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As experts explain, nature is especially good when we know it on a sensory level. Therefore, immersion in its reality is truly priceless.
Carl Gustav Jung believed that natural life is “the nourishing soil of the soul.” Modern researchers are also convinced of this. We receive support from nature, even when we turn to it in our imagination. “Nature is magic,” says psychologist Inna Chirkova, who uses natural images in her work with clients. – In childhood, we, imagining ourselves as heroes, were enriched by their abilities. As adults, most of us do not play heroes, but everyone can enter the wonderful world of nature and pass through himself the strength, warmth and wisdom of its inhabitants.
And yet, a direct meeting with nature one on one is difficult to replace with anything. “The best way is in real, not virtual, immersion,” says Alix Koske, researcher in environmental psychology at the University of Montpellier. “Direct physical contact with nature is more useful than indirect: colors, smells of humus, chirping of birds, rustling of leaves, wind noise in trees, the bark of which you can touch…”
This polyphonic experience saturates all the senses, leaves indelible impressions in the soul and is remembered for a long time. An experience that both ourselves and our children need. “It’s not for nothing that we say “the bosom of nature,” says perinatal and family psychologist Olga Agafonova. “It is the source of life. We are all natural children of nature. And it is as healing for us as motherly love.
Outside the city
1. Ground yourself
Maintaining a strong connection with nature starts with ourselves. Olga Agafonova offers an exercise: once outside the city, walk around the earth, listening to your feelings at the level of not only the body, but also the soul. Stop at the place where you want to stand longer.
Ground yourself – firmly press your feet to the ground, feel how confident and secure you are. Close your eyes while maintaining balance. Take a deep breath, feeling the energy filling you. Then take a long, powerful exhalation, relax your upper body, bounce a little on your legs and imagine how emotional and physical tension is released with exhalation.
Try to use all your senses: listen to the rustle of leaves, the murmur of a stream, feel the air on your skin. If there is a desire and the weather permits, the exercise can be performed barefoot, then the contact will be fuller. Staying in this position, take as many breaths in and out as you want. You will feel when the exercise can be completed.
The point, explains the psychologist, is to achieve deep relaxation and a new burst of energy. When we establish contact with nature, there is an exchange of energy, chemical and electrical flows, which is very beneficial for health.
2. We contemplate the stars
Observation of the starry sky made a strong impression on a person at all times, reminding him of a deep relationship with the Universe. Olga Agafonova advises to lie down on a rug or in a hammock and look at the whole sky above your head. Imagine that you were transported to an era when mankind was guided by the stars, having no other way to navigate. Then people were closer to nature, and their way of life was different.
The imaginary will come to the surface and remind us that nature is not only around, but also inside, in ourselves, we are part of it.
Imagine who you would be if you lived at that time. Where would you live? What did you do? What did they eat? Who did you communicate with? Perhaps you have traveled a lot? Or occasionally left the house, heading to neighboring cities? On foot or on horseback? In any case, the starry sky would help you find the right path.
“This exercise allows you not only to touch nature, but also to get to know yourself better: to look into the unconscious, to find out desires and dreams that you have not thought about before,” the psychologist adds. It is not necessary to perform it alone, you can compose stories with loved ones, then you get a plot with different lines. This is also useful for children: such activities develop fantasy and imaginative thinking, enrich vocabulary, broaden their horizons and strengthen parent-child relationships.
3. Dissolve in the sound of water
On average, 70% of us are water. Stormy streams make us forget about everything and immerse us in contemplation. There is a special Japanese relaxation technique takigyo – sitting meditation under a waterfall.
“We can sit or lie down on the banks of a river, lake or sea and imagine water, associating it with the flow of blood in our veins,” says Swiss ecopsychologist Michel Maxime Egger. – The sound of water contributes to the deep interpenetration of natural systems. The imaginary, together with the unconscious, in accordance with Jung’s archetypes, will come to the surface and remind us that nature is not only around, but also inside, in ourselves, we are part of it.
4. Communicate with the tree
This exercise is suitable to perform before a walk in the forest. “Put your hands on your body, then slowly remove them,” recommends Michel Maxime Egger. – You will feel a warm pleasant tingling sensation in the area of the fingers and palms.
Expand the space around, maintaining the established energy connection. Then choose a tree and do the same: grab it, feel it – and slowly remove your hands. “So you connect with it and feel its vibrations,” explains the ecopsychologist. You can do it in the city too.
In the city
1. Watching
In the city, nature can be found everywhere, but we simply do not notice it. In the squares, you can lie down on the grass, climb in the thickets of bushes, or watch insects swarm at the foot of the trees. Let your children be delighted with a colony of ants or flying ladybugs, says Olga Agafonova. You can go to the city park, collect cones, sticks, leaves and make crafts from natural materials on any topic. This will allow you to look at nature from a different angle and develop your imagination.
2. Petting animals
For a child, there is nothing more bewitching and soothing than soft and warm animal fur, says Olga Agafonova. When they stroke a dog, cat or rabbit, it develops the senses and facilitates contact with the environment and people. Animal therapy (“treatment by animals”) has a beneficial effect not only on children, but also on adults. However, if it is enough for children to hug a purring cat or a friendly dog in order to relax and get positive emotions, then you will not always surprise adults with familiar pets.
In this case, horses come to the aid of people in the city. In almost any city and its environs there are many stables where you can come to talk with horses. It is not necessary to take riding lessons or hippotherapy classes. If you do not want or are afraid to sit on the back of a horse, then hippovention is suitable for you – this is a relatively new direction in animal therapy, it is based on contact with the horse on an emotional level.
Teach your kids how to talk to plants because they are very sensitive to how they are treated.
Communication with horses relieves psycho-emotional stress, helps to feel better, trust yourself and the world around you. “If you are lucky to get to a place where, in addition to horses, there are also sheep, goats and rabbits, then this is a double luck,” the psychologist believes. “Interacting with these animals also has a therapeutic effect.”
3. We plant a garden at home
“Regularity is much more important than individual, even more memorable episodes of wildlife encounters,” adds Alix Koske. It is better to remember what has become part of everyday life, like the nature that we observe every day at home. Start by germinating bean seeds in cotton wool. You can plant carrots, tomatoes, basil, or mint on your balcony and see how they grow. Alix Koske suggests: “Teach children to talk to plants, because they are very receptive to how they are treated.”
4. Turn on the imagination
Sometimes we get so tired that we don’t have the strength to get to the nearest park. In this case, psychologist Inna Chirkova suggests turning to the imagination: “Imagine a corner of nature in which you would like to be. Enter it. Look carefully at everything, try to hear the sounds. What smells do you smell? How does your skin feel? Listen to yourself. What do you want to do now? Imagine that you have done this.
How does nature interact with you? What would you take with you when you leave this corner? What will he remind you of? Nature can help us solve difficulties, the psychologist continues. When the situation seems to be a dead end, compare this state with some kind of natural phenomenon: a tsunami, a rockfall … Think of different ways to save yourself. After that, you can find a similar algorithm for solving the problem in real life.