Recently I had the pleasure of spending some time on Salt Spring Island, as we shot the Pilot Episode for a new documentary series, Naturally Ours – on parks, and how and who they inspire.
Now for those of you that know me well, you will know that among my great pleasures in life are travel, spending time in nature, and storytelling. So really I was in my element on Salt Spring. However, and as should come as no shock to many of you, in order to get away to spend time telling tales, I had been doing too much before I left, and my mind was still reeling with all that needed doing, along with work calls coming in from the big smoke.
For all of these reasons and many more, I feel so fortunate to have met a wonderful woman, Cornelia J Krikke of Transformative Practice Studios, who ended up being one of the subjects of our documentary. In the course of filming, Cornelia introduced me to some of her practices in reconnecting people with nature – to ground, to bring peace, to open up your mind to the world around you, to awaken your creativity …
While in reality I was working at the time, by the end of the interview I felt like I’d just been to the spa. It was so much fun, I felt so present and connected, and it relaxed me.
I am not going to begin to attempt to explain the philosophy in what Cornelia did in reconnecting me with nature – I will leave that for the documentary. I do, however, want to show you a few of the simple things that we did in our short time together that relaxed me and made me feel like a kid again. While some of it might give you a chuckle, I do recommend it as the best kind of anti-anxiety medication for all that is going on in the world at the moment, and a great pattern for taking a bit of ‘me time’ in the New Year.
Take off your shoes and visualize Earth’s energy flowing up through you, or your own roots growing deep into the Earth.
Lie back in a natural space, get comfortable, and enjoy a different perspective on the world.
Introduce yourself to a tree.
(No really, introduce yourself to the tree first – especially if you want to give it a hug, as can you imagine someone you’ve never met, all of a sudden hugging you? On this note: my apologies to all the trees I’ve hugged without introducing myself. Really I am not a tree hugging harlot. Again, my apologies.)
Climb to a safe branch on the tree, that you can lie back on, and simply be.
Now, if this isn’t safely possible to do, lean with your back to the tree instead, and let the energy flow between the two of you.
Now that you’ve spent a little quality time together, it should be okay to hug the tree in thanks, before parting ways for the day.
Yes, you may be chuckling and pondering whether I fell out of the tree and hit my head, but think back – you’ve done such things before too, when you were a kid. Do you remember how it felt? Pretty gosh darn good, I bet. So why did you stop doing it?
Ultimately for me, this is what my New Year’s Resolution is – taking the time to reconnect myself with nature, be a kid again and not care who is watching.
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