I like when I hear nature sing. Maybe it’s not a song as much as a sensation. A stirring that things are alive around you in a comforting way. It is both quiet and loud at the same time but distinct and nothing else is like it. You know it when you hear it and you really know it when you feel it. Maybe it is both a song and sensation as I definitely hear it as much as I feel it. I have never been quite able to explain it or describe what it does to me but I know when it is near.
Whether it is the mountains calling or the surf rolling each of us has experienced this natural song. We have felt this connection in a place perhaps unexpectedly but it has come over us. I believe it is the very reason we are able to take a nice deep breath when we first stand on the beach looking outward to the sea or come through a hiking trail that overlooks a wide span of mountain scenery. It is nature talking to our souls and giving us that much needed release. The pent up anxiety that comes with every day living let free among the wind to be carried where we don’t need it anymore.
Letting nature soothe our hearts, rub out our rough edges and untangle our emotions so we once again feel like ourselves. The side of ourselves we don’t or feel like we cannot let out very often because it doesn’t fit into the expectations and obligations we carry. The part of us that is always there but we pile on daily demands to the point we forget it is there. It can take a while to uncover but eventually we find it covered in dust but always there just waiting to be free. It is a shift of being no longer tied down but rather connected where we really belong.
How unfortunate we cannot feel like this every day. We bring home seashells and pinecones to remind us. We hold it in our hands and promise we will go back but it is never often enough. We try to hold onto the feelings of being there, being just us in nature but soon life returns to its normal of busy and that feeling is once again packed away like our weekend luggage. If only life were different, simpler, easier.
Even when we don’t think we are an outdoors person or are immune to the calling of nature it is still there. We are all connected with her. Our replicated houses, paved driveways and manufactured foods only mask our true hunger and cravings for what is really desired in life. Peace, tranquility, low stress, beauty, kindness, connection. Yes at the heart of it all is connection to what fills our soul more than it will ever fill our pockets. These are the feelings of wholeness and worthiness. The place where we don’t have to be anything but who we really are.
We feel the ebb and flow of nature most often as the seasons change. It is a reminder of how much time has passed since we last sang with nature. How long it’s been since we let it’s healing waters touch our skin or when we last saw trees grow wild. Winter is a season of rest but these dark nights puts our dreams to work on planning adventures with nature and feeling those happy times again. How we get to feel that way more often and what life could look like. Nature has a way of teaching us anything is possible and we ourselves are the ones most often that have over-complicated the solution.
Living in balance with nature, feeling our best more often and not carrying such a heavy burden in life occurs when we reset what it means to be successful, fulfilled and happy. We build the dreams we really want in life. We feel the sand on our toes at the shore and the crisp wind at our nose from the mountains even when we are not there. These are nature’s nudges to us. The feeling we’re missing out on something or not doing something right is exchanged with the feeling we are exactly where we belong and have what we need. The need to compete, the feeling of jealousy falls away in place of completeness, wholeness and fulfillment.
What is interesting about this shift is it does not require us to sell all our worldly possessions and move to the mountains or beach. We can if we want but it is not necessary because we start to carry that feeling with us everywhere we go. We notice nature no matter our location. We even look for it in the physical form but because it is imprinted on our soul it is always there. It is no longer a temporary feeling from a very relaxing weekend away but rather something we awake each day knowing.
Finding those ways to connect with nature every day despite our location is key because sometimes life is still life. It threatens our peace, tranquility and space. Life needs are always trying to steal us away from this beautiful feeling we are trying to hang onto. Some would say it is impossible to retain this feeling that fuels us but I just smile and show them what I have found. The tools that help me connect with nature every day in my physical environment when I cannot just run for solace on the beach or mountain top.
Nature in a bottle. A small bottle that I can slip in my pocket and pull out when I need it. An aroma that fills my senses with that renewal I need to know I still have nature with me. I can reclaim my equilibrium and live the way right for me. The application of it against my skin letting me feel it’s healing when i need it most. That ability to quench my thirst with it’s goodness to refill what daily life takes from me. Yes I can take nature with me wherever I go and I can also find it in the most unexpected places. I can connect to nature as easily as I connect my smartphone to a charger.
When we create this connection with nature it is a relationship we will hold onto because we know how it makes us feel our best. We know when it comes down to it nature is all we have in this life. It is the core of what makes life, really living life, feel its best. We slip into like a new skin and know we can never go back to the way it was. Where we were just passing time mundanely and uninspiring because nature is never boring.
Are you ready to connect with nature?
Take the free Lifestyle & Wellness Questionnaire: https://forms.gle/ZhaCha275xSETuvY8