Yes, Let’s!

I recently returned from California where I attended a four day immersion program held by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. I learned many things that will help me to be a better guide. One activity that stood out to me was called “Yes, let’s.”

For this game, we had two other partners. The direction was to pretend you were a child again and had just gone outside to play. Let your imagination guide you to offer up an activity that you and your partners can all do together.

My partners were Hughes and John. Hughes went first and said we should pretend we were elephants walking through the tall grasses of the Savanna. John and I said, “Yes, let’s!” So we all walked around like elephants until John offered the suggestion to swing from the branch of a Sycamore tree.

While we were swinging from the branch, I was feeling the wind in my hair and the motion of my body, and it reminded me that I had spent a lot of time playing in and under trees as a child.

I never had a plan when I went outside to play, I just looked around and ideas came to me. Maybe a Maple tree was dropping helicopters, or the Tulip Poplar had shed its seed pods. Or the night rain had brought puddles to my front yard. I would investigate new arrivals and explore old areas I had previously surveyed.

It was my turn to offer up a suggestion in the Yes, let’s game. I noticed a big rock, not too far in the distance and said we should go to it and check it out. None of us knew what we would do when we got there, but there was so much freedom in feeling like you didn’t need to know, to have an exact plan, and most importantly, to feel confident that when we got there, something else unexpected would arise out of the moment. And it did. Hughes noticed some bark shavings from a nearby Manzanita tree. He said “Let’s make earrings out of the bark.” The picture at the top of this article depicts John and Hughes after our adventures with the Yes, Let’s game.

If you are Interested in professional counseling services with a forest therapy guide, trauma-informed yoga, or other holistic healing services, contact John and Sarah at Evergreen Therapies.