Humans evolved as an integral part of nature. It’s only in the last few centuries that the rational mind started seeing itself as separate from and superior to nature. I believe this perspective contributes to physical and mental health issues, emphasizing the importance of reconnecting with nature for our well-being.
“You must when contemplating nature,
Attend to this in every feature;
There is nought outside, and nought within,
For she is inside out and outside in.
Thus will you grasp with no delay,
The holy secret, clear as day
Love to find the true appearance
And in play the serious:
Each thing while it single seems,
Is many and mysterious”~ Goethe
A common history
In the past, humans didn’t always have the intellectual capacity they possess today. For tens of thousands of years, people could perceive living beings in nature. This developmental stage in human consciousness is expressed in the mythological stories of cultures worldwide.
Although in some cases these cultures developed on different continents far away from each other, if you strip away the colors and scents, the essence is very much similar. In all cultures man was part of nature. His blood connected to the fire, his lymph to streams and icebergs, his heartbeat to the sound of hooves as a herd of wild buffalo crossed a meadow.
It is only in the analytic, rational mind of the last couple of hundreds of years (which is less than a heartbeat in human history) that man sees himself as a separated being from nature. Looking at her from the outside and trying to understand nature and tame her.
The materialistic era
One of the consequences of the materialistic way in which we perceive the world around us is the way we perceive ourselves body, soul, and spirit.
From an early age you met with rules and expectations of how you should look, behave, think, and even feel. You might feel weighed down by baggage of what other people assume about you. Yet you try to fill the mold.
You wake up every morning, glance at the mirror while brushing your teeth, and see your face gazing back at you and ask yourself; who is that person? How did I end up here? And when, if ever, I will not have to climb another mountain, earn more money, have more… (you fill in)?
The rational mind
The culture in which you are raised worships the intellectual mind. The intellectual mind is great in creating a quantitative measured way of progressing from step one to step two all the way to fulfilling a quantitative goal. It’s a culture of competition because you can measure your success and failures in comparison to your friends and neighbors.
In this culture, you are separated from nature, from your fellow human beings, and yourself. This feeling of separation is why you feel so disconnected from your body. It is why you feel the need to delegate the authority over your well-being to “experts.”
The struggle to survive modern life
Finally, modern culture holds the view that life should be a constant struggle. While pain and loss are part of life, they should not be your default condition. Pain and loss play a role as incentives for change and spiritual growth, but they keep you in the fight or flight response of your brain.
When you align yourself with the natural flow of nature without and within yourself, you open the door to abundance and ease.
“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” ~Albert Einstein
Your heart
Deep in your heart you know that there is another way. You just feel like you lost the path, took a detour, and never found your way back.
Like any mother, mother Earth is ready to nourish you. She is willing to sacrifice her well being for her children. But the mother and the child are not separated. They are one. As such, if one is to be healed so must the other.
The garden is a great place to reconnect to mother Nature and to yourself. If you have your own garden, set aside some time to sit in there and reflect. If you live in an apartment you can adopt a couple of potted plants, or go to sit in a park.
Ready to start a herb garden but not sure where to start? For the past 12 years I spent my summer on my own large scale herb garden. Let me tell you I got plenty tips to pass on.
I invite you to my program Stress Gut & The Immune System to learn how to reduce stress when connecting with herbs.
You can use these observations to look back in the mirror and find yourself as you are reflected from the plants. In your heart you are one. Let them guide you back to the eyes of the heart.
