Monday to Friday I live in boxes. A box called an office, a box called a car and a box called our apartment, that I truly love, but it’s still a box. The walls, artificial light, computer screens, air condition, etc. This feeling is always stronger during the winter when there is not enough opportunities to go out.

The way I learnt to deal with it, is getting away during the weekend anywhere, where I can get fresh air, where light is real and colours are not only white and grey.

I usually pick the coast over forest, but lately I’ve longed for a bit natural aromatherapy of pine forest. Forests have another advantage, they are perfect for a walk even if it is super windy (that happens every other week in Ireland).

Did you know Japanese have a phrase Shinrin Yoku – “forest bathing” to describe activity of leisure walk and immersing yourself into a forest? The research shows that “a stress hormone, in people who gazed on forest scenery for 20 minutes was 13.4 percent lower than that of people in urban settings”*

Isn’t it funny that we need to be reminded of that.

Shinrin Yoku walks should be quiet and without distractions, so I shouldn’t really take my camera with me, but shhh… the light was so beautiful, that I hope you don’t mind.

The site we visited this time was Donadea Forest Park. It’s managed by the same organisation as Avondale Park. Unfortunately there are not too many forests in Ireland, but the one that are left, they are very well-managed.

Donadea is perfect for a simple walk. There is a super cute café, with old photos inside, inspirational quotes and fresh flowers. For some reason it looked for me like something taken straight from US, but I’ve never been there, so what do I know. Unfortunately the coffee was really bad, so maybe just order a tea, but cookies are decent.

What are yours ways of dealing with living in a box?