{"id":114005,"date":"2022-12-06T08:23:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T08:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awakening.com.au\/?p=114005"},"modified":"2022-12-06T08:23:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T08:23:53","slug":"nature-fix-more-than-a-walk-in-the-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awakening.com.au\/lms\/2022\/12\/06\/nature-fix-more-than-a-walk-in-the-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature Fix: More than a Walk in the Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBody and Soil are one\u201d<\/em> an ancient Korean proverb, \u201cshin to bul ee”. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Three years of solid working, counselling to support those in lockdowns, teaching mostly on a screen, limited travel and opportunities to create novelty, a deeper calling got hold of me. Restlessness grew louder, impatience filled the air, grumpy, tired and groundhog mental fatigue seemed the flavour of my weeks. The over domestication of myself was beginning to own me, in a way that became addictive.<\/p>\n

The gypsy I befriended in myself in my teens climbing NZ mountains for days only equiped with a pack on my back, camping in hay sheds, reclaimed as the wild woman in my twenties, needed to be listened deeply to. I loaded the car, threw a mattress in the back, along with my trusty hiking boots, mozzie repellent, a few good books gifted by friends, some homemade dried fruit and coffee I had squirreled away for just this occasion and hit the road. Now Australian roads have been battered of late by floods, so hitting the road was literal, over and over again!<\/p>\n

I needed wide open spaces, the sound of nature, sunsets and sunrises, nature based exercise, swimming in waterfalls, sun and the smell of the earth. The urgency in my longing brought back memories of emerging out of four patrolled walls of quarantine a number of years ago, I couldn\u2019t sleep inside for many nights, I needed nature to soothe my soul and the sorrow from how were we treating each other.<\/p>\n

“Nature will not be admired by proxy” \u2015<\/span><\/em><\/strong> Winston Churchill\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Free camping it was, thanks to Wikicamps (yes an app), I was committed to digital detoxing, as much as possible when you run your own business.<\/p>\n

As the kilometres lengthened stress, low level anxiety, frustration, grumpiness, fatigue all began to drop away. The little things started to draw my attention more and more, I became curious. The movement of soft grasses in the wind, the exquisite colours of contrasting landscapes, a cricket hanging out with me as I looked for the night’s camp, the sound of the wind in the trees, an echidna blowing bubbles out of its snout whilst playing hide and seek with me, the differences in birds calls, the moment bees have woken, or was that me awakening to the bees sound? The big little things called me more and my hard edges softened as I breathed out a little more everyday.<\/p>\n

In an attention economy you would be right to feel as though your nervous system has been hijacked by constant endeavours to pursue personal and professional goals, making money, an idea of who you should be, physical fitness, maintaining healthy relationships, the list goes on. Mental fatigue, stress, anxiety, depression, lack of motivation and creativity, numerous health conditions are only some of the symptoms of a disconnect from our true nature but is this disconnect a deeper calling?<\/p>\n

We have never in any other time in history been so disconnected from nature, the soil, the birds, green and blue spaces. Never in history have we been holed up in houses in the way we have in the last years and the consequences are showing.<\/p>\n

Studies show that we need at least 5 hours per month \u201cin nature to starve off depression, and elevate mood. Nature has a dose-response relationship; the more time spent in nature the better you feel.\u201d* Ten hours changes our body brain lowering blood pressure, cortisol and alleviating depression, mental fatigue, anxiety, lowering symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity, making us more healthier, more empathetic, divergently creative, energetic, enabling us to engage in the world around us. \u00a0To calculate that, it is 30 minutes five days a week, or as Liisa Tryc\u00e4inen says \u201ctwo to three days per month outside the city would bring the same effect.\u201d Nature turns us on, turns down the stress hormones and brings us home into ourself in way nothing else can.<\/p>\n

With so many adults currently being diagnosed with ADHD, is forest medicine the answer? Some of the benefits of nature is boosting executive brain function; recharging the right prefrontal cortex, that part in the brain for organising, judging and task-focusing. We cannot bounce off walls if walls are taken away.<\/p>\n

Green or blue scapes are our ultimate medicine. Big corporations in Japan, Korea, Scotland, Finland all recognise the increased health benefits to the overall well-being of their workers by being in nature. Nature deficient disorder symptoms include increased obesity, lower attention span, vitamin D deficiency, lower capacity to cope with stress, reduced performance, and a lower sense of wellbeing, among a few.<\/p>\n

Therefore for this holiday season plan to get your nature fix, the best medicine.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cLook deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better<\/b>\u201d\u2015 <\/strong><\/span><\/em>Albert Einstein\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tips for your Nature Fix:<\/strong><\/p>\n