One of the best ways to heal a physical problem or reduce emotional stress is to interrupt our daily routines with experiences that reacquaint us with Nature. As we are swept up, captivated, and enthralled by the displays of Nature's wonder, we sense the immutable balance that is our own source of creation, our Spirit.
The difference between normal recreation and experiencing Nature's creative expressions is that in seeking Nature for our own delight, we pay attention to the rejuvenation it inspires us to feel inside. We enter Nature's creative arena in order to recognize our union with it and to be regenerated.
Everything about Nature is impressive, from the bumblebees that aren't supposed to be able to fly but do, to the intricacies of flowers, the wonders of giant redwoods, and the brilliance of the sun glinting off a streambed filled with glistening stones. Everywhere we look we see that Nature is our greatest teacher. Engaging Nature means engaging our roots, which tie deeply into our heritage and allow us to appreciate our Earth home.
Flowing Into Rhythm
Imagine renting a canoe or kayak and going out for a paddle. We quickly settle into a different inner rhythm. Our arms move in harmony with the current, and we forget our worries and become part of the life around us -- an intimate part. When we use chalk, watercolors, or oil paints to express the beauty of our gardens, hills, or snow banks, we flow into the images as we create them. What we depict in images has a greater impact on us than mere words.
Our lives become richer when we allow our senses to be stimulated by the images, sights, and sounds of the natural world. In experiencing Nature's creativity, we open our own vibrant inspiration. Our Life Steward energy is trying to get us to be creative, to participate in Nature's playground. We're in it for the fun of it -- to calm our nerves, to awaken our delight in life, and to get out of our heads and into our bodies.
All of our creative efforts involve Nature in one way or another. When people say that they are uncomfortable in Nature, they are saying they have lost the fit with their own most basic source of creative expression. We have become city dwellers and business people. But first we were cave dwellers and hunter-gatherers. The Earth and the natural world are imprinted in the core of our being.
Finding Inner Balance
Finding inner balance comes from returning to the images of Nature and moving in harmony with life around us, not remaining locked away in constructions of concrete and cinder block. It is in our blood, our genes, to be Life Stewards -- stewards and caretakers of the land around us and within us.
When we play music, walk in Nature, garden, hike, or sit quietly in majestic places, we redesign our lives more powerfully than we can through all the thinking and planning and articulating of great and lofty plans. When we find what we love and share it with others we love, our futures find us. When we move out of our inner harmonies by trying too hard, planning too much, wanting too badly, we drop the ball of momentum in our lives.
Activity without the need for achievement or control is the real nourishment. When we do something creative, we're reawakening the rhythms of our lives that are essential to us.
Creating Your Own Nature Space
A Nature space is any place -- large or small, wild or planned, in your office, in your home, greenhouse, or back yard -- that takes you into Nature's splendid mystery.
Spend ten minutes before work admiring or tending your indoor plants in your living room, greenhouse, or porch. Whether you have one plant or twenty-five doesn't matter.
Create window boxes or gardens that can be your Nature spaces, where you attend to yourself by attending to Nature.
Enjoy Nature's wild spaces by sharing a few moments on the way to work admiring and enjoying the sun shimmering through a stand of white pines, a freshly turned farmer's field, or a turtle crossing the road. On your way to work, find and pause for a few moments to breathe deeply, relax, enjoy, extend yourself into the Nature space around you and find renewal there.
If you find yourself too busy to take time in the morning or evening to develop a Nature space, take five minutes before or after lunch to look around your office, or the place where you spend most of your day, and see where Nature spaces appear. Is it in the picture of the Grand Canyon on your wall calendar, or in the bouquet of flowers on your table? Is Nature in the water in your glass, or is the music you hear a takeoff on Nature's sounds? Is Nature in the crackers and cheese on your plate, or in the ant crawling across the carpet? Find Nature around you, and enjoy the moment.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher,
Stillpoint Publishing. ©2002. www.stillpoint.org
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Wisdom Bowls: Overcoming Fear and Coming Home to Your Authentic Self
by Meredith Young-Sowers.
In her remarkable book, Wisdom Bowls: Overcoming Fear and Coming Home to Your Authentic Self, Meredith Young-Sowers takes us on a healing journey to discover our true essence. Combining story-telling styles and artistic techniques reminiscent of Julia Cameron’s "The Artist’s Way," Caroline Myss’ "Sacred Contracts," and Rachel Naomi Remen’s "Kitchen Table Wisdom," Meredith guides us to uncover who we are and who we might become.
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About the Author
Meredith Young-Sowers is the author of the best-selling books Agartha: A Journey to the Stars and the Angelic Messenger Cards. She is also the Director of the Stillpoint Institute and the Stillpoint School of Advanced Energy Healing. Visit her website at www.meredithyoung-sowers.com, as well as www.stillpoint.org
