The Healing Power of Nature
Respond to nature and take a break from your worries
The copper beech bows to touch my shoulders; nature’s way of soothing, perhaps? Of course, whatever you perceive, the meaning given to an event becomes true for you.
“We do not see nature with our eyes but with our understandings and our hearts.”-William Hazlitt
The natural world has always embraced me with kind arms. It sighs as the gentle wind on gray days, and I enjoy the sun’s warmth on my skin as an expression of harmony and hope.
Sometimes, often late in the afternoon, your heart may feel heavy. Or your mind is congested with the day’s idiosyncrasies, challenges that threaten to trip you, or little quirks in the matrix that shake your joy. I put on my walking shoes and head for the meadows, hills, woods, or the river. Or I might stroll along a dusty wildflower-lined path to see where it leads.
And as I do, my head clears.
“If I must be rooted, plant my feet in rich soil, let my womanly flesh harden to bark, and let my limbs, robust in sleeves of evergreen, keep reaching for the sun.”-Jane Elle Glasser
The freshness swipes away dark clouds and reminds me most, no, none of the concerns that irked me are mighty warriors.
They are self-made creations or players on the stage. They aren’t real unless I choose them to be so.
When I focus on each footstep on the grass or mud track or hone attention to a bird that sings a lullaby, I recall this is what’s real, not thoughts of the past or second-guesses about the future.
The beauty of the dew on a spider web, the color of sunset, and the wild rose scent in the hedgerow are more real and timeless than those rips in the fabric of perfection I may allow, for a fraction of time, to exist.
“ The more civilized man becomes, the more he needs and craves a great background of forest wildness, to which he may return like a contrite prodigal from the husks of an artificial life.”-Ellen Burns Sherman
There never is a day, even one long and pockmarked, that won’t respond to nature. Once I remember what’s real — what counts — I am free to be present, and everything else disappears.
The power of nature to fill the soul with beauty and calm, however, rests with us. We control the subjects we pull into our gaze and focus on; what we make grow.
After a long day, you know the type, when one thing after the other snaps at my heels, I walk into clarity among the tall grasses and across the hills.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature-the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”-Rachel Carson
The wind clears debris from my back and sends it as fluttering confetti to fade in the last rays of the sun.
Perhaps I’m lucky — I know I am. But, I’m also aware you must train your brain to seek what you want more of and let go of what you dislike. You can teach your mind to absorb nature and release stress, one step at a time, until it’s habitual.
At the end of a tiresome day, I rejuvenate. Shake off the jetsam before I relax. Then I need not take concerns to bed — who wants worries as bedfellows?
But, if a worry sneaks under the radar and hides in my psyche until late, I stand under the blanket of stars and let it fly to the moon.
“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”-Jack Kerouac
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Bridget Webber is a writer and nature lover, often found in the woodland, meadow, and other wild places. She writes poetry and stories and pens psychology articles; her love of discovering what rests inside the thicket and the brain compels her to delve deep. She’s appeared in many leading publications and ghostwrites for professionals who can’t spare the time to pen compositions.
