Tree Hugging in Pre-Prep Forest School

Research shows that spending time around trees, and indeed hugging a tree has lots of benefits including reduced stress, improved immunity, lower blood pressure. When we hug a tree, we release oxytocin – known as the hormone of love and trust which gives us that warm and fuzzy feeling.

In Pre-Prep Forest School this week we explored this. The children each selected a tree, put their little arms around it and closed their eyes. With one ear gentle pressing on the bark they were told to simply hug… to breathe… and listen.

After our tree hugs, we sat around our fire circle and talked about what we each felt. Providing some varied reviews, the children shared that hugging a tree made them feel “calm” “happy” “silly”,  that the the tree said ‘Thank you’ (good manners in our Barrow Hills trees as well as our children!), or that their tree was “scratchy and hard”. One child said it made them feel like going to sleep, another felt “nothing” and our final contributor reminded us all that “trees can’t speak”. Or can they…