BOWOOD House and Gardens opened their Woodland Garden with unique displays of rhododendrons, magnolias and azaleas to heighten the senses in April.

Coinciding with Mental Heath Awareness Week and to raise funds for The Mental Health Foundation, the 30-acre woodland garden will provide the perfect setting for its Wise Walk on Sunday (May 20) at 10am, lead by wellness lifestyle consultant, Sharmila Dharmalingam.

There are only 15 places available, and those who take part in the hour and a half long morning stroll will do so before the garden opens to the public at 11am.

Cotswolds-based mindfulness practitioner, Sharmila Dharmalingam will encourage walkers towards freestyle mindfulness.

She said: “Usually, mindfulness techniques are very focused and require great patience to learn. They can be pretty hard to adapt into everyday life. This is the key reason many fail to incorporate mindfulness into their hectic lifestyle.

“Bowood’s Woodland Garden is the perfect escape from daily pressures and during the walk I will share tips around a number of simple and easy-to-follow therapeutic techniques: how to draw the various senses into meditation, how to look at flowers and connect with trees, for example. We will also practise 'trust walking’ where walkers will pair up, with one closing their eyes and the other guiding them. Such human connection is so helpful and supportive, particularly when so much of life today exists in a virtual reality. The exercises I will recommend will help tackle stress and prompt real relaxation.”

The Wise Walk will raise funds for the Mental Health Foundation by donating 20 per cent of the ticket price of £15 per person to the charity.

Tickets must be booked in advance, to secure a place please email houseandgardens@bowood.org, or phone 01249 810961.

The Woodland Garden's season runs into early June.