Do you also feel the pressure and stress of a fast-paced work environment?
The effects of stress such as high blood pressure, heart attack, depression, decreased productivity and more are frightening.
It has been scientifically proven that connecting with nature creates physical and mental benefits.
The power of natural connection helps you be yourself again by teaching yourself all about nature and creating a natural connection with the world, your garden and the animals around you.
It helps you maintain your healthy lifestyle by reconnecting with loved ones and the things that really matter to you in life.
Today I’m going to show you an exercise that will help you become more aware.
What the research says about Nature Deficit Syndrome
Nature Deficit Syndrome is a term coined by Richard Louv for the phenomenon of humans having no connection to nature. The symptoms are similar to those of a person suffering from chronic stress or depression.
This loss of connection can lead to mental, physical, and emotional illnesses.
A natural deficit occurs in modern times in children, adults, families and communities. People living in urban areas are more likely to experience a natural deficit.
Research says people should be outside for at least 30 minutes every day.
One study found that young people could recognize 1,000 company logos but fewer than 10 plants or animals native to their backyards.
Nature is not only important; it is like an essential vitamin for all beings, for our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual development.
Why should it be any different:
We, humans, are nature and belong to it. If we distance ourselves from nature, our natural existence, we become ill.
Learning in nature is part of our genetic makeup; it’s in our DNA – we’re related to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Therefore, we are specifically designed for this type of learning.
Ever noticed? Our eyes can detect the most subtle movement without looking directly at an object. This is what self-driving cars dream of.
The owl gaze is a routine to see more in nature
I would now like to introduce you to an exercise that will help me to calm down and perceive a lot more.
Look at a magazine by placing it in front of you. You can also grab your screen if you are reading this text. It is best if you are standing in the forest.
Then allow your eyes to relax.
Don’t focus on the words of the text or on individual trees, but on a gentle gaze.
Next, with your arms outstretched, bring your hands to your sides and without looking directly at them, wiggle your fingers (move your arms forward a little if you don’t see movement).
When you see movement, make sure your fingers are just at the edge of your field of vision (this is called “peripheral vision”).
This exercise is a way to see more in nature, to perceive more.
On your walks in the woods, for example, you discover the hiding deer, a spider that is stretching a web, and you see the web dancing in the wind, glittering with the sunlight reflected on it.
Or the singing of a song thrush right above you in the canopy as it hunts for insects and snaps its beak ever so slightly. Things like this happen all around us.
Mental training sharpens your perception
Exercising the power of our senses—sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste—can transform your biochemistry.
Each time you fully engage the senses, it creates small electrical impulses in the brain and creates new pathways for brain activity.
So if you learn with all your senses, your brain will improve. Areas in our brain are activated that have never been stimulated before.
That’s what happens when you interact with a plant that you smell, examine it closely, feel its texture and realize that it’s inside is slimy – it creates another little electrical storm in your brain.
This electricity is measurable and gives us another reason to immerse ourselves in nature. Having these experiences regularly changes the capacity of your brain and mind. It offers a holistic way of perceiving reality and perceiving reality.
A walk alone in the forest
It dawned on a summer evening and I left barefoot moving slowly and deliberately, feeling the earth between my toes as I moved like a heron.
With such grace and balance and free-flowing as the current of the water rolling over the rocks in the creek.
As I moved through the tall grass, the frogs were silent and let me pass.
Then my eyes noticed the movement of an animal at the water’s edge.
I froze and at that moment I saw a sitting raccoon on the bank of the pond. Only seconds later did I discover that there were still three young animals sitting around the old animal.
The raccoon was a messenger for me to stop and listen.
That was a magical moment, seeing the raccoons – relaxed and in their natural rhythm, not running or hiding from me.
Powerful storytelling
As I tell this story and describe it in detail, you may become curious – something primal.
This can provoke a reaction that makes you long to experience something similar.
It is a fire ignited by the power of storytelling and imagination that you, the listener, could also be the one experiencing an intimate encounter in nature.
Stories are a fundamental part of human communication and also the best way to share your message with others.
Our role as mentors
Nature connection is the feeling of connectedness with nature. If we stay in nature, we can immediately experience this feeling.
Through sensory exercises, games, missions, routines, thanksgiving, hikes and community immersion, we can connect even more strongly.
You’ll be rewarded with a reduction in stress and depression, improved mood and self-esteem, and better sleep.
We should all strive to spend more time with nature as mentors to our children and to ourselves.
When are you starting?
