Nature and Forest Therapy Australia

06/02/2026

🦋 A little pause — like the butterfly

Sometimes stillness is enough.
No big plans. No heavy effort.
Just a quiet moment, like a butterfly resting.

🌿Take a moment for a gentle pause🍃

Find a spot where you feel safe—outdoors if possible, or by a window.
Let your feet rest firmly on the ground and notice the support beneath you.
Close your eyes softly and breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth, three slow times.
With each inhale, imagine lightness—like wings lifting.
With each exhale, let go of what feels heavy.
Allow your attention to drift toward a sound around you: leaves moving, a bird call, or even silence.
Place a hand on your heart and whisper inside:
"I can rest. I can be light. I can pause."

Stay here a little longer.
Like the butterfly, you don’t need to do anything.
Just rest. Just be. 🌳

Save this moment for later—
and gift yourself a pause today. 💜

18/12/2025

On a large suburban block in Melbourne’s south-east, this house resembles many of its neighbours from the front. But out the back is a different story. The garden backs onto the bushland surrounding the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne and it has been plants to extend the habitat of the wildlife living there, linking this garden to theirs.

The owners call it the Whispering Garden, because they find moving through the garden quietly is the best way to hear the environment and to see the animals living there.

The garden was a blank slate when they moved in. They ordered 18 dump trucks of mulch to cover the dusty sand and weeds. Over the next 5 years David and Shari planted between 800-1000 plants a year - all tubestock.

Animals living at the nearby Cranbourne gardens include the endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus), which now range into the Whisper Garden. Suitable habitat includes tussock grasses.

Other plantings include sheoaks and Banksias for the Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos, which often stop and feed here for several days.

By choosing smaller trees, they have created a forest feel on a small scale.

There is also a lizard lounge for reptiles. It includes a pile of rock pile with lots of habitat, covered by tree branches for basking. Snakes are as welcome as skinks in this garden; paths are kept clear, and David says they are mindful of where they are as they’re walking.

Millie explores a suburban garden that has been designed with local wildlife in mind.

21/09/2025

Happy International Day of Peace! ☮️✌🏻💜

21st September is the official global UN day of peace.

The world currently has more active conflicts than at any other time since 1946.

There are complex systemic reasons for war and at times we can feel powerless to change things.

And yet we still have the power to choose to work towards peace and compassion in our own lives and our own minds.

This may look like coming to peace with who we are and our history, helping friends and neighbours in need, choosing kindness over conflict with our loved ones, or organising for collective liberation in our communities.

As our patron His Holiness the Dalai Lama says “World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.“

Whatever you are doing today take a moment to slow down, breathe, and think about how you can create more compassion in the world as a contribution to global peace.

May all beings be peaceful, happy, safe, and free.

☮️✌🏻💜