Event One - Welcome to My Woods

Image 1: Bare Your Soul by Linda Weintraub

 I attended Linda Weintraub's, Welcome to My Woods, workshop on Wednesday, April 19th, and I throughly enjoyed her perspective on the way we live our lives in our modern world.  Linda's interest is in neo-materialism, which is the study of relationships between populations and environments. (Materialism).

One of the first questions Linda asked me was "How often in your life do you spend walking on hard, flat surfaces?" I had never thought about this before.  It turns out I do this the majority of each and every day.  I thought to myself, I rarely spend time barefoot, and rarely spend time on the grass, beach, or in nature for that matter.  "There are reflex points to every part of your body in your feet.  Every little bump and rock in the road helps to stimulate all these little reflex points.  If it hurts at first - especially in specific areas, this means your feet need the stimulation they're getting by being barefoot" (7 Health Benefits of Going Barefoot Outside). She asked me to think of reasons why we spend a minimal amount of our time attending to our senses, such as something as simple as the sensations we receive from the environment with our feet. I have a few theories.  A large reason in my opinion, is time.  I am constantly running around between school, work, and other obligations, that my free time is fairly limited.  With a limited amount of free time, I never really have time to wind down, and take in my surroundings with each of my senses.

Image 2: Bare Your Soles by Linda Weintraub

Linda's workshop was designed to expose us to all our senses, as shown in the diagram in the Image 1.  Specifically, she had brought elements from the woods near her home in upstate New York. She had set up 6 stations. Flavor and Aroma, Mass and Weight, Form and Beauty, Touch and Texture, Volume and Dimension and Bare your Soles.  In the time I was there,  I did not have time to spend time at each station however the few I went to were enjoyable. My favorite station was the Bare Your Soles, shown in Image 2.  She asked that we remove our shoes and walk around the circle feeling and taking in the different types of surfaces with our feet.  Before I began walking on each surface I made a guess on what I thought each area would feel like.  I was genuinely surprised on how different each surface felt compared to how I thought each surface would feel.  The only two non-flat surfaces I can recall ever being barefoot on, is sand and grass, never the woods. I enjoyed walking slowly over each surface experiencing all the feelings in my feet and being surprised by each sensation.  Through my research, I have found that immersing yourself in a multi-sensory environment is highly beneficial.  It "heightens awareness and improves alertness and creativity, and stimulates the sensory building blocks" (Multi sensory Environments: The Benefits).

Image 3: Hexagonal Honeycomb.

In the station, Form and Beauty, was a box full of plastic cups and mushrooms.  We were asked to think about if the cups were more beautiful because they are "predictable, interchangeable, transferable, uniform, geometric, and modular. Or if we thought the mushrooms were more beautiful "precisely because they lack these attributes."  When I think of the word beautiful, I certainly don't imagine predictability.  In fact I imagine quite the opposite. Therefore I thought the mushrooms were more beautiful than the cups because they are much more unique.  At this same station, was a box full of honeycomb. We were asked whether we believed hexagons were more beautiful then rectangles, or visa versa.  In my opinion, I think hexagons are more beautiful than rectangles for the same reason I mentioned before.  Hexagons to me, are simply more unique. I also think the reason I find them more unique than rectangles is because I'm accustomed to seeing rectangles in everyday life.  If I was more accustomed to hexagons, I believe I would think rectangles are more beautiful. As a psychology major, I remember studying the mere-exposure effect. This is the effect where one has a preference for things that are more familiar.  I found this interesting because I felt the opposite effect. (Mere Exposure Effect).

At the Flavor and Aroma station, there were boxes full of different items.  We were asked to smell each item and discern what it smelled like.  I found this station challenging for me.  We were giving a list of possible smells, but I struggled to match what I smelled to a given description. There was space however to write our own description, but I had difficulty coming up with descriptive words to match what I smelled. I enjoyed viewing other peoples thoughts and how different they were from my own.  Many of the items in the boxes were items I wasn't familiar with.  I knew what they all were, I just have had minimal experience with them in my life.

Image 4: Linda Weintraub and I at her workshop.

Linda's Welcome to My Woods workshop really opened my eyes and helped me realize a new way to take in my surroundings through a multitude of senses.  I enjoyed her perspective and hearing input from the other attendees. There was a lot I took away and I hope to apply what I learned to my everyday life. I certainly feel more compelled to take notice of all my surroundings from Flavor and Aroma, Mass and Weight, Form and Beauty, Touch and Texture, Volume and Dimension.

References:

Dmitriy Smaglov. Honeycomb: a heckload of hexagons. 2015. Slate. The Miraculous Space Efficiency of Honeycomb. Apr 23, 2015.  JPEG.

Fournier, Gillian. "Mere Exposure Effect." Encyclopedia of Psychology. Psych Central, 17 July 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. <http://psychcentral.com/encycolpedia/mere-exposure-effect/>.

"Materialism." Materialism - WikiEducator. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017. <http://wikieducator.org/Materialism>.

"Multi Sensory Environments: The Benefits." Christopher Douglass Hidden Angel Foundation. Hidden Angel Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. <http://www.cdhaf.org/multi-sensory-environments-the-benefits/>.

Repper, Danielle. Bare Your Soles. 2017. JPEG.

Repper, Danielle. Linda Weintraub and I.  2017. JPEG.

Repper, Danielle. Welcome to My Woods Diagram. 2017. JPEG.

Ston, Stephanie. "7 Health Benefits of Going Barefoot Outside."  Mindbodygreen. N.p., 29 Mar, 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2017. <http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4369/7-Health-Benefits-of-Going-Barefoot-Outside.html>.

Weintraub, L. (2017, April 19). Personal interview.