5 Ways To Start Spiritual Healing That Are Absolutely Free
i think we’re all feeling a little burned out on wellness right now.
Keeping up with the trends and protocols can become a full-time job ... and require a full paycheck. Like who even are you if you haven’t done three yoga teacher trainings, taken five transformational leadership courses, downloaded sixteen meditation apps, been to Tulum and Bali twice this year, and sipped adaptogenic keto vegan lattes all day long?
When the answers to your health, wealth, and love issues seem just a few too many $299 manifestation courses away or when you’ve been to so many new moon, full moon, and half moon circles that you’ve become completely dizzy and lost your orientation on this planet, the answer, my sister, lies not in whatever your favorite Instagram influencer is sharing. Nor is it encoded in another crystal water bottle, astrology reading, or ayahuasca journey.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big advocate for investing in personal wellness, but what I’ve noticed is that you can’t outsource your intuition. Sometimes we pay other people to give us answers instead of doing the actual work of finding it within ourselves.
The answers are within you. Already. You have the power to heal yourself. The moment you reclaim this power is the moment you become free. I know this to be true because it happened to me. After spending a decade going to every healthcare practitioner under the sun in a quixotic quest to heal myself from chronic illness (an inextricable knot of lyme disease, IBS, anxiety, and depression), I finally actually healed when I started forest bathing.
Forest bathing is an evidence-based practice of connecting to nature as a way to heal. It’s also a spiritual path of connecting to your higher self through getting quiet enough to listen to the messages that want to come through. It’s a way to awaken your senses, move through anxiety and stress, and connect to your true nature — what’s true for you. I recently wrote an in-depth guide to this practice called The Healing Magic of Forest Bathing that weaves the science and spirituality of nature connection along with lots of ways you can bring this practice into your own life.
Ultimately, forest bathing is a practice of non-efforting. It’s doing nothing and being everything. It’s like the Alan Watts quote, “What I am really saying is that you don’t need to do anything, because if you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomenon of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are all just like that, and there is nothing wrong with you at all.”
here are some ways to heal yourself that require no payment plan of any kind:
change your language to change your life.
The words you say create your reality. Practice only speaking what you want to be true — not in a spiritually bypassing sort of way, but see if you can shift the way you speak to focus on what’s working and what brings you excitement, joy, and gratitude instead of focusing on what’s not working. We are designers of our own lives and design starts with words. Abracadabra is Hebrew for “I will create as I speak.” Our words are spells. Cast yours wisely.
shift your mindset from being sick to healing.
When you’re dealing with chronic health issues and going from doctor to doctor, it’s easy to identify with your sickness. When I was dealing with IBS and colitis I went through a period where I felt like I couldn’t eat anything without getting sick. Instead of focusing on what I couldn’t eat, I shifted my focus to the foods that would heal me and nourish me. The healing deepens and evolves — we’re constantly changing and shifting with new things — but we can heal from a place of empowerment.
get curious.
Our bodies are always communicating with us and often we miss the message until it gets so loud that we can’t ignore it. This happened to me over the winter. I knew I was tired and needed to slow down (as you do in winter), but it wasn’t until I sprained my foot that I really got the message. If we take the time to observe, listen, and get curious about what our bodies are sharing with us, we’re able to find the gifts in injury and sickness. We have the power to find opportunity and bright side of whatever situation gets thrown our way.
go outside.
The research is endless. Just 15 minutes of being in nature gives you an immune boost that lasts 30 days. One minute of looking up at trees increases sense of awe. Standing with your bare feet on the Earth lowers inflammation, decreases chronic pain, and reduces symptoms of PMS. If you’re stuck inside or sitting in traffic, even just focusing your attention to the nature around will make you feel better. Know that you and everything you touch is Nature and ultimately comes for the Earth. Every sip of water is sacred as is every bite of food.
give thanks.
I’ve found that the quickest way for me to shift my experience is to turn to gratitude. The first thing I do when my alarm goes off in the morning is say a prayer of thanks for my soul returning to my body and state my intention for the day. The last thing I do before I go to sleep is count my gratitudes for the day. I have my ways of giving offerings to the Earth and I encourage you to find your own. It could be through moving through asana as prayer, keeping warm socks in your car to give to homeless people, pouring out the first sip of your tea to the Earth, or giving sacred tobacco to special places in Nature. It matters less what you do and more how you do it — be sure to come from a sincere, heart-opened place.
I'm Julia Plevin. I'm the founder of The Forest Bathing Club and author of The Healing Magic of Forest Bathing.
I started the club after realizing that so many health issues (including my decade long saga of chronic illness) stem from a disconnection from nature. From everything I read and studied, I discovered that the way to heal is to reconnect to nature. The club grew from a MeetUp group to an international organization pretty quickly because so many of us are feeling that call to reconnect to Source and the future of complex life on this planet depends on it!