WILD WELLNESS
Nature-Connection and Recovery
“In the Wilderness, there is space for your fear and your grief, there is space for your Anger and your JOY , and there’s space for your tears. Bust most of all, in the WIlderness, there’s space for you to find your own sort of PEACE.” - Lance Garland
I’ve previously written about how, in my own healing transformational journey, that nature-connection played a vital role. Today, I’d like to explore some of the ways that science, and actual research, support the theory that indeed, connecting deeply with Nature can be a key component to unlocking a sustainable, lasting life lived in Recovery and Right Relationship with Self, Others and the Land.
First… What is Nature Connection?
The Culture in which most of us live our day to day lives in 2022, has moved further and further away from outer concepts and connections to the natural world all around us, than ever before. Being connected to nature implies being attuned to both the cycles of the natural world, amnd attuned and aligned to our own innate inner cycles and knowings.
Nature is Medicine and Medicine, is healing.
Nature-Connection Enhances Sensory Awareness
~When our senses come online…. we are much more able to make decisions from a place of clarity, and apt to see the world from a larger, less encumbered point of view.
Experiences in Nature are filled with variables that must be met as they arise.
~Fosters openness,agility and adaptability that in turn, builds up resilience in the face of adversity and the unknown.
Nature -Connection inspires Ritual and Ceremony
~In order to Transform, in essence to change mindset…. It requires Old patterns and Belief systems to be replaced. We have as humans, mechanisms in our brains that have evolved over time that involve Myth, Ritual and Ceremony to ingrain these stories into the very fiber of who we are. Rituals, are the practice of belief. Ceremony … is what we pay attention to as important.
To go into the WILDERNESS is to face the shadow of wild nature at it’s Source.
Connection to nature gifts us with a sense of Union with something that is lasting, that is of enormous importance, and is larger than individual self.
Connection to nature enhances Self-worth
~Wilderness is a metaphor for life. It boosts confidence, reduces anxiety and can reduce aggression.
Studies have confirmed that spending time among the trees can reduce psychological stress, depressive symptoms and hostility while also Improving sleep, increasing vigor and vitality, lowering levels of Cortisol,lowering blood pressure and heart rates.
~even being in in nature for short periods of time, or even having it within view can reduce the stress hormones and improve immune defense!
In FMRI studies, desirable views fire up opioid receptors in the brain ( parahippocampal gyrus)that have the potential to lead people to dwell less on negative memories, be better able to form emotional bonds and to focus more on the positive.
MORE Joy,contentment,vitality, interest and LOVE.
LESS Anger, resentment, guilt, fear shame and Melancholy.
I’d take an RX for that, hands down, any day!
Wild Wellness Nature Connection and Recovery Group coming soon to Anam Treo, LLC
Please email or direct message for more info!
