Could the world’s best therapist be free? Connecting with nature for balance and serenity has impressive mental health benefits. It’s also soothing to your soul and can provide inspiration and serenity.
Why should you step outside the next time you need healing? Discover the curative powers of nature and how you can harness her powers to increase your inner peace, build quiet confidence in yourself and take solace from an uncertain world by turning to the great outdoors.
The Mental Health Benefits of Spending Time in Nature
People are biologically wired to interact with green and blue spaces. Time spent in natural locations helps you maintain resiliency among life’s varied demands. It can ease the symptoms of various mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, PTSD and ADHD.
The benefits begin early. A recent review published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing concludes that green space exposure improves memory, moderates stress, improves behavior and helps children form supportive social groups. It’s particularly beneficial for disadvantaged youth with little access to such spaces, as one study shows a 10% increase in neighborhood green space decreases mental health symptoms and increases prosocial behaviors.
Nature and Spirituality
Nature also plays a central role in many of the world’s faith traditions, although its importance sometimes gets lost in some Western Judeo-Christian traditions. However, the worship of nature itself is pivotal to many indigenous spiritual beliefs. Jains believe that plants, animals, and even some non-living objects like water have souls like human beings. Buddhists teach of the interdependence of humans and nature — one simply cannot exist without the other.
Who hasn’t stood by the ocean and marveled at its breadth or stared up in perfect silence at the stars like a Whitman poem? When you step back and simply observe the immensity of creation, you feel humbled, and overwhelmed by awe. How is it that you came to exist amid all this majesty? Where did it all come from? How did it, or you, get here? It’s better to ponder such questions beneath the limitless sky than in a stuffy classroom, where you are free to sense what you cannot put into words.
6 Ways to Connect With Nature
Are you weary of daily life, cubicles, harsh, angular lines, and gray tones? If your soul cries, “Get me out of here” day after city day, consider one of these six ways to connect with nature.
1. Study Wildlife
Remind yourself that, as humans, we share this planet with countless other creatures. Find a way to witness and engage with the lives of other creatures. You can learn about how we are all connected and live in harmony.
Activities like birdwatching or planting a pollinator garden can show you how birds and insects cultivate life and contribute to the ecosystem. Make a weekend project out of setting up bird feeders or planting a garden that will attract bees and butterflies to your backyard.
You can also venture out into the wild for more unique experiences. For example, you can go to the beach to see turtles or horseshoe crabs laying eggs and later hatching. This process usually begins around a full or new moon and coincides with the tides. The way animals live in balance with the natural world can inspire your own spiritual practices.
When going on a hike or beach trip to spot wildlife, remember to leave no trace behind and don’t interfere with the animals. The best way to connect with nature is to take care of it.
Beach Nature Rituals
The beach is the perfect place to conduct small, meaningful rituals. For example, one simple practice is to wander the shore, gathering seashells. While you may later use them to create a shadow box or other art project, take some time to simply arrange them before you and observe. Chances are, they’re all quite different — and equally beautiful. How does that principle carry over to human beings?
Another simple beach ritual is to trace various geometric shapes in the sand — spirals, cubes, various tetrahedrons, and even a simple mandala. How do the figures compare and contrast? Do you prefer the smooth, curved lines of spirals and circles or the sharp angles of rectangles and pyramids?
2. Sleep Under the Stars
Few things compare to fresh, crisp mountain air for inspiring the deepest, soundest sleep of your life. Fortunately, camping is an activity that anyone can afford, although your need for security can increase the price point. The right gear makes you feel safe, even when sleeping solo. However, even if you’re a woman traveling alone with little more than a bivvy bag, you face far greater threats in so-called civilization than you do in the wilderness. Be aware, but don’t let unrealistic fears keep you from connecting with nature.
As you watch the stars, you can’t help but wonder what mysterious life might inhabit other worlds. Sure, scientists can make predictions about how many other planets may support human life, but who says that’s the only form of consciousness that exists in the universe? After all, people don’t always agree on what constitutes consciousness here on earth!
A camping trip is a true immersion in nature, a chance to connect with all of your senses, including the ones you intentionally shut down to tolerate the slings and arrows of daily life. Breathe deeply — you won’t inhale exhaust smoke or the scent of cubicle mate’s microwaved salmon. Genuinely delight in the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 grounding exercise, which calms you much more effectively when the only three things you hear are birds singing, crickets chirping and the breeze ruffling through the trees.
3. Combine Yoga With Earthing
Yoga conveys incredible physical, mental, and spiritual benefits — it’s no wonder people have practiced it for thousands of years. Earthing connects you with the earth’s flow of negative ions, which evidence suggests has impressive health perks of its own. Combining the two practices is a one-two punch of all-over wellness.
What do you do? Skip the mat and practice your asanas right on the bare earth. The practice of earthing demands putting your bare feet against the ground, but exposing even more of your flesh may intensify the effects. If you find the right warm, sunny stone, it can even feel like the planet is hugging you back.
To get the most from this activity, check your surroundings before getting deep and mindful with your flow. Clear away any obstructions like rocks and branches, and watch for anthills. Tune into your surroundings, adapting your practice to them, interpreting the “union” inherent in yoga to represent your partnership with the earth. For example, buggy days may inspire standing flows, while warm, dry, still air invites you to strike a Yin pose and sink into serenity against the earth.
4. Join a Community Garden
A community garden connects you to the good earth — and other people who share your values. It’s another way to combine two positives to improve your overall mental and physical health while inspiring greater balance and serenity in your life.
Community gardens typically require a small investment for a plot and sometimes supplies such as soil. It’s the perfect spot for your home compost once it ripens. Observe the life cycle as it does, how the stems and cores from today’s peppers become the substrate for the next generation. What does it reveal about the nature of existence?
While you can typically plant what you like, conferring with your fellow gardeners lets you swap. Can you create a complete meal without heading to the grocery store? You might decide to each grow select ingredients for favorite dishes, trading a bit of basil for some ripe tomatoes so that you each end up with a to-die-for organic marinara sauce you’ll feel good about feeding to your family.
5. Try Plogging
What’s plogging? It combines jogging with picking up litter, and it’s a fabulous way to connect with nature while beautifying the planet and toning your muscles. The word sounds a little like “plodding,” but that’s okay — stopping to pick up a bit of trash can sometimes feel like a heavenly break on hot, muggy days.
The only “equipment” you’ll need is a decent pair of supportive running shoes and a bag. A grabber helps but feels awkward when running — a pair of gloves tucked into a pocket works just as well for things you’d rather not touch.
Although you can practice plogging anywhere, doing it in a natural setting inspires you to keep going. Invite the spirit of fun by making it a game, perhaps seeing how many pieces you can collect or setting a specific goal, like gathering recyclable plastic and aluminum.
6. Climb a Mountain and Observe
The image of a guru meditating on a mountaintop has entered the human collective unconscious for a reason. There’s something about the physical challenge it imposes, followed by quiet sitting in a natural setting, that makes deep introspection easier.
You don’t have to ponder the mysteries of the universe. Sometimes, the best way to go deep is to stay on the surface, simply observing. For example, you might examine the flight patterns of birds soaring around your aerie heights or the formation a troop of ants makes as they march in a single straight line. Tune into a body scan, simply observing how your quads, hamstrings and calves feel after the exertion.
Getting up and down the mountain also requires mindfulness. Challenge yourself, but remain respectful of your limits. Remember, rescuers have to get you out of whatever you get yourself into, and it’s just as dangerous for them as for you. How far is far enough? When you experience that first whisper of, “maybe I shouldn’t.” Part of connecting with nature, after all, is learning to respect yourself and your instincts as an integral part of it.
Connecting With Nature for Balance and Serenity
The best therapist may not charge a fee. Spending time in nature allows space for your innate inner balance to reestablish itself as you find serenity. Instead of seeking wisdom from lectures or experts, you find your still, small inner voice amid the silence of the wilds, providing the answers you seek.
Use the six methods above to connect with nature for improved balance and serenity. Do so often to remain on an even keel and offer your body and mind surcease from the demands of civilization.
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Guest contribution by Author:
Cora Gold | Editor-in-Chief at Revivalist Magazine
Cora Gold is a wellness writer who aims to live a happy, healthy and mindful life. She is the Editor-in-Chief of women’s lifestyle magazine, Revivalist. Connect with Cora on Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
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