The NATURE of Our Mind
I hope you are finding moments of slow and easy in your life. If not, perhaps a little connection to mother earth is just what the doctor ordered! (Get it, I’m a doctor!) And while I certainly can’t write you a prescription, I can make a suggestion. With spring upon us, I thought a reminder of a very important fact would be appropriate… we ARE nature! As both Joni Mitchell and the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson like to remind us, the same substances that make up the earth also make up our bodies: the remnants of stars that dissolved long ago. We are stardust! And so it should be no surprise that when we slow down and immerse ourselves in the outdoors, even if it is just to look up at the sky and clouds for a moment, we feel grounded and at ease.
There is one thing about mother nature that differs from us though, she is willing to settle in, settle down, pause, and renew herself, something many of us as human beings have lost sight of. So below I offer you a few simple ways to reconnect with your inner earthiness (made that one up!) and celebrate spring.
Connect with the inherent mindfulness of the natural world with these three guided meditations:
Begin with yourself. The four elements–earth, wind, fire, and water–connect us, both internally and externally, with the world around us. Jeanne Corrigal brings her Métis heritage, and her training as an insight meditation teacher, to this 12-minute guided practice to connect with the four elements within our own body.
Then, give yourself permission to rest. Mindfulness teacher Kelly Barron notes that, “Nature restores, regenerates, and renews itself continually in a process of oscillation between activity and periods of rest.” And because we too are from nature, we also benefit from this cycle. In this meditation, she leads a practice for connecting with nature wherever you are by engaging in a moment of rest so that later, we can regenerate and renew.
Finally, listen. “Listening is a beautiful doorway to the present moment, a tuning into what’s here,” says mindfulness teacher Scott Schute. In this guided meditation, he invites you outdoors to notice the ebb and flow of sounds in nature as you become present with the whole range of sounds you’re experiencing.
I hope you found something here to experiment with. Have a beautiful spring day!!
