Stressful, survival-focused living focuses our minds on narrow, linear thinking. Yet to address the problems of our current time and to live fulfilled lives, we need to expand that perspective.
When we step out into nature, we expand how we see the world. Our peripheral vision expands and adjusts when we spend time outside; this is both a literal and metaphorical fact.
When you spend time outside, observing your surroundings, you notice the clouds, the leaves, and the sounds. You feel different emotions when you are in front of your computer vs when you observe a park or a hillside.
Picture the last time you were in an open, wild space. Can you see the curved shapes of hills or waves, cyclical patterns of flowers or stones?
Can you remember how it made you feel when your eyes moved across the landscape? Did you feel something inside of you expand?
You cannot sit at the ocean for any length of time and stare at the waves without knowing that every wave has an ebb and a flow.
Every low tide is not the end of waves forever.
No one runs out to the ocean, screaming at the last wave,
“Don’t go, I need you. This can’t be the end. Come back.
I need you.
I need this wave,
this job,
this relationship,
this way of life.”
No, we don’t shout at the waves because that would be crazy.
Instead we shout at each other. We shout at the people who make waves for us.
We shout at each other because a virus can’t hear us shouting at it. The virus isn’t bothered by how upset we are that it turned our lives upside down.
The virus came from nature. I don’t want you to hate nature for what has happened, but what if you went out there and talked to Mother Nature about how you’re feeling.
Maybe its time you found a wide expanse of nature and told her what you’re really upset about. Maybe its time you shouted at the waves about how you’re scared about what will happen next.
Maybe its time you let your anger or fear spill out into the waves or the sky. And let the waves and wind take it away and watch the waves come back again.
You know it feels good to scream, cry, or laugh and let all those pent up emotions out.
The ocean doesn’t mind if you throw your troubles into her.
Is society in a low tide right now? Are we waiting for the tide to come back in? Are you worried if the wave will ever return?
When you aren’t sure if you can trust humans or believe in them anymore. When humanity has broken your heart too many times and you’re not sure if you are willing to give people a chance again. When you’re tired of reading another heartless, selfish, greedy comment, take your attention elsewhere.
Take yourself outside and sit with the natural world.
Mother Nature can handle your disappointment- she’s seen it all. Nature can handle the depths of feeling and your fears.
Sit with the wild outdoors (wherever you can get to and see nature’s face) and set your problems down.
Speak your concerns or write them. Or visualize dumping all your feelings into the water, into the earth to let it wash away.
Sit as long as you’re able and let the presence of a power greater than your take over. Sit until you feel that you are connected to more than yourself. Sit until you know that you’ll be ok.
When you sit with the immense, eternal force of the natural world, you can connect to it within yourself too.
Let the rhythm, beauty, and power of nature remind you that all of those qualities reside within you as well. Let nature support you by reminding you of how capable you are.