How to Cultivate Mindfulness through Your Connection to Nature

There is weather in Seattle, not just rain. Someone told me, when I first moved there, that all the glorious sunshine we have for days on end all summer long, would simply end one day. As if someone turned the faucet on and forgot to turn it off.

Puget Sound

Well, it does rain in Seattle, but not just any rain. There are MANY different kinds of rain in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes, we are wrapped in a damp blanket of drizzle. It took awhile after I moved there, but the rain and I are finally developed a relationship. We bonded.


Sometimes, it is simply a steady springkling, not too hard. The kind of rain that when it hits the hood of your REI-Gore-Tex-Rain-Jacket, it sounds just like rain hitting your tent as you sleep in the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington.

I often spent the day at Seward Park, the only state park left within the city limits of Seattle that still has old growth forest. Seward Park sits on a peninsula of sorts that juts out into Lake Washington, so it is surrounded by water on three sides. Well, make that four sides- water from above as well. You can walk the perimeter of the park, along the lake, and you can walk in the midst of the forest on trails that take you back a hundred years or so into wilderness, into wildness.


Bald eagles still nest at Seward Park and I often saw one. Since many days are shrouded in mist, sometimes I could not really tell if it was an eagle or not, but I could tell that it was an enormous soaring bird. That is one of the benefits of Seattle weather...it blurs the real with the surreal...so my bird becomes an eagle for me, if only for the day. A small gift to soothe my soul.

The rain here protects us, reminds us to retreat every once in a while, to slow down, to be present in each and every moment. November rain provides the advent of our season of contemplation. The rain is a reassurance, a constant. You know that no matter what you do each day, the rain will be there- comforting- like an old friend. In Seattle, you can rely on the rain.


Before I lived in Seattle I lived in the high desert of Walla Walla, WA. I remember writing to my grandparents on the east coast: “We don’t get weather here. It’s just sunny, blue sky everyday. I’ve been here two months and I have not seen one cloud yet.” I said this, almost as a complaint, wishing for just a little bit of dark relief from the relentless sun. 

Columbia River Gorge

I discovered the meaning of Big Sky when I moved to eastern Washington. The rain gets trapped on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, so eastern Washington is a veritable desert. I learned to appreciate the many different shades of brown: deep, rich earthy browns- the color of the fields when the dirt has been turned over after the harvest. Golden light brown, the color of the wheat as it sways silently across the Palouse, juxtaposed with the bright sun and deep blue sky, where you can see for miles and miles in any direction. No large evergreen trees, not many trees period, but lots of sagebrush. You grow to love sagebrush when you live in the open desert.


There is so much healing in our connection to nature, in our connection to the landscape around us: so much mystery and peace. I experienced this myself over a decade ago when I moved to Washington state. I was drawn to the wide-open spaces and I cherish them. For 15 years in my Sociology classes, I assigned the wonderful book Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. One of the themes of the book is our healing and spiritual connection to nature, and the importance of having a sense of place, a connection to the land. A dear environmental sociologist friend first shared this book with me, and my life has never been the same. He has since died from lung cancer, though he never ever smoked. He was a “down-winder,” a victim of the nuclear testing ground of Hanover, WA to the west of Walla Walla.


Over the years, my students have come from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, but they all have resonated with the idea of a spiritual connection to nature. Almost every person has had a story of a sacred encounter in nature. Some described how a love of the ‘outdoors’ was often cultivated in them from childhood on. We discussed how connecting with the Earth, for some unknown reason, brings us into a larger, deeper connection with our God and brings us into a deeper connection with our inner self, our soul.


Living out in the Pacific Northwest, you have no choice but to connect with your surroundings. The contradictions in the landscape between the east and west side of the state speak volumes, and you are propelled to become mindful of who you are and become aware of where you are.

Mt. Rainier and Seward Park to the left

When it is not raining in Seattle, the Cascade Mountains call to you from the east and the Olympic Mountains call to you from the West.

Mt. Rainier, a 14,400 foot volcano looms valiantly above the city, humbling and awing us all at once. On a sunny day, Mt. Rainier causes more traffic jams than a fender bender...one simply must stare and Pay Attention. The beauty we find in nature reminds us of that as well- to be Awake in our lives to the beauty in others.

 
These have been the themes that nature has taught me so far: to become awake, to pay attention to the mystery of life, but to also remember to retreat, slow down, and reflect. My connection to the land, and to nature, has provided me with these life lessons and so I honor God and what He has created in return.

The Stress of Too Many Choices

Today I became completely overwhelmed (and quite stressed) by too many choices, and thus too many decisions to make. From 2010-2013, I was privileged to teach a class at Penn State called Action Methods for Stress Management (KINES082). One of the concepts we learn in this class is that in U.S. culture, we actually derive quite a bit of stress from having too many choices.

Think about it: we have a myriad of choices we can or need to make on a weekly, daily or potentially hourly basis. Some of which are very important, while others are very mundane: which bank should I choose? which doctor? which cereal? What sport should I encourage in my child? What club should I join at Penn State? What class should I take? and on and on. Having variety is one of the great advantages of living in an affluent and free society. Surprisingly, it can also be one of the drawbacks.

My husband was in the Peace Corps in Paraguay for two years and I lived there with him for 7 months. Rural Paraguay is NOT a place of abundant choices. Yet, I felt the most content and stress-free in my life while living there. With fewer consumer goods to care for, I had less to fix or clean. With limited options for entertainment, my choices were often made for me. With virtually no grocery store to roam in, the food available at the corner market and what we grew ourselves would suffice.

With too many choices to face, our brains become simply overloaded. What is the scientific recommendation? Literally take a mental vacation: read a novel or magazine, daydream, take a walk in the woods. It works. It gives our brains time to discharge all the frenzied mental activity and reset itself to a more restful place.

By mid-day I had become completely frazzled and had to take my own advice: I took a break and ventured off to my special spot at Shingletown Gap. One hour was all I had. Sitting next to the tumbling stream, with only the sound of the wind, the water, I could feel my own breathing.

The brief respite enabled me to recalibrate; to re-establish my own list of true priorities. I gathered the space I needed to later become truly vulnerable with my family and have a little breakdown of tears (which my husband calls a break-open). At the same time, my walk gave me a sense of gratitude for all the options that exist in this society. From a more grounded place, I can say no thank you to some, and gleefully accept others.

Three Simple Ways to Connect with Nature: finding your special spot

As children, many of us naturally adopted a ‘special spot’ somewhere outside where we felt peaceful or playful, or maybe it was place we went to when we needed a little solace. Throughout the years, I asked my students about their special childhood place. Nearly every student fondly recalled their ‘special spot.’ For me, my special spot consisted of playing in the creek that ran through my neighborhood and spending countless hours floating ‘leaf boats’ down the stream until my mother called me in for dinner.

In part 2 of the technology-free day assignment, students are asked to spend 6 separate occasions in nature, preferably finding for themselves a special spot. Each time, they need to spend a minimum of 20 minutes alone in nature, without the use of their cell phones, or iPods. They are also given journal questions: those that pertain to “Wilderness Without” and those that pertain to “Wilderness Within.”

Anyone can find a special spot. Families can enjoy time in nature and get to know their place at the same time. Students in a class of any age can also engage in this project.

Here are three easy ways to connect with nature:
1) Find your own special spot: a place that you like to go outside in nature, maybe it is simply in your own backyard; maybe your special spot is at a local park; maybe you are lucky and you can still visit your special childhood place.
2) Promise to go there once a week for the next several months and spend at least 20 minutes there.
3) Use the following questions to get to know your special spot and write down the answers in a nature journal. Wilderness Without Questions: How much sunlight does my ‘spot’ get? How does it look in the morning, afternoon, evening? Is there water in my ‘spot’? Take one day and track the source. Orient yourself in your ‘spot.’ Find north, east, south, and west. From which direction is the wind blowing? What kinds of sounds do you hear? Which ones are nearby? Which are further away? Are they all ‘natural’ noises? Describe the soil in your spot today. (i.e. crumbly, moist, dry, flaky). Are there trees in your ‘spot?’ Are they native trees. Are there any wildflowers? Do you see signs of animal life? Insect life? Describe them. Are there any edible plants, resident or migratory birds? What kinds of rocks are there?

How does this undertaking “help other people and the earth” you may wonder? Well, for one thing, it may help you and YOU are part of the earth, by giving you a place of peace and repose. And secondly, it helps us to get to know our place on this planet, and we are more likely to care for what we know and love.

Tommorow, you can learn the Wilderness Within questions!

Going tech-free for a day and having fun!

Finding Tranquility in Busy Times: technology-free days and an experiment in awareness
“My technology-free day was a nightmare,” exclaims one student at the very beginning of her final presentation on technology, nature, and her inner experiences of both. This exclamation has amused me so much that I have repeated it often through the day when describing this project to other students and colleagues at Saint Francis University, a small university tucked into the hills of the Allegheny mountains in central Pennsylvania. As part of the curriculum in my Environmental Sociology class, students are asked to journal on two different but related kinds of experiences: two technology-free days and 6 times in nature, in solitude without cell phones or iPods. Their reactions to these types of experiences are both startlingly profound and surprisingly life changing, but in actuality, life-enhancing. IN this blog entry, I will talk about their experiences with technology-free days. In another entry, I will write about their nature reflections.
For this assignment, I have given them some instruction, but I have left it up to them how they want to define a technology-free “day.” Knowing how addicted most of my undergraduate students are to their cell phones, laptops with Face book, and iPods, I am loathe to tell them how long they should go without such supports. Some students really stretch themselves and define a day as an actually day- from sun-up until after dinner. Others can only go so far as to define one hour as their ‘day.’ I ask them to consider the following questions and write about them in their journals.
Technology-Free Days
How does it feel to spend a day without technology? What effect does it have on your mood? Your mind? Your emotions?
What differences do you notice between a technology day & a technology-free day? Similarities? What are some things you like about a technology-free day & why? What did you not like and why?
How has being technology-free affected your social interactions? Explain.
Please describe any other observations.

In our culture, most of us have become dependent on communicatin technology in some form or another. And most of us have become dependent on that technology without being aware of how much we rely on it. For example, we text friends, we blog (!) and we ‘facebook’ (and create a new verb in the process). With college students, I am amazed, and secretly touched, by how often they call their parents. Many students claimed to call their parents every single day. Others said they called their parents, usually their mom, between each & every class. Some students complained about missing meetings or practices without technology (apparently, their schedule changes each day & this is how they are informed).
On the other hand, I am also dismayed by how much computer interaction has replaced face-to-face interaction with college-age students who live right down the hall from each. They report to me that they might IM their friend, rather than simply walk down the hall to say hi.

I have used this assignment for hundreds of students over several years in dozens of classes. I am always amazed by the insightful awareness this simple exercise brings to them about their social interaction and their lifestyle.
The following are a SELECT FEW of their personal reactions:
Being Present: In a day without technology, you are completely concentrated on what you are doing & who you are with. You have no distractions to take you away from that place. My mind was into what I was doing.
Becoming more social: “this activity made me more social because in order to see what time to go to dinner and the time I had to go up to people and ask them instead of texting them or instant message. I also notice(d) how beautiful this campus really is”
‘Technology-free days (have) improved my social interactions. I engage in more conversations with my friends & girls in my dorm than just sitting in the room talking on instant message and through texting. Talking face to face with people is more personal than just sending IMs and texts
Waste of Time: “Ultimately, it wastes my time. The thought crossed my mind, ‘What do I really get accomplished with using technology?’”
Addiction to technology: During a 7.5 hour bus ride to her basketball match, without technology, “I didn’t think I was going to make it. When we stopped at our first rest stop, I was tempted to ask the bus driver to open the bottom of the bus, but instead my teammate encouraged me and I decided not to. When we got to the hotel, I immediately reached in my book bag for my phone because I really wanted to see my missed calls, text messages, and voicemails. I felt like a drug addict. I realized how obsessed I was with my cell phone.”
(without my phone), I did not know what to do with myself. I felt like I was going crazy. It definitely mixed my emotions up and had me feeling sad at some points, but then again happy because I accomplished not using my devices on the bus.”
Spending time with family: Ons student extended the Tech-free day to her family: “As I was sitting in the living room yesterday, the phone rang. I glanced up and looked at our television. Our caller id comes up in every TV in the house. Just as I looked back down at my laptop, my sister instant-messaged me and asked who was calling. It was that moment that I realized how severely dependent my family is on modern technology. Later that night, I told my mother the story. She knows that my sister & I live in separate rooms and just message each other if we need something. So I asked her if for one night, the four of us could do something as a group. She thought this was a great idea!
They went on to play 2 games of SORRY and 1 game of SCATTERGORIES. “To our surprise, we had fun…..Who knows! Maybe this will become our new tradition!”
On Sundays, our family usually engages in on our own technology-free day! We had gotten aware from the practice, even though we love what games and entertainment emerge on that day. But tomorrow, we are re-committing to the practice in honor of Earth Day. We will save electricity and have some fun with each at the same time!