Connecting with Nature in Body
Nature helps us to connect in ways that nurture our body and make us feel whole
To enjoy the transformational benefits of spending time in Nature requires us to connect on all aspects of our being. This is when can we fully appreciate and experience an abundance of benefits provided to us by the natural world. It means connecting with our body, mind, spirit, soul and whole-being. Here we explore what this means for our body.
What can Nature do?
In a recent study, researchers found that a minimum of two hours a week absorbed in Nature significantly reduces stress and enhances our feeling of wellbeing. This means anything we can do to spend more time in Nature and deepen our connection the better.
The good news is that it doesn't require us to spend hours walking in the wild or hiking across moorlands and plains every day or even at all if we are unable to. As much as this is a superb way to get closer to Nature and exercise our limbs, there are many other ways we can nurture our body with Nature's presence and gifts of life.
Spending a few moments each day to consciously tune into our connection with Nature and our inner self, reaps so many benefits over the short and long term. It’s a form of meditation that helps us to clear our mind, calm our body and channel the love that resides in our heart at all times.
What do you mean by body?
Modern day research studies to investigate the impact of social media on young people has proven that being exposed to 'perfect' lives, clothes and bodies makes the majority of consumers feel ugly and inferior at worst, left out at best, and in too many causing widespread depression, anxiety and self-harm.
Being made to focus on outward appearances is perhaps one of the most serious crimes on humanity in the name of creating more clicks, likes and shares. The aim has been to keep people needing to buy and scrolling for hours on end. A Forbes article written in 2022 declared that: The experts at social media companies studied slot machines and how they become so addictive and then modelled likes and tagging after gaming machines.
You will probably know that overcoming insecurities about our bodies and heightening our self esteem requires us to love ourselves. This can be harder than it sounds and it is where Nature can help us to get started. Take the less is more approach, get organised to stay healthy and Nature will do the rest, sustaining you along the way.
Your body is a miracle
Stop for a moment and think about your body as a miraculous design of form and function with a myriad of systems operating in perfect synchronicity to keep you vital and healthy at every single moment of your day.
Try to imagine how miraculous your body is and what it enables you to enjoy, feel, experience through life and do. How is it possible for all this to work so perfectly and come together so beautifully to make YOU!
- circulatory system
- digestive system
- endocrine system
- repair system (or immune system)
- lymphatic system
- nervous system
- muscular system
- reproductive system
- skeletal system
- respiratory system
- urinary system
- integumentary system (or skin)
This doesn't include the even more miraculous aspects our consciousness, intuition, feelings, emotions, personality, talent and so on. All these factors come into play every second of our day as we breathe in the air, employ our minds and go about our daily business. Our bodies deserve our appreciation and love, they enable us to express who we are.
Nurturing your connection
Experience how it feels to be in Nature with the Sun on your face, the wind in your hair, a rain drop on your nose, the buffeting of a cold wind, your warm breath swirling in the cold air. You can experience all these things by spending time sitting outside, walking or hiking.
Nature provides the sunlight our bodies need to build and repair our cells amongst many other things. Being ourside in daylight brings life-giving light in through our eyes and through our skin in the warmer months.
This always makes us feel better and exposing our eyes to the bright light of Winter through the darker days - while exercising them by honing them in on the minutae of Nature and stretching them out to a horizon as far as the eye can see - is highly beneficial.
Nature provides the space we need for movement and exercise whether it's stretching in the garden, planting house plants indoors, playing on the grass, walking through woodlands, sunbathing in wildflower meadows, and so on. Simply imagining doing these things will bring you closer to Nature, your mind is a powerful tool that helps us to feel what it's like so that we gain all the same benefits.
Nature also provides the space for us to slow down, take a step back and reflect on things. It gives us the time we need to pace, to think, to meditate and work things out so that we can let things go. More about that in the next post about nurturing our connecting with our Mind.
Nature provides infinite ways for us to experience all our senses and heighten our sensory perception which helps us to understand the world around is and make sense of things. It provides the means to bring our body into a state of tranquillity which is the optimum state required for healing, relaxation, rejuvenation and creative flow.
Love your body and your body will love you
Our bodies are miraculous and they serve us so well, especially when we know how to play our part and give our body what it needs to stay healthy and do all the things we want it to do for us - and well.
What we look like, think we look like or think other people think we look like, is a miniscule aspect of being a beautiful and unique human. Go deeper to find every reason to love yourself for who you truly are and wait for the transformation.
Sue Cartwright
Spiral Leaf
Thank you for sharing!
for you, for me and for Mother Nature
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