I was first awakened to the power of nature as a gateway to a pure joy that is hard to find anywhere else less than a decade ago. Not that I haven’t always appreciated odd moments of it - the warmth of the sun on my face; inhaling great lungs full of fresh air; green leaves against the sky beyond; the sheer awe inspired by the mountains or the sea. But it was on meeting my now husband, a nature lover, nearly seven years ago that I really became aware of just how life affirming nature is. How it removes you from yourself and your own worries and connects you with something so much bigger and more wondrous. And how, at the same time as removing you from yourself, it connects you with something deep inside of yourself and brings you right into the here and now.
I saw in him and gradually began to experience for myself, the restorative power of being attentive to the natural world. And on my journey of discovering mindfulness, cultivating awareness, reconnecting with your senses and learning to just be, I’ve often found myself craving more and more time in the natural world. So I was drawn to Clare Thompson’s book, Mindfulness and the Natural World. Reading the first chapter last night struck a few chords. She describes how as a teenager she felt trapped in the sea of thoughts that ran through her mind and how, believing that, as she had been taught at school, if she analysed and understood everything she was feeling or thinking then she would find a solution. But of course, while problem solving and analytical thought are fantastic for some purposes, in other situations, when it comes to finding the meaning of or purpose for your life for example, it is useless.
She describes how the natural world freed her from this from time to time, but it never stopped the questioning and searching for answers. That is where the mindfulness comes in. The power of noticing, what you are thinking, what your body feel’s like, what your emotions are, what’s around you, but with no judgement, no expectations and no need to change anything. And in those moments, the joy of being alive and part of something so much greater than ourselves, is the sole purpose of life.
I saw in him and gradually began to experience for myself, the restorative power of being attentive to the natural world. And on my journey of discovering mindfulness, cultivating awareness, reconnecting with your senses and learning to just be, I’ve often found myself craving more and more time in the natural world. So I was drawn to Clare Thompson’s book, Mindfulness and the Natural World. Reading the first chapter last night struck a few chords. She describes how as a teenager she felt trapped in the sea of thoughts that ran through her mind and how, believing that, as she had been taught at school, if she analysed and understood everything she was feeling or thinking then she would find a solution. But of course, while problem solving and analytical thought are fantastic for some purposes, in other situations, when it comes to finding the meaning of or purpose for your life for example, it is useless.
She describes how the natural world freed her from this from time to time, but it never stopped the questioning and searching for answers. That is where the mindfulness comes in. The power of noticing, what you are thinking, what your body feel’s like, what your emotions are, what’s around you, but with no judgement, no expectations and no need to change anything. And in those moments, the joy of being alive and part of something so much greater than ourselves, is the sole purpose of life.