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Guided Wellness Walk @ Garfield Park Conservatory
December 17, 2021 @ 9:30 am - 10:30 am
In this Wellness Walk, Roberta will guide you through a few invitations to deepen your experience of the beautiful natural outdoor surroundings of Garfield Park Conservatory. This experience is tailored for adults; please check other dates if you’d like to bring children.
Shinrin Yoku is the Japanese term for the practice of walking in the forest and experiencing the health benefits (stress reduction, lowered blood pressure, better sleep, improved immune system) and increases our strong and reciprocal bonds between us and nature. There are also beneficial phytoncides in the air, emitted by many plants, but particularly trees. They are an organic compound with antibacterial properties that increase the immune system.
A Wellness Walk is not a setting, about achieving anything, a hike or formal meditation. It is an embodiment experience, helping us get out of our heads and into nature. It requires no special knowledge of nature. Although typically done in a forest, it can be done anywhere – a park, your own backyard.
Registration is required and closes at 9:00am before the start of the program. Space is limited to accommodate social distancing and masks are required throughout the program, regardless of vaccination status.
If you’d like to request an accommodation, please let us know in the registration process or contact Mattie Wilson at mwilson@garfieldpark.org or 773-638-1766 x.16.
Roberta’s Bio: Roberta has a master’s degree in education from DePaul University, and is nearly finished with aConservation Certificate from Morton Arboretum. She spent her career in academia, having retired in 2016.
The Master Naturalist program offered by the University of Illinois Extension has been her primary focus since retirement. In addition to currently serving on the Master Naturalist Advisory Board, she has led Wellness walks for several years in various Forest Preserve locations in Cook County (FPCC). Always enthusiastic about finding new venues to bring Wellness Walks to people, she looks forward to the collaboration with Garfield Park Conservatory audience.
