The Healing Power of Nature: Connecting with the Great Outdoors
Just last week I went on a 7 day roadtrip with my boyfriend and two of my closest friends and we spent quite a bit of time being in and exploring the great outdoors. Driving up the west coast from San Diego to Seattle, we got to see almost every element nature has to offer, and it was healing in so many ways.
I can say that I felt called to be in the trees, to really appreciate the mountains, and to allow the water to nourish my soul. Even just looking out the boxy van windows was a spiritual experience and I felt incredibly small while also held and loved by the planet.
We spent a lot of time under the stars, considering what might be hidden behind them, and really started to recognize how basking in the moonlight (we even canoed on a volcano under the supermoon!), forest bathing, and grounding in the grass could totally change our perspectives.
Brooklyn and I decided to do some tree hugging in the Redwoods, which if you haven’t yet been to see these wonders I highly recommend everyone experience them. They are some of the tallest and oldest trees on the planet, so they have many stories to tell. Spending time holding them and hugging them was a unique experience, you can feel their energy radiating against you. I can compare this presence to the feeling of hugging an old friend or a close relative, which is healing on many different levels.
We also spent many mornings with our dawgs (toes) in the grass, practicing the art of grounding. This has many benefits including honoring our inner child, bringing us to the present moment, and helping eliminate free radicals. Walking barefoot, being near the ocean or a waterfall, or forest bathing are introducing us to elements that create negative ions which get absorbed into the body and can neutralize disease-promoting free radicals.
As an aside, I just wanted to introduce the topic of free radicals as we will be discussing them again in the future! These atoms are unstable, as they have an unpaired electron, and are connected to many diseases and aging in humans. The reason they are dangerous is because they steal electrons from vital parts of cells in our body like DNA, proteins, or cell membranes, thus beginning the breakdown of our health.
Here is a list of some items in our everyday lives that include free radicals:
Fried foods & processed foods
Alcohol
Pesticides
Air pollutants
Tobacco smoke
This is one of the most influential healing powers of nature, so next time you see a plot of grass (bonus points if its dewy) or you’re near a body of water, take those shoes off and spend some time walking or standing with your feet on the bare earth. Those negatively charged ions will bind to free radicals in your body, and although we will always have these floating around, we can make little actions to minimize their effects.
Doing this is also enriching for your spirit as we reconnect to the planet that works really hard to keep us alive and helps to expand our appreciation for every single thing that had to happen for us to be here today. It’s magic really.
I often stand dawgs out in my backyard first thing in the morning and I take the first 10 minutes of my day to announce my gratitude to the universe, as well as to get clear on my affirmations. Bringing it back to my last post, I also do something silly or playful to start my day off with some laughter, making the conscious choice to tap into the little child within me. If you are looking for ways to be more playful, please read my previous post “July’s Purposeful Pursuit”.
Another way that nature heals us is through nervous system regulation. Being in the “flight, fight, or freeze” response (otherwise known as our sympathetic nervous system) can be extremely jarring on our overall health and wellbeing. One of the biggest causes of disease and illness in humans is inflammation, with all but two of the leading causes of death in the US being attributed to it, with stress (& excess cortisol) being strongly linked to inflammation. However, taking time to be in nature is one way to help elicit positive emotions (as mentioned throughout this post) which helps to stimulate our vagus nerve and bring us our of this “red zone”.
There will be a lot more information shared on the topic of nervous system regulation, as this is not only a topic I want to focus on in my health coaching practice, but it is something that I am using every single day to change my life. So, I greatly recommend starting your day off in nature at whatever capacity you can, whether it is standing in the sunshine, grounding in the grass, or looking at and appreciating a few things in your outdoor environment.
The photo I included at the beginning of this post was taken under the stars in Seaside Beach, Oregon. You can see our camper van, some real bushy bushes, and a lot of incredible stars. Even if you are sitting in your house on a gloomy day, I encourage you to fish out an old photo you’ve taken in nature, or even google one, and really spend time recognizing what it has to offer us.
It can be easy to take our surroundings for granted since it’s all we’ve ever known. That same path of trees down your driveway, the same drive by the lake on your way to work, the same mountain behind your child’s school. But I encourage you to look at these things like you were a child, full of wonder and amazement at literally everything around you. A child runs through the grass barefoot, jumps through the sprinkler with glee, catches fireflies on the mountain under the moonlight. Let’s normalize being those inner children as much as possible and allowing nature to do its authentic thing, which is to nourish and heal us. You will be surprised what you see and feel if you do.
Lots of love,
H