Student Spotlight: Marie Doherty

Trees are the lungs of our planet. I am truly blessed to live where I do. I live no more than 5 minutes from the sea no matter what direction you turn at the top of our road. However, it isn’t the sea or the beach that I turn to when I want that lift that only nature can provide.

About five minutes walk from my house there is a very old native forest. To find it you have to turn right up a narrow country road just before the town. From that road you turn left up a very narrow footpath. When you reach the top of the footpath you start to walk down towards a narrow gap in the trees. It’s like a magic door into the forest.

When you go through the entrance, the first thing you see is a huge ancient oak tree. Its trunk supports many different kinds of life from moss to insects of all sorts. Its huge branches provide shelter, they are like a roof over the clearing. That tree is there over 200 years.

Up on the right hand side is a mass rock. In Ireland in the 1800’s it was forbidden to go to mass to pray. Mass rocks sprung up either in hidden places where people could hide or on top of small hills where anyone approaching could be seen. This allowed the people to gather and to worship. Our local mass rock was the one you see in the forest. It makes this a very sacred place.

When I go there I can feel the spirit of the people who went there to worship, to gather in community, to seek solace. The oak tree that I sit under is the same oak tree those people sat under. If I close my eyes and really listen, I can feel the presence of those people all those years ago, I can hear them whisper. They breathed in the oxygen from that same oak tree.

For me that forest is the lungs of our town. For hundreds of years those trees are providing oxygen for the people who live in the area. It also provides a refuge where I can go and just breathe. It is a very short distance from the main road yet the rustling of the leaves hides all the car noise. It is an oasis and it is the place I go to recharge. Trees offer us so much more than just clean air to breathe.

Connecting with my breath is something that has changed my life. Trees help make that connection deeper for me. Just spending some time in that forest grounds me and reminds me to breathe.

About Marie

Marie is a breathwork facilitator from Ireland who is also trained in EFT, mindfulness and flower remedies. She also reads oracle cards. She loves combining all of these to help people however they need help.

When she isn’t doing any of these, she is a wife, a mum of 3 teens and a primary school teacher. With over 30 years teaching experience she has seen how life has become much more stressful and is passionate about helping people learn tools and strategies to control the stress and find calm and happiness inside.