Nature as Medicine: Discover the medicine that grows all around you

More and more doctors across the world are beginning to prescribe something ancient and simple:
time in nature.
In Japan, it’s called Shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing.” In Scotland, doctors can prescribe nature walks to treat anxiety and depression.
And in the Netherlands, researchers have found that spending just two hours a week in a natural environment reduces stress levels, improves sleep, and even strengthens the immune system.

But beyond the science, there’s a deeper truth that you might have already felt: nature has the power to bring you back to yourself.

When you walk through a forest, your senses open. The mind slows down. The rhythm of life around you — the quiet pulse of trees, the call of a bird, the movement of water — starts to resonate with your own heartbeat. You begin to feel a kind of inner stillness that modern life often doesn’t allow.​

That’s why I created the retreat Back to Your True Nature — a weekend in the quiet beauty of North Holland designed to help you pause, breathe, and listen. In those two days, nature becomes your ally and mirror: what you experience outside becomes a doorway to what you discover inside.
Our minds are constantly stimulated, especially in the fast pace of life abroad — building a career, adjusting to a new culture, juggling responsibilities. But just like a forest renews itself in silence and rest, you also need moments of stillness to restore your own balance.
In psychological terms, nature gently activates the parasympathetic nervous system — the body’s “rest and digest” response. It calms your heartbeat, softens tension, and quiets the internal noise that often covers your intuition. In spiritual terms, we could say that nature opens the space where your soul can be heard again.
This is not about escaping your daily life. It’s about remembering who you are beneath the noise — and letting that remembrance become the medicine that heals.

Image from 'The Elemental Oracle' by Stacey Demarco