Here are the basics: we are literally made of the Earth, you need to look up and down, and our personal seasons mirror Mother Nature’s. For details read on. 

WE ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF THE EARTH

When you think about how we are literally composed of the same elements of the Earth, the same elements as the stars, you can’t help but smile. Going deeper, this can really extenuate our connectedness to the Earth. The Earth holds our ancestors–both those that have passed in recent years, but also those who have come thousands, even millions of years before us. Understanding and honoring this connection can really bring you closer in touch with nature. Sit with that for a while, and see what revelations or remembrance it brings.  

AWARENESS OF THE SEASONS

No matter if you live in a more moderate climate, or a place with four distinct seasons, as the wheel of the year turns, we flow through each season in nature. But as we move through and approach the coming seasons, it is important to bring your awareness not only to the temperature, but what is going on in the world around you and within you. Seasons have the ability to change our mood, influence our lives and alter our perspectives. It is important to understand what season signifies:

1. Spring: A time of great transition, rebirth, awakening, vitality

2. Summer: A time of light, play, warmth, expression, full immersion of the senses.

3. Fall: Another time of great transition, harvest, celebration, bounty, abundance.

4. Winter: A time of deep rest and relaxation, death and letting go, tuning inward.

Taking our relationship with seasons one step further, it’s important to note our own personal seasons and how they may or may not align with the season’s of nature. Take a moment to reflect on the seasons of your life–day to day, week to week, month to month, season to season, and year to year. How can you match your life to be more in alignment with the seasons of nature?

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LOOK UP?

As humans in society today, it is barely necessary to truly look up and look down. We easily glide through life really only needing to look straight ahead with the occasional glance downward or upward. But this was not the reality of our ancestors. We needed to look up to read the skies, follow birds, track the stars and the cosmos; we needed to look down to tend seeds, track animals, find wood…

In our present reality, take the time to look up and look down daily. These exercises are not only good for your brain, but for you relationship with nature. Look up and watch the birds, pay attention to the shape of the clouds, the alignment of the stars. Look down and watch the ants marching by so perfectly and strong, watch the blades of grass rustle in the wind. I promise you, your relationship with nature will open wide if you just take the time to observe. 

GROUNDING

I talk about grounding, or earthing a lot. By now, most of us are familiar with what the practice is—allowing ourselves to physically connect with nature.

Every morning without fail, I walk barefoot on the Earth. Every evening we play barefoot outside for hours. Why do I make a point to do this every single day?

Researchers conducted a study using instrumentation that allowed them to see changes in brain waves, neuromuscular function, and a few other parameters when human subjects were put in physical contact (shoes off standing in nature) with the earth. What they found was that restoring the natural electrical potential of the earth to the human body (grounding, or earthing) RAPIDLY affects human electrophysiological and physiological parameters. The extreme rapidity of these changes indicates a physical/bioelectrical mechanism rather than a biochemical change. In plain English, what they found were major reductions in overall stress levels, tension, autonomic balance, system-wide relaxation, clearer judgement, intuitive process, and perceiving the whole.

In other words, grounding, or physically connecting with nature, is one of the best things to bring your entire being back into alignment. Grounding can be as simple as taking your shoes off and standing the grass on your lunch break, or heading into the woods for the weekend to camp on the land. Whatever it is, this is a daily practice that should be integrated by all.

CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

As we move into a society that is now making tons of money selling organic-this and environmentally friendly-that, let us remember the essential connection between stewardship to the Earth and our own healing journey. By now, most of us know that consciously creating a green lifestyle is the single most powerful way to make a difference in the future of life on Earth, and for our personal health. But we often resist these important lifestyle changes for whatever reason. In my own life, in addition to teaching others about seasonal living, I have found that when my sustainable habits are imbued with spiritual awareness, I am much more likely to make and maintain the essential lifestyle changes required to respond to the environmental crisis.

Sustainable living offers us the infinite opportunity to practice spiritual mindfulness. Each eco-friendly act—conserving water, composting, recycling, eco-friendly shopping—is also an act of spiritual mindfulness. 

Indeed, it is mindfulness that transforms the mundane into the sacred. Turning the compost becomes a weekly round of Earth awareness, the water saved during a rainstorm become moments of gratitude, and limiting our waste becomes an offering to clean air and water. Sustainable living helps us to simplify our lives and re-prioritize what matters to us most—family, community and a radiant time here on Earth. 

For many of us, our connection with the Earth reawakens our soul and imbues us with a sense of the sacred. Often some of our deepest personal healing takes place through our relationship with the natural world. But this subversive split—the desire to be healed by nature while we continue to harm it by living unsustainably—can never lead to genuine, whole healing. 

I have found that it’s not so much the scary statistics that re-inspire one’s connection to Earth, but rather something much more personal that links us to the soul of the Earth. This connection may take place during an experience of natural beauty—the pink radiance of sunset, the dark tumbling clouds of a summer storm, the delicate blossoms amidst the harsh desert landscape, the endless glow of a full harvest moon, or the emotional cleanse that comes from swimming in water. These are moments when we lucidly understand that a part of our sanity as human beings utterly depends on our relationship with the natural world. 

Sometimes this essential link between psyche and planet occurs as our chosen spiritual practice strengthens our connection to the whole. Recognizing that we can’t separate from something of which we are a part, we begin to understand the fundamental relationship between our personal suffering and the Earth’s suffering. When we deaden our feelings about the planet’s crisis, we also deaden our souls. The more we try to isolate from the suffering of the natural world, the more we suffer. By contrast, the more we open our hearts to feel the pain, the more connected, courageous and alive we feel. As we awaken our caring for the Earth, there is a concurrent blossoming of compassion in other areas of our life— for family, colleagues, and community. For many of us compassion is the most effective doorway into sustainable living. Once we care deeply about something, then we want to take action.

We as humans have a unique responsibility to share and pass on this connection to nature. Our children and the next generations are like sponges, absorbing all of our practices both “good” and “bad” and learning how to navigate the world.

Questions? Comments? Please share them below.