Forest bathing and contrast therapy are often described as separate practices, one associated with relaxation or rest, the other with deliberate physiological challenge. In practice, they form a sequence the body understands instinctively. Time among trees shifts sensory input, reorganizing attention through sound, light, colour, temperature, and uneven ground. Sauna and cold plunges then work on a body that has already adjusted its pace, making extreme temperatures less confrontational and more easy to adjust to.

On Bowen Island, nature immersion functions less as a backdrop and more as an active environment that participates in the foreground of regulation, recovery, and perception.