come home to ourselves, yeah, and so much so that any of the illusion around us, the contrast, the disruptions, you start to see it that much clearer is that it's just a part of that the illusion of this divine illusion of this experience. But the more we come back, those micro moments, we anchor into our heart, we anchor into our heart, we anchor into our heart, there is an a profound sense of clarity that when we see those disruptions, when we experience that emotion, we don't attach to it, we don't identify with it. And it's not like we dis, it's not like we dissociate from it. It's the opposite. You fully feel it, you acknowledge it. Wow, I feel this fear, I feel this anger, I feel this anxiety, and I know that it's just passing through.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because I trust and know, like just these micro moments let me anchor into the truth of my true nature, the truth of who I really am. And everything else just becomes that much clearer that it's just a cloud passing over the sun.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know the clouds.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, I think I'd love to end it on nature and just kind of put a uh a spin on what we've been saying, you know, as I look over here, you know, these plants are growing out of lava rock. They're growing out of a piece of rock that doesn't have, you know, necessarily soil and whatnot, but like the the plants themselves will find a way.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

They find a way to to to overcome their obstacles and their challenges. And when we go into the forest and you see them all intermingling and growing under, I actually saw a vine the other day. I took a video of it. It pretzeled around itself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's like and I was like, is this really in the forest over here? On the ground? Yeah. The little infinity. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. I that's the banyan tree's roots.

SPEAKER_03

And it just, and I I kind of lifted it a little bit and I was like, is this really one and it yeah, it literally created its own little infinity pretzel. Yeah. And so it's like almost doing tricks, like, haha, like what am I gonna do? But like, but it's sometimes, oh, this tree's in the way? No problem. You just go around. Um the fluidity. Yeah. Yeah. And the the tenacity and and the growth. And you know, even when you think something might be dead and you chop it down, right? Yeah. It's got a background.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I love that. And nature gets to be that mirror to us.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_03

You know, there's so many people fighting for the environment and fighting for you know all of these different rights and saving us, right? Saving humanity, saving the earth. But it's a it's got this fight energy to it. Yes. And so I've been really thinking like, how do I create this messaging that's a fierce and activist kind of like energy, but not have it be a fight.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

And so I was recently introduced to Vandana Shiva, who I talk about incessantly, and and she really planted the seed for me that um being subver being subversive. And so you have people coming from all around the world that think they're coming on some tourists, you know, like somebody drugged them to it, and like, we're gonna just check this off the list, right? We gotta hit this, we're gonna hit this, this, and this while we're on the islands. And and the way that you are kind of promoting it is like then you get them out there and you're like, now we're gonna sunbathe and we're gonna, you know, you're you're subversively giving them tools that they didn't really believe that they were signing up for. So yeah, I'm do you ever notice that kind of energy? Like, oh, they don't even know what's gonna happen to them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, it's it's definitely a low-key, it's a huge gift that we've been able to step into this this niche of Hawaii tourism because a lot of tourist experiences, not to say anything against anything other than just what's been normalized with tourist experiences, is you bring the people in, you kind of herd them in like cattle, and it's this big experience that you just check it off. And we try to keep these intimate, smaller group experiences for the purpose of okay, you think you're coming up here, but we're actually gonna go so deep. We're gonna dive into how this forest works, what is a cloud forest, and that's the marketing of it, but it's almost like kind of reels them in, and then it's so much deeper. Yeah, and in inevitably, it's so much deeper because when we actually spend time in nature, once we get you here, yeah, it's it's inevitable that you're gonna have this opening experience of this connection with nature. So I love what you're saying about how it doesn't need to be a fight. Yeah, because really, what are people fighting about? People are fighting, they're fighting for peace, they're fighting for love and harmony. And and what they're fighting at is the people that don't get it.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00

So it's like, okay, what are we whoever's fighting for something, it's because you're arguing to the other person that doesn't understand it yet. Once someone understands, they're there's not a fight anymore.

SPEAKER_03

And to get them to understand, you can't come at it from a fight. Yes. It has to almost it's gotta be an invitation. Yes, because people one in on the good thing. Like, oh my god, this thing is so good over here, like it feels so yummy and this is amazing. And they're like, hmm, I want a piece of that. Yes. And when they see, I I call it a ripple effect. Yeah, you know, it's like one person is like, oh, you're different. What what happened? What did you you know, what are you doing? And it's like, oh, I'm I'm I'm being bathed by nature.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, what?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. And it's like it's the rippling that we see with plant medicine, for example, right? Or it's yeah, the impact of people who were living in a city that were a part of suburbia and just disconnected from indigenous roots and natural practices, that they go and they have a profound healing experience with plant medicine, and then they're like, oh my gosh, indigenous wisdom is the way. Yeah, and now you have this intrinsic connection. So, yeah, you know, we're not doing that here in the forest, but what we are doing plant medicine without a psychoactive effect. It is, it's it's a natural plant journey through the healing benefits of nature, and it creates the same harmonious experience that you're like, whoa, I didn't even know this was possible. And I'm grateful that people think that it's a tourist experience because it brings people up here that would have never thought to come here otherwise, and then it becomes their favorite thing they've ever done, and not just their favorite thing they've ever done in Hawaii, but we are repeatedly told by our guests over and over again that it is the most transformative experience of their life, and it's something that they remember the whole year, and then they come back to Hawaii again, and this is a top priority for them because it's a safe forest and a guided experience, unlike anything they've ever known. Yeah, and it opens their eyes to a whole new way of being. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. Thank you for doing what you're doing and for spreading the word and for this podcast and the voice that you share and the perspectives you share, and the healing that you've experienced and the way that you ripple that into the world, it's profound what you're doing. And I humbly just thank you so much. As a sister of the earth, thank you for what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for joining me on the Journey Couture podcast. If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who believes that life is meant to be explored with curiosity and intention. You can find today's resources and connect with me through the links in the show notes. Until next time, keep wondering and wondering and creating your extraordinary journey. Thanks for joining us. And for more information, visit us at www.journey.com.