How to Hug a Tree

Hugging Trees Is a Feel-Good Experience

Tree Hug
Do You Know How to Hug a Tree?. Grady Coppell / Getty Images

Certainly, you have heard the phrase Hug a Tree before, but have you ever taken a moment out of your day to actually do this? Although some trees, like people, are more huggable than others, they all need a hug now and again. The Earth is our mother. Mother Nature has much to teach us. It is from her womb that we are nurtured and healed. Hugging a tree is perhaps the easiest way to embrace mother nature.

Ten Steps for Getting to Know and Hugging a Tree

  1. Find yourself a quiet park, forest, or woodland area.
  2. Walk among the trees until you feel comfortable in their presence.
  3. Feel the different bark textures with the palms of your hands.
  4. Smell the scent of the various woods.
  5. Absorb their life's energies as you look upwards to the sprawling branches overhead.
  6. Find the perfect tree that fits your mood. You will know which one is right for you.
  7. Speak softly to the tree verbally or communicate with it using telepathy.
  8. Vertical Tree Hug: Encircle it with your arms while gently pressing your cheek to the trunk being careful not to scratch your face. Squeeze tightly. Sigh deeply. Be one with your tree.
  9. Full Body Tree Hug: Sit upon the ground wrapping your legs around the base of the tree and at the same time embracing it with your arms.
  10. Up in the Air Tree Hug: Climb a tree. Sit upon a strong limb and straddle it with your legs. Bend forward and place your belly against it while wrapping your arms around it.

Helpful Tips:

  • Feel free to hug more than one tree if the mood strikes. Besides, other trees might get jealous.
  • You may like to take home a fallen leaf or nut as a keepsake from your new friend.
  • Be sure to return each season to visit your tree. And don't be afraid to talk to it as trees are good listeners.
  • Take a child along with you on your next "hugging nature adventure."

More Ways to Embrace Mother Nature

  1. Brown-bag it to the neighborhood park over lunch.
  2. Tuck in a packet of springtime flower seeds inside the envelopes you mail out your bill payments in during the month of April - won't that surprise your bill collectors!?!
  3. Take a detour on your way to work to the kiddie park, get out of your parked car and run to the swing sets. Swing as high as you can.
  4. Go skinny dipping.
  5. Walk barefoot through a muddy creek. Don't forget to squish your toes in the mud.
  6. Lay in the grass and look at the clouds imagining what their shapes represent.
  7. Make a dandelion neck-chain.
  8. Take an afternoon nap under a shady tree.
  9. Go on an outing in the fall to collect colorful leaves, pinecones, acorns, etc. to make a centerpiece for your table.
  10. Catch a toad, whisper your heart's yearnings to it while holding it in your hands. Release it.
  11. Plant a sapling.
  12. Go for a walk in the rain (no fair using an umbrella).
  13. Collect seashells along the beach.
  14. Surprise someone with a May Basket in September.
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Desy, Phylameana lila. "How to Hug a Tree." Learn Religions, Apr. 5, 2023, learnreligions.com/tree-hugging-1725801. Desy, Phylameana lila. (2023, April 5). How to Hug a Tree. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/tree-hugging-1725801 Desy, Phylameana lila. "How to Hug a Tree." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/tree-hugging-1725801 (accessed March 19, 2024).