Tree Meds

Tree Meds sessions include drawing and visualisation exercises - for example, you imagine that you are a tiny seed, growing a tap root down, a first shoot up through the earth, a root system, a canopy, and then visualise the leaves taking in the energy of the sun, spreading it around your tree and sending energy through roots and fungal network to other trees in your forest. Then you draw the process. Sometimes you 'draw along' to readings about trees. The sessions are relaxing and meditative - no drawing skill needed. The participants are very welcoming and kind.

Tree Meds began in 2019 as a daily Tree meditation group on Whats App, and moved to Zoom online during Covid lockdown in 2020. A lovely group met twice weekly, to draw together and connect with one another - as a human forest! Here are some of their wonderful drawings, reflections and feedback.

Yizhe

....and all is well

Hi Angie

Here’s my drawing from the Tree Meds afternoon - I hope not too late. I joined the activity late, and had to infer what the earlier instructions were.

So I drew a very weedy tree somewhat inside a supporting frame or box; the tree was looking for where to go but also needed some support - hence the “frame” and the tent peg holding a guy rope. One of the table’s legs is actually a pile driving thing going down into the ground. Next to it are the roots which go down and find golden and other helpful stones to give stability. Meanwhile one of the branches has spawned a cypress tree which is what it really wants to be - all dynamic and moving around in itself and around the landscape, meeting up with other cypress trees. The very top of the tree is reaching out to explore one of the other cypress trees across a stream, and all is well. The lower lefthand cypress tree has found some red boots to wear as it sets off dancing, no longer needing any kind of support framework. I missed out the whole part about the birds, but there are definitely lots of them in the cypress trees waving the branches around as they bounce up and down on them.

Hmmmm …..

Prue

FEEDBACK:

I have found your session great and allowing me the time to reflect and stop, I really enjoy practicing yoga and find your workshops allow me to slip into that meditative state. Friday was end the end of a week where I had been working with confusion which goes not sit well with me. So during the week I had been learning about sitting with the felt experience of confusion and during your session I felt calm and at ease, it reminded me of the new present moment and being at ease in the felt experience, hence why I did the new seed. The second part was the energetic seedling and the vibrancy of connecting with others.

Amazing thank you so much.

Amanda

Thanks for today's session, there was such a lovely energy. It is so interesting the way everyone uses their drawings to share their emotional and physical preoccupations (and even, perhaps, things they are less consciously aware of...) The second drawing was such a pleasure to make, and I really got into the idea of the interconnectedness of us all, sharing a screen, as well as empathy. I was so moved to think about the fact that aspen woods are all from a single plant, and I have just been to the one in Brockwell Park, behind the paddling pool and duck pond, to listen to the aspen leaves shimmy.

Claire

Yes to energies and eyes and the crackling network of goodness! Thank you again so much for creating the space in which this nourishing connection can happen.

Sara

Dear Angie,

Here are my drawings from this past Monday and an earlier one, My notes for the 1st one:

Across the bottom: "Rooted, Rooted, grounded - but striving upwards against all odds.... Tree drawing." On the diagonal: "Still not spreading out but strengthening the roots and trunk," and vertically: "How the roots feel."

Like the drawings, these were just spontaneous responses, so I hope they're helpful. Again, I'm sorry to be so irregular, but enjoy it each time I come!

Seymour

Arrived chaotically on Friday. But although I felt really tired, the drawings showed and sort of brought forth feelings of stability, rootedness and, by the end of the session, a bit of flourish!

Totally loved learning about Aspens.

Helen

Amanda

Amanda

Claire:

Here are my 2 pics. I got shiny with graphite! As I said, the first was influenced by my lovely chunky 6B mechanical pencil. It felt very sturdy, like the tree I sheltered under during a storm last week. The whorl relates to a strange chest pain. The second drawing was such a pleasure to make, and I really got into the idea of the interconnectedness of us all, sharing a screen, as well as empathy.

Claire

Sara

Sara

Seymour

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July 2020 Tree Meds Drawings. We visualised ourselves with a tree, breathing in and out and giving and receiving oxygen and carbon dioxide. We drew people and animals we have lost, as spirit animals to rest in the Amber Mother Tree. We drew along with a reading from The Hidden Life of Trees.