One of the most profound changes I have made in life life in the last couple of years is my interaction with nature. This takes many shapes and forms such as just a mindful stroll or possibly a barefoot walk and yes even giving a tree a good hug. Even the creme de la creme a nice wild camp! All these this have turned my life around (once I recognised the importance). I get out in nature everyday in one form or another even if it's just my cycle to work. Now I kinda have to cycle as I don't have a piece of paper the says I can drive; technically I don't need a piece of paper to allow me but that's another post folks. To be honest though I don't want to drive, my cycle on the morning is cracking and keeps my body in good shape as a bonus.
Interacting with nature is the best thing you can do in my opinion, I do think that in ten years or so doctors will be recommending time in nature like they do you're five a day now! In a article in the Guardian (sorry to quote from the propaganda but this time they are right on this one; they do occasionally promote good knowledge just not on the main spread pages)
The finding is based on interviews with 20,000 people in England about their activity in the previous week. Of those who spent little or no time in nature, a quarter reported poor health and almost half said they were not satisfied with their life, a standard measure of wellbeing. In contrast, just one-seventh of those who spent at least two hours in nature said their health was poor, while a third were not satisfied with their life.
“What really amazed us was this was true for just about every group we could think of,” said Dr Mathew White, at the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the study. The benefits of a two-hour dose were the same for both young and old, wealthy and poor, and urban and rural people, he said.
Read for yourself
Now for my degree my dissertation was on the effects of horticulture on mental health. I found massive correlations and am trying to promote this into my working practice. In my opinion though the best way to promote something is it actively do it and show the benefits this way. Back to how I enjoy it though... basically my energy has risen and I feel so much calmer. Not only that though my life is getting improving things are going how I want and lives stresses are effecting my less and less!
Then there is the barefoot walking again a proven fact! Barefoot walking is great for us it's allows us to connect with the earth and draws out the negative energies. I describe it like a magnet; and that's basically what is happening, we connect with the earths magnetic field and it pulls out all the built up energies that can't escape when we have our receptors blocked by our shoes. Again this is well know stuff for many and way out there for some! I often get the "that's odd" or "But what if you cut you're foot" my response is "It feels great and if you're stressed it works a treat" which it does and the benefits of not being stress are second to none; and "look where you are treading" I mean come on! Some great information for you to share here The Earthing Institute.
After two years of increased interactions with nature I have notice my stress levels disappear and also people around me have noticed. I've always been a chilled character but now I feel free in my mind. The corporate negative BS the media push doesn't really effect me as I know that's not in my reality as I don't allow it to enter! This sounds like an idealist way of thinking folks and I know there is shit in the world; but we can change this by not letting it bring us down and lifting the spirt of the human consciousness and then the solutions will come and only then. While peoples minds are focused on the negative and fixed to their screens lacking interaction with the real world nothing will happen!
