Girlmossing 101: A Beginner’s Guide

The term “girlmossing” may have surfaced on the internet just a couple of years ago, but I’ve been embracing this lifestyle long before it had a name. Girlmossing, which is a play on the word “girlbossing”, refers to women making intentional time and space for rest, joy, and self care in nature. 

As a lifelong city dweller, I found in nature the respite that urban life often obscures: slowness and a far richer connection to ourselves and our surroundings. This isn't inherently a byproduct of cities of course, but there's a certain atomisation that happens when you live in some urban environments, which leads to you feeling disconnected from social groups and the natural environment. This was ironic for me, having grown up next to one of Singapore’s lake reserves, which was also a public park. Despite its proximity, the reserve never truly inspired me. Its manicured beauty felt too recent, too deliberately crafted. Following the damming of the Jurong River, which existed since the 1800s, the lake reserve was formed in 1971, and the park itself was built in 2006. This recent development—relative to how long the Jurong River has existed—symbolised the city’s constant evolution, and how it is always in a race against time, always reshaping itself. What I longed for was something older, unyielding and more steadfast—a connection to a nature that felt timeless in its persistence.