“Nature is the best medicine for serenity. Peace. Quiet. Silence. It is good for the heart. "~ Karen Madwell
I was looking for a way to stop being obsessed with the future. I had lived my adult life as an underground musician and it had been wonderful for the most part. The thing is, it wasn't good for me anymore.
I was worried on stage. I felt very uncomfortable with so many people looking at me. I had changed as a person, and yet I kept performing even though I hated it.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever done things that you hate because you identify so strongly with what you are doing? If I wasn't a "musician" as I would have been all my adult life, what would I be? It felt like I was nothing at all.
As I tried out various new music projects, I became increasingly aware that anything that would come true creatively (if at all) would inevitably make me think about it and send myself into a dream world of scenarios in which I would be the center was from everything. Maybe that's why I kept singing: I wanted to "be special".
In my fantasy (which was extremely active) singing always seemed to be so important, and after each performance I only remembered the fun parts (of which there were plenty too, don't get me wrong). Then the next time I would go on stage and think, "What am I doing here?"
The awareness that I let dreams and fantasies rule my life was not profound, it was just a product of growing older and thinking, do I really want to live like this for the rest of my life? I was looking for ways I could enjoy the here and now a little more. Ways to appreciate life as it actually happened, rather than a few years later through filtered, warped, and romanticized memories.
I have never meditated or done anything that I would have previously ignored as "hippie junk". I had read something about mindful breathing somewhere.
I didn't know anything about mindfulness, but I got the impression that it was something that middle-class people did a lot besides their yoga. I wasn't referring to this picture at all. Little did I know that it was simply a tool to watch for what was happening.
Then one day I focused on my breath while walking my dog Euro in the local park. Suddenly everything was alive. The world was just beautiful.
At that moment, I was just concentrating on what I could see and feel, going back to the basics I remember when I was a very small child. The hair was up on the back of my neck (and all over) and I couldn't stop grinning.
Several blackbirds pushed their jerky, judgmental eyes out from under some bushes, swayed for worms and carefully looked at me as I passed. I didn't just see a bird and walked on. I saw strange, beaked, winged creatures flying through this land – singing to boot! (If birds existed only in myth and folklore, they would make elves and unicorns appear positively boring.)
As I walked through the park I was in a quiet ecstasy, grinning at everything around me and occasionally wondering if I was looking at others like I was taking serious happy pills (but not much what other people thought ).
I did not see any trees and did not go any further. I saw wood beings, some hundreds of years older than me, growing out of the ground with leaves and petals soaring into the sky. Why we were there together exchanging gases was a beautiful mystery.
About a year after this experience and others who like it, I realized that I was practicing “ecotherapy” or “nature therapy” that day, although I did not know anything about these terms at the time. I've since trained as an ecotherapist to help other people find that amazing connection with nature and that's honestly something I would never have seen five years ago.
When I grew up, I somehow forgot what nature meant to me as a child. I think most of us are deeply connected to nature as kids, yet we get easily distracted by it as we get older. I don't think I'm unique in this regard.
One day when I was seven or eight years old I was allowed to set my alarm clock for the early morning hours. I went to the local park with a notebook and pen to see what animals I could find.
I saw my first hedgehog and it felt like I was meeting a visitor from another dimension. I just couldn't believe that there was this unique, prickly creature in front of me, living completely independently, carrying on with its strange little life in bushes and dirt. I still feel a sense of awe when I remember that moment and see it curl up in the early morning dew.
I grew up a real city boy in the suburbs of Liverpool, England. Somehow, as a teenager, I did what many of us did and I was so busy trying to figure out who I am that for decades I neglected what was happening on earth around me! I was having mostly fun, but I spent so much of my life in fantasy y and living in honor of something called an "Identity " that I forgot how important nature was to me.
The earth is a wonderland. The variety of life we encounter (and often ignore) every day is staggering. Creatures that crawl, fly, and talk are everywhere. The vibrant colors of giant plants growing from tiny seeds are just amazing (in the traditional sense of the word "awe")!
It has taken me years to comfortably step away from a life of music and do the things in life that I do now. I think that changing our callings in life is always, to some extent, associated with grief. we connect and identify with the things we do naturally.
Nature taught me to enjoy, not be the center of attention, just enjoy the feeling of being a part of this beautiful world and it is such a relief! We are tiny and yet we are miraculous at the same time. I don't have to do things that make me anxious when I'm in control to stop.
More about ecotherapy / natural therapy
The term "nature therapy" is used synonymously with the term "ecotherapy", but they refer to the same thing. In short, ecotherapy refers to therapies and activities that consciously aim to improve our mental health and wellbeing through connection with nature. It is a broad umbrella term.
Some ecotherapists may be qualified psychotherapists who offer counseling in the open air, while others focus on helping people create art or poetry inspired by nature. Some ecotherapists run gardening groups, and there are many more approaches! Ecotherapy is 100 percent something you can do for yourself. it is actually very easy!
For me personally, the most powerful ecotherapy exercises are based on mindfulness (it was this kind of work that changed my life and that's why I have to feel that way)! Here are three simple exercises that have been amazing to me personally and I hope they will help you find a deeper connection with nature.
1. Look at the new.
Take a walk in a place you go often and pay attention to your normal habits. Pay close attention to your walking habits: How often do you pay attention to the same things in your environment without conscious awareness. Purposely shift your attention each time you notice that your attention is focused on a habitual place. What new things do you notice around you?
2. Use your senses.
Find an outdoor area in which you feel comfortable and safe. With your eyes closed, focus on your senses, especially sounds, smells and the feeling of the air on your skin. After a few minutes, open your eyes and take in the color and sights around you. How does it feel? (Please note, if you have sensory impairments, simply adjust the task so that it works best for you. This exercise can be effective with all of the senses you use.)
3. Note that nature is reclaiming space.
Take a city walk that is a lot of concrete and look for weeds and wildflowers popping through the sidewalk and walls. How often can you discern the nature that appears through the cracks? How does it feel to notice?
Nature is not separate from us. We are a part of nature too, and I hope that these simple exercises will help you feel that connection. When all else fails, just spend a little time outdoors or even open a window if you have restrictions on going outside. Remember to pay attention to what's going on out there!
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