Corporate Forest Bathing for Businesses in the North East

At Oak and Air, we work with businesses to decide how to best support the wellbeing needs for the good of their employees and of the organisation.

Forest Bathing is a popular activity as it gets employees away from the desks, breathing in fresh air and practising mindful activities, which are transferable to do back at work and at home. The group activity creates a shared experience where employees can bond in simple, natural and meaningful ways which benefits team cohesion and understanding. 

If you feel your team might be ready to slow down, breathe and reconnect with nature and themselves, quieten the noise and restore calm through mindful nature immersion, whether you need a calm reset, a seasonal recharge, or just a peaceful stroll with intention, then a Forest Bathing experience might be for you.

Corporate Forest Bathing with Osbit

Oak and Air led Forest Bathing corporate wellbeing sessions with a well-known North East global engineering company, Osbit www.osbit.com.

Here is what they had to say about it.

“As part of our commitment to supporting wellbeing, some of our team recently took time out to slow down and reconnect with nature during two guided Forest Bathing sessions. Led by Laura from Oak and Air, this nature therapy experience is based on a traditional Japanese wellbeing practice, and focuses on stepping away from the noise of day-to-day life and immersing ourselves in the calm of the woodland.

Hosted at the peaceful Minsteracres Retreat Centre www.minsteracres.org, the sessions offered a calm, restorative sensory journey, taking notice of the sights, sounds and rhythm of the forest, guided with care and intention.

The experience focused on:

 Gentle sensory awareness of the forest

 Guided moments of stillness and reflection

 Breathing deeply and resetting both mind and body

• Finishing with warm tea and shared connection

Forest bathing is known to support mental clarity, reduce stress, and restore a sense of balance, and feedback from those who took part reflected exactly that.

Many came away feeling calmer, more grounded, and re-energised. We’re proud to support initiatives like this at Osbit, helping our people look after their wellbeing both in and out of work”.

Feedback from the business employees about their Forest Bathing experience.

Some of the feedback to Laura on the day was fantastic to hear as the Osbit employees reflected that:

 It was a real reset

 I’ve forgotten that it’s Tuesday and I have to go back to work

 I really got into moss

 I really enjoyed feeling the textures of things on my skin

 I really enjoyed being with people but not feeling like I have to talk and when we do talk it’s more meaningful and interesting

 I enjoyed the breathwork and knowing that I can practise it back at the office and come back to this feeling

 I really enjoyed the discussions that naturally developed when we noticed things together

 I really enjoyed seeing what other people saw from their perspective, as it’s not what I would have noticed

 I found myself wondering what it would be like to peel back the bark of the tree and climb inside

 I found it quite difficult to clear my mind and be present. However, as the session went on, I started to switch off from things and enjoy noticing the small things around me such as the textures, sounds and smells of the forest.

 Throughout, I had this recurring thought about what secrets the forest knew, what it had seen throughout the years, the upcoming season changes and new life to come.

I found the time went fast but as the same time it has been expansive.

I feel clarity

At Oak and Air we offer these 2-3 hour Forest Bathing sessions at Minsteracres Retreat Centre on the borders of Durham, Gateshead and Northumberland, where there are amazing facilities for optional introduction with indoor tea, coffee with scones, traybakes or biscuits or in a natural space near to my clients.

The maximum number of employees is 12 and multiple sessions can be booked.  

The sessions change with the seasons and can include campfires, deeper breathwork, hammock time and nature crafts.

There are options to book a one-off session or there is a discount for booking 4 seasonal sessions over the course of the year.