When I feel connected, I love life. Conversely, when I feel disconnected, I feel lonely, lost, depressed, and anxious. When I’m disconnected, I don’t feel so lovable, and life doesn’t feel loving. When I’m in this disconnected state, there are things that help kick me back into feeling connected - with myself, with others, with nature, with Source. In this post, I’m going to focus on how connecting with the natural world (and our own nature) helps bring back and/ or maintain the universally necessary state of connection.

In her blog How to Deeply Connect your Body with Nature, Bess O’Connor states that:

The first step in connecting your body with nature is realizing you are nature—not separate from, but an integral part of it all. 

She reasons that: “…everything in the outer universe is a reflection of our consciousness and our body. The percentage of water on the planet, for example, reflects the same percentage of water in our bodies…” Just that alone reminds me that I am nature. Just that alone reminds me that I am connected.

Bess’ blog also speaks to how spending time in nature “could be the difference between health and sickness”. Whether we’re talking physical, mental, emotional or other health, I agree that we’re better off when we spend regular time outdoors. Spending some time in the natural world, every day, helps maintain a state of wellbeing.

I can attest that, when my spirits are ‘down’, being in nature changes me. There are many days I feel sluggish, heavy - even borderline depressed. When I feel that way, I want to stay in the house, alone, and burrow down. I end up binging on Coconut Bliss ice cream and a Netflix series. Sometimes I tell myself ‘I’m tired’ and ‘I deserve a day off’, and sometimes I am and I do. Sometimes it goes on too long, though, and I need to kick myself out of the house!

When I rise above the lure of going into a stupor - when I walk out the door and spend time in nature - I become happy, friendly… peaceful. That 2-hours or so gives me energy. It clears my head. It grounds me. Walking among the trees, immersing myself in water, breathing in fresh air, touching the earth with bare feet… brings me back to my natural self. I feel more ‘real’. I feel ‘alive’. The difference - between who I was and how I felt before going out, compared to who I am and how I feel after I’ve been out - is blatantly obvious to me. I am by far a healthier and better person for having communed with the natural world.

There are amazing tips and tools I’ve heard, tried, experienced, and use - to feel connected. One is: imagining my energetic body extending from my feet into the ground - even through pavement. My energetic body connects with the earth and I say to her “I love you”. We are connected with every step. I can feel her smiling - beaming! The earth loves when we connect with her! If you can, stand bare foot on the earth for some time every day.

In a similar vein, it is powerful to sit against a tree to meditate. Close your eyes and imagine the tree, rooted into the ground. Imagine your energetic body, also rooting into the ground. Under the ground, the tree roots, your roots, the critters in the earth… they’re all entwined - connecting. And here too, you may feel how joyful the earth is that you are connected with it all.

Being by water is another way to feel cleansed and connected. If you can, immerse yourself in cool water - cool enough to feel your skin tingle. Stay in the water long enough to let it wash away your stress and worries. Stay long enough to feel the water holding you, comforting you, welcoming you. Stay long enough to feel a part of the water.

If you can’t get outside, can you open your window? If you can’t, do you have plants in your place? Is there a tree nearby? Breathe in and breathe out. Know that your exhale is being breathed in by the plant world. Plants breathe in carbon dioxide. Then, they breathe out oxygen and nitrogen. Consider that you are breathing in oxygen that was breathed out by a plant. Think of a particular plant or tree, and imagine you are exchanging breaths with it. Do this until you feel the connection between the two of you.

How do you commune with the natural world? What helps you remember that nature is in you and that you are nature? How do you feel before and after this?