Interesting to hear about fishing being prescribed. I went to a "forest bathing" session the other day. It cost 35 quid which felt a bit steep, but someone was evangelising about it and it felt like a good sync to explore for me at the moment. It's something that is prescribed in Japan and Korea for, I think, social media addiction and related stuff.
The Japanese have known for years that spending mindful time in the woods is beneficial for body and soul. Now western doctors – and royals – agree
www.theguardian.com
It's basically like meditation but you do it outdoors in the woods.
You spend some time "onboarding" to a different reality, which they called "coming to your senses". This involved closing eyes, which of course brings the ear out as a sense, then you cycle through the others, smell and taste. Then cycle back.
It was just interesting to me, in context of VR, how other experiences also require an onboard phase. VR as something like a retooling of very trad mediation practices.
The point is to feel a part of nature, not visiting it as a stranger/bystander. So it's "immersive" in intention.
You walk through the forest very slowly, placing foot down in specific phased manner, which is not something I've done before, waiting for "invitations" ie little interesting things that you then go and investigate. The slowness does something, you get quite into it.
There's some science behind it: plants and particularly trees apparently release chemicals called "Phytoncides" which are good for our white blood cells develoment. I knew this about kicking leaves and playing in mud, but not specifically about trees.