Gwyneth Paltrow shared how she copes with “urban overwhelm,” telling PEOPLE exclusively that nature is “how I stay grounded”
The Goop founder teamed up with NYC’s The Genesis House for an immersive walk-through exhibit designed as a “beautiful meditative space”
She tells PEOPLE how she manages anxiety to “become present and sort of get back into your body”
Gwyneth Paltrow is sharing her ideal meditative space, a nature-themed retreat where she — and others — can escape from “urban overwhelm.”
“I love being in nature and it’s part of how I stay grounded and don’t totally lose my mind,” the Goop founder, 52, told PEOPLE exclusively at the May 8 debut of “The Forest Within,” Paltrow’s installation on the Cellar Stage at New York City’s The Genesis House. It’s an immersive, walk-through experience designed by Paltrow to reflect the union of nature and technology, and is on display until June 29.
MATTE Projects
Gwyneth Paltrow at “The Forest Within” at NYC’s The Genesis House in May 2025.
“We are also afraid of technology on a certain level … we can’t really anticipate what’s coming,” Paltrow told PEOPLE. “This was like, ‘Maybe it can be really soulful.’ ”
As for the bucolic setting, Paltrow explained, “I love being in nature and it’s part of how I stay grounded and don’t totally lose my mind, right? And so I thought, ‘Wow, maybe we could translate that into an escape from the urban overwhelm, and society, and culture, and everything — and create this beautiful meditative space.”
Gwyneth Paltrow X Genesis House “The Forest Within” begins with a walk through a representation of Korea’s Sobaek Mountains to a verdant forest oasis. “You kind of can’t help but sort of exhale and kind of like become present and sort of get back into your body,” she says.
It’s part of her ongoing journey, Paltrow tells PEOPLE, as she’s “really trying to work on calming my nervous system and being present in my body, which I have not historically been good at. You can do all the exercise and meditation and early sleep and IVs and all the things, supplements, but if your nervous system is hijacked and you can’t experience the present moment, the quality of your life goes down meaningfully.”
Among reading “a lot of books” — The Anatomy of Anxiety by Dr. Ellen Vora is her current read, she says — she’s been “trying to get the nervous system calm and one of the most immediate ways is to be in nature and to be in the sounds of nature and the smells. It’s all the negative ions of the forest or the ocean. We really did try to create that.”
“The Forest Within” is on display at The Genesis House until June 29.
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