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nature connecting:
"FREE" Activity

The most memorable moments in Nature are those that generate a multitude of good feelings around and within you. Come to EcoPlace to learn an objective, process of making nameless sensory contact with Earth in natural areas that enhance wellness and joy.

nature connecting enhances wellness

Christina Brittain, ecopsychologist and vision~wisdom guide, helps individuals and small groups experience the rewards of Nature through Nature Connecting processes and hands-on activities. See Wellness Offerings on Site Index (Left)

nature connecting most often begins with the activity of Respecting Nature - Rewarding Self as it offers many participants their first life-enhancing experience in Nature. It is designed to enhance wellness and joy with the hope it will inspire additional activities. The activity is below.

Respecting Nature - Rewarding Self

Just imagine how much happier life on Earth might be if we humans learned to overcome our personal, environmental, and social disharmony. Our problems do not exist in natural systems or nature-centered people. They result from our excessive separation from nature and the disruptive effect it has on our naturally peaceful relationships and thoughts.

Our efforts to live harmoniously with Earth are often unsuccessful because our estrangement from Nature gets in the way, producing apathy, resistance to change, and prejudices at all levels. This is a problem that begs a solution; and a proven solution is activities that reconnect us to Nature around and within. They enable us to create and share moments that encourage Nature's wisdom to touch and teach us.

Purpose:

This activity encourages you to take the first step in treating Earth and Nature with respect and as a friend rather than as something to abuse or exploit; and to help you discover immediate outcomes of treating Earth, nature, and your inner spirit justly and with respect.

Object:

Obtain consent to visit a natural area or natural thing and to experience the good feelings it has to give you.

Procedure:

1. Before going to a natural area, notice how you feel.

Then go to a natural area, such as a park, backyard, or aquarium...or even a pet or potted plant will do. Let it welcome you, and consciously, feelingly connect you to it.

Just like thirst naturally pulls you to water, or contact with water often makes you thirsty, the Earth community draws you to it through cohesive sensations that feel good. The more natural an area or thing is, the more worthwhile the results of this activity will be, so a  goldfish may help you more than a pristine wilderness if it's more attractive to you.

2. Thank the natural area or thing for being there for you. Thank it for safely activating good feelings in you through the evolutionary connections you both share.

3. Recognize that as part of the Earth community, justifiably, the natural area or thing desires and has just as much right to exist, to build beneficial relationships with all that surrounds it, and to thrive as as you do.

4. Now, increase your respect for its integrity by gaining for its permission to visit. Do this by letting your attention wander through the area or from feature to feature of the natural thing until you settle on an attraction that arouses good, supportive feelings within you.

When a positive attraction becomes apparent to you, silently or aloud, ask the area or thing's consent to be there. The area will show you a positive attraction if it is prepared to welcome you.

It will not show you a positive attraction if it senses you are going to injure, destroy, or defame it, or if it will not be safe for you to stay there. Negative relationships are not attractive. Promise the area or object that you will treat it honorably.

5. Sense the area for 10 seconds or more in respectful silence. Be aware of negative signals from stress, discouragement, or danger from it, such as thorns, bees, or unpleasant memories, thoughts, or feelings.

A. When the 10 seconds are up, note whether the attraction is still positive to you. If so, it means that the area or object has consented to your visit through your many inborn connections to Nature. Each positive attraction is Nature signaling consent for your presence. Proceed to Step-6.

B. If the attraction has stopped giving you good feelings, or the area or object no longer feels welcoming to you, give thanks it for its guidance and simply select another natural area and repeat the gaining permission process. Do this until you find an area and positive attraction that sustains good feelings in you.

The most rewarding and memorable moments in Nature are those that reward you with a multitude of good feelings on a variety of sensory levels.

6. As soon as you gain an area or thing's permission to visit, genuinely thank it for giving consent.

7. Ask yourself how you feel about the natural area or object now compared to how you felt when you first made contact with it. Has any change occurred because you gained its consent and thanked it for giving you good feelings? Does the area feel better or friendlier to you? Do you find it more rewarding now than you did before? Do you feel better about yourself?

If gaining permission to visit a natural area rewards you, repeat the activity. Remember that Nature exists in people because you are part of Nature.

Remember, too, that thankfully asking permission and gaining consent to relate to people will help you build more rewarding relationships with them. Asking people's permission to interact with them naturally increases their respect for you in the present moment and in the future.

8. Learn to trust the positive feelings you get from Nature because they are safe, supportive, Earth-linked, sustainable, in balance, and enhance wellness and joy.

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