Wellness in the Woods
Nature Immersion for Improved Mental & Emotional Wellbeing
All therapeutic processes can be experienced outside. Nature-based practices offer a variety of therapeutic benefits that support mental and emotion health outcomes, and the opportunity to feel calmer, content, clear, and renewed.
These practices include everything from journaling, hiking, and foraging to stretching, sit spot, artistic expression, and guided imagery. The idea is to participate in the present moment to induce a relaxed mind and body.
Mindfulness plays an important role in the facilitation of therapeutic modalities in nature. Bringing mindful awareness to our present moment experience, and focusing attention on the felt sensations in the body (physical and emotional) creates space to explore and accept concerns, and also gain new insights about what might be the best way to make meaningful change.
Focusing on sounds in the present moment like the birds chirping, the wind blowing or water flowing in a stream, relaxes us physiologically. This also gives us space to notice bodily sensations, feelings, and create language to (partially) describe our current lived experience. Abram (1996) says “through the senses… we can begin to locate ourselves again within the wider ecological matrix of which we are a part” (p. 64). The medicine is in the senses, in the body.
Making contact and engaging with the natural world inspires somatic communication, not only between humans, but also with the wild around us. It can evoke emotions which can then be explored as part of the therapeutic process. Think empathy, and gaining deeper understanding to help improve our relationships.
Nature immersion practices are simple to begin. Start by bringing awareness to the unfolding nature of life itself including the seasons, cycles, directions, and temporary processes that we are all inherently embedded in.
I like to think of it as the “larger than life mindset” because it reminds us that the world is bigger than us, and we are a part of an ever-changing tapestry. I was inspired by Jordan’s writing “Working with the Seasons” when he says “the idea of the self as existing within seasonal process reflects back the idea that we are not static in terms of state of mind or our ability to transcend difficulties” (p. 71). Becoming familiar with the seasons is one way nature reminds us that things change, and life can always make a turn for the better.
See you in the woods,
Brittany
