What does it mean to feel a connection with nature?
It means gaining an insight into the most important network there ever has been and ever will be. It means being aware of our relationship with this network. It means expecting a fascinating and enriching experience each time we step outside. And it means embarking on a journey that leads towards the realisation that every single thing that we have found interesting up to this point in our lives has its roots in this network we call nature. Health, business, politics, sports, sex, violence and culture: all subsets of nature.
A connection with nature allows us to see the roots that sustain and explain everything around us. The interest we find in a place is intimately tied to the history of that place and how far back we look. Many people focus on what has taken place during the past week, some two hundred years, but we can look back millions of years if we choose to. Politicians may like to warm themselves by focusing on the belief that they are arguing in the Houses of Parliament because they are very important representatives of the People. They only see the last pages of the book; if they flipped back to earlier chapters they would see that they are just Homo sapiens, a species that needs a lot of water to thrive and migrates towards rivers to form colonies.
In 1943, the American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a theory based around a human hierarchy of needs. He suggested that healthy development follows a sequence that progresses from the most basic needs, like food and shelter, towards more complex and emotional ones, like respect and self-esteem. It is an idea that is mirrored in the steps necessary to form a deep connection with nature.
Our ancestors must have subconsciously appreciated that a discussion about self-esteem was a low priority if they were starving and suffering from frostbite. Busy, ‘sophisticated’ modern humans allow themselves to believe that these earlier, lower stages in the hierarchy are in the past, of little relevance to our lives today. But this is a mistake; if we are looking to make a profound connection with our environment we cannot start at the top. Some of the first areas to explore are the practical ways that we can reconnect with nature.
For the majority of us it is possible to experience a deep sense of joy in doing something new. This desire for novelty may no longer be vital in terms of survival, but it is essential if we want to think differently. This is because there are some basic actions that can bypass our modern and artificial obstacles to thinking. It does not take a huge change in lifestyle to achieve this joy; small actions introduced to a modern routine can have the desired effect. The simple act of using the sun or moon to prevent yourself from becoming disoriented as you drive to a new friend’s home, for instance, is a more important experience than many might have guessed.
Sheltering from the wind in a hollow, eating wild berries or curing an ailment with a leaf are no longer necessary physically; we can buy products to overcome these challenges instead. But to achieve a connection with nature they are wonderful early steps. Ludicrously simple acts with obvious consequences can offer surprising philosophical rewards. Walking towards the sound of water gurgling in a stream when thirsty, instead of thinking about a tap or bottle, can open up new thought patterns. A basic new action can blow away some of the sophistries that get in the way of profound insight. This is an idea that has been central for Buddhists for centuries, but which remains important to all of us, regardless of our personal religion or philosophy. That is the whole point of doing it.
New actions inevitably lead to new experiences, and this novelty kicks our senses out of the slump induced by routine. This in turn raises our levels of awareness. One of the peculiar consequences of starting to notice new things is that we cannot help but notice how little we have noticed so far.
Once we notice something that until now has slipped past us, our minds are likely to develop a voracious appetite for more. We will not be satisfied with a morsel, but find ourselves urging our senses on to devour all the things out there that we have overlooked. And unlike so many urges to binge, this desire is healthy. Heightened awareness is one of the few mind-altering ‘substances’which lends itself to excess without redress.
The way to satisfy this craving is to get to know our senses and then work with them, tuning them, giving them a good workout and then unleashing them on new areas. Ask someone, ideally someone you trust, to lead you on a blindfolded walk. Then remove the blindfold and attempt to draw the landscape you walked through. The act of using your senses in a new way and drawing, whether or not ypu consider yourself an artist, will lead to a new sensory awareness. If that sounds like too much effort to start with, then just try walking into an open outdoor space and lying on the ground for ten minutes.
Our senses soon reward their new fitness. We start to notice new beauty. Things that once hid behind the great veil of busyness stand out. It is as though a mist has cleared. We see shapes and colours that can’t possibly have been around us all along. Can they?
Our senses repay us in so many surprising ways. We become aware of the way things change and react. It is so much easier to connect with someone or something that reacts to you. Just like you react to other people or things around you, nature too reacts to your presence. If you are dressed in blue, you can change the way a plant grows, while if you wear red, you will influence its timekeeping. The changes in a plant that result from our choice of clothing may be imperceptible to us, but the knowledge that they are reacting can change the way we perceive them.
Reference books:
Kalampedia 