New Waterford Wellness Festival to feature
Ancient Japanese Forest Bathing walks at Mount Congreve Gardens
The upcoming wellness festival ‘Nature and Nurture Restival’ at Mount Congreve Gardens in Waterford is set to host the ancient Japanese wellness treatment of Shinrin-yoku forest bathing walks as part of the event.
The Japanese practice of forest bathing is proven to lower heart rate and blood pressure, reduce stress hormone production, boost the immune system and improve overall feelings of wellbeing. Forest bathing has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine and it became part of the national public health programme in Japan in 1982 following the research of its physiological and psychological effects.
According to the event organiser at Mount Congreve, Kay Sinnott Browne, “The woodland walkways at the 70 acre Mount Congreve gardens are the perfect setting for forest bathing.” And on Sunday, June 30th the forest bathing walks will be guided by Dr Mark Rowe, GP, author and expert in lifestyle medicine.
Also taking place as part of the wellness event is a day of guided yoga and medictation classes led by the teachers from My Yoga, and pilates classes led by Mags Murphy along with a series of expert wellness talks.
The talks commence at 11 am inside the beautiful Mount Congreve House, the first talk will focus on ‘Nature as Medicine’ and will be hosted by Dr Mark Rowe, at 11.30 am nutritionist Jemma Kehoe will offer a discussion on nutrition at 12 noon Greg Staff will discuss gut bacteria, Michael Connelly will offer a talk on Neuro-linguistic Programming at 1 pm, Mia Huntington will offer tips on stress relief strategies at 2 pm, at 3 pm Gemma Hughes will discuss the health benefits of kitchen herbs and the final talk of the day at 4 pm will be on reducing pain and restoring movement and this will be hosted by David Grey.
Also on offer to ‘Restival-goers’ on the day will be taster sessions in acupuncture, deep meditation and reflexology; plus a chance to browse the delicious pop-up local food producers market on-site.
The Mount Congreve gardens with its magnificent woodland canopy couldn’t be more perfect a place to try out some Shinrin-yoku, the medicine of simply being in the forest. Forest bathing was developed in Japan during the 1980s and has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine and is proven to lower the heart rate and blood pressure, reduce the stress hormone, boost the immune system and improve overall feelings of wellbeing.
The expert teachers selected to take part in the first ‘Nature and Nurture Restival’ at Mount Congreve have 100’s of years of collective experience and teaching. From yoga gurus to practising GP’s to health and wellness experts visitors to the festival can be assured of an opportunity to try or learn something new from the regions top practitioners.
Ticket holders for ‘Nature and Nurture Restival’ can enjoy the events talks, classes, guided walks and tasters from 11 am on the day as part of their ticket. Tickets are €30, for further details and for tickets see www.mountcongreve.com
