Nature Is The Greatest Healer

Getting back in touch with nature is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves. In understanding the intrinsic interconnectedness of all life on a visceral level, we develop a whole new relationship to the more than human world. We learn to accept the losses of the past and reconnect to life on a deep spiritual level. The anxieties and the loneliness of life subside, and we begin to feel whole again. This lecture stresses the importance of a personal connection to nature so we can heal.

Transcript

Day 27 Nature is the greatest healer,

Nature connection and unity consciousness.

In our last lecture we have learned about the shadow.

Today we will talk about nature connection.

Most of us are completely unaware that the largest organism for healing is right outside our windows and it is completely free.

You don't have to spend a single cent to gain access to it because it is yours by birth right.

It is our beloved mother nature.

Like most modern people I too used to be very detached from nature.

Even though I grew up in a rural area,

As soon as I resolved to pursue my education in a nearby city,

That heritage was quickly forgotten.

Immersed in the pitfalls of the techno-driven life,

I had gone into the woods only rarely and then rushed through it.

I worried if I was getting enough exercise.

Would hiking count as a cardio workout or would it be better to jog?

How long would I have to do this?

Looking back I realized just how alienated I was from nature.

And one is never finished learning.

I had little regard for how my presence would affect the animals that live there and just how intelligent trees and plants really are.

But everything changed almost instantly when I began to immerse myself into the practice of forest therapy.

It was a deeply transformative experience for me.

It taught me to approach nature slowly,

Deliberately and with mindful regard for the beings who are at home in the woods.

During my training when I spent a lot of time at a local arboretum,

I ran into a deer,

Almost literally.

I was jogging,

Gingerly,

Through a patch of urban forest when I saw a young buck,

Maybe fifty yards to my left.

He just stood there unfazed by my appearance.

I stopped abruptly,

Mesmerized by the image that presented itself to me.

This beautiful,

Gentle being who seemed to look at me so trusting at the end of a tree-lined path.

We gazed at each other for what felt like a long time.

I tried to send and receive messages to and from him but I was too excited to concentrate.

He waited patiently until I took his picture and it was me who eventually broke away.

I waved at him and when I turned around a second later he had disappeared.

Deers have become a presence in my dreams and dreams have become an element of guidance and insight for me.

One night I went to sleep with the intention to receive dreams that give me insight about my future path.

I got the image of a huge acorn underground,

Ready to pop,

Some white men in suits couldn't control it.

I woke up with a sense of knowing that this dream instilled in me.

It gave me the confidence to pursue this path persistently as I know myself to get distracted by exciting things to learn very quickly.

Nature never fails to excite and to offer up new things to learn.

This is just one element of the beauty of forest bathing.

Another day upon waking I had the words,

The most important thing is to band together in my mind.

There was the image of children holding hands in a group.

I don't think either dream needs much interpretation.

There is a movement growing and it's about unity and cooperation and it's driven by the young and those who are able to tap into beginner's mind.

The world of spiritual psychotherapy where I have my professional home tends to focus solely on unity among people.

Rarely is there consideration for the more than human world.

Forest therapy awoke me to this larger picture of unity consciousness and I have come to believe that this is the only viable form of it.

If we can take into account that animals,

Plants and rocks have a spirit and their own identity and approach to life,

We can see them as beings in their own right.

They aren't just here to be used and consumed but they are an important part of the unity of life and there is no hierarchy in this unity.

The dream that humans are somehow above the rest of creation is an error and speaks to our endless narcissistic self-importance.

When we can embrace the more than human world as partners,

Our whole concept of relating to nature changes.

We feel less alone and isolated and we can tap into the support the natural world provides.

An important concept in forest therapy is liminality.

Liminality is a state of transition where the fixed concept of our identity is temporarily softened.

We don't hold on so tightly to our usual definitions of who we are and how we present ourselves to the world.

For example,

When we introduce ourselves to someone new,

We usually sum up our existence with our name,

Sometimes where we're from,

What the job is or if we have family and children.

Now imagine these concepts when going into a forest.

How important are these parameters when you really immerse yourself into this environment of wildness and beauty?

Imagine you've walked for a while and you were able to take in the air,

The scents and sounds of this magical space.

Who are you now?

How would you introduce yourself to a tree or a deer?

What kind of markers of human identity would they want to know about?

Does it matter to them whether you are the CEO of a company or a janitor?

When our usual structures to which we define ourselves are softened,

We become more open to other influences.

We become more able to connect to others and to the more than human world in ways that elude us in daily life where everything is so goal oriented.

Our cultural conditioning falls away and we get in touch with our innate true self much easier than elsewhere.

Because nature has such a calming effect,

Tapping into our compassionate,

Curious and creative self,

Which is the true self,

Is almost instantly available.

We drop our usual stories of social hierarchies,

Of suffering and victimization and simply become present.

In forest therapy this is called finding your own medicine.

All of a sudden it becomes clear what we need in order to be content.

All of a sudden moving into a relationship with the wind,

The sun,

The trees or birds becomes a possibility.

Images of a sacred tree or a blooming flower begin to reflect aspects of our own lives back to us.

We see ourselves in the beings that show themselves to us.

And we recognize their resilience and beauty and we are able to see resilience and beauty in ourselves.

We start to look at life differently which creates space for new perspectives.

All of a sudden it doesn't matter anymore whether the people around you share your opinions or not.

You are fully centered as a valuable human being in her own right and you begin to see others the same way.

We are more tolerant,

More open,

More compassionate than usual.

And because of this there is an element of culture repair connected to forest therapy.

Our consumer driven,

Technology centered lifestyles suddenly don't fill us with the same sense of urgency as they usually do.

We slow down,

We begin to look at the world as it already is and doesn't have to be made into something more.

One wonderful and fun way to receive even more from the forest is the medicine walk.

As you enter the forest or a park or even just your backyard,

Think of a single question you want input for.

Hold it in your mind as you are walking slowly along your path.

The question should be designed like we did in the intuition chapter,

No yes or no questions,

Keep it open like what can spirit tell me about.

Then simply pay attention to what images and sounds and other sensory information draws you in.

Try not to interpret what you see right away but take some notes and look at them more closely after you return home.

A medicine walk reveals the medicine you need in this particular moment.

It is highly individual as everyone sees and perceives different things and gives them a different meaning.

It's another way to strengthen your intuition.

To become whole in this time does not only mean to make ourselves whole,

We are not isolated from the world.

Wholeness means to look at the world as intricately connected.

Everything has a spirit,

Everything expresses itself in its own way.

If we look at a plant or a bird or even a rock,

We must remember that they are alive and are beings in their own right.

To be whole also means to look at our lineage and acknowledge their lives and what our ancestors near and distant may have taught us.

We must return to the wisdom of our ancestors and the wisdom of the ancient people,

A wisdom that indigenous people still hold.

Their way of life was never disconnected from nature and they have much to teach us.

The most profound lesson we can adopt is that everything is alive,

Aware and related.

Many of us are so alienated from nature that we have become afraid of it.

We protect ourselves from rain and wind,

From animals and so called pests by trying to eradicate them or their energies.

We have become so scared of discomfort and the uncontrollable and have forgotten how to work with the forces of nature,

But instead attempt to keep it at bay and hide from them.

Our relentless quest for comfort and protection prohibits us to embrace the cycles of life and of the natural world fully.

We are afraid of the natural world,

The very world that supports us and keeps us alive.

Taking care of the earth,

Returning to its wonder and to learn to trust her again is an inherently feminine task.

Like nature,

Women have been suppressed and exploited,

Her talents and wisdom ignored in the service of greed and comfort.

Yet women have an inherently strong connection to the earth and its cycles,

To the moon and the stars and the elements that govern the rhythms of the planet.

She is by nature inclusive,

Seeing the community as a whole,

Embracing all its elements,

Small and large.

As the great philosopher Thomas Berry writes,

Quote,

The wisdom of women is to join the knowing of the body to that of the mind,

To join the soul to spirit,

Feeling consciousness to intellectual analysis,

Intimacy to detachment,

Subjective presence to object distance.

When these functions become separated in carrying out the human project,

Then the way into the future is to bring them together.

The human project belongs to both women and men,

Unquote.

It is the female principle of nurturing bonds of connection to other living things that form the basis of the great web of interconnectedness.

It is in connection that the individual self finds itself in the divine greater self.

And it is the inherently female principle of compassion,

Support and love upon which the human endeavor is built.

Support is something most of us need desperately,

But we don't feel entitled or too ashamed to ask.

When our human relationships are too strained or fragile to provide support,

Nature can become an amazing source of it.

Our imagination is a wonderful source to fill in the often intangible connections to the natural world that we can't see or feel but dream up as needed.

Nature supports us very literally by allowing us to walk on the earth.

She supports us by giving us food and water,

The air to breathe and the light of fire that we need to thrive.

She gives us the rocks to build shelter and the wonderful song of birds to cheer us up.

We can lean against the tree when in need of something to hold on to.

We can allow ourselves to be enchanted by the wonders of the cicadas communicating in the summer or the magic of ice and snow crystals in the winter.

Nature is always there for us to make us whole.

We only need to remember her.

Some of us worry that the human species isn't really needed,

That nature can thrive and be well without us.

But healing happens in relationship.

That doesn't just go for our own healing but for that of nature as well.

When we can abide to the laws of reciprocity,

The planet too needs us.

When we can make an effort to mend the broken relationship to the more than human world,

That world too comes back to the table and recognizes us as equals.

Forests do not see humans as separate from them,

Writes Amos Clifford,

The founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy.

They seem too long for us to return to our ancestral knowing of them.

The trees welcome us and they are glad of our returning.

In our next and final lecture we will talk about how to create a meaningful life for yourself.

Reviews

Wow!
Thank you.

Lovely and enlightening. Thank you Gerti.

Great teaching about nature.