How to Align with Nature
Why is aligning with nature so important?
Aligning with nature is essential to your own healing. Nature is patient, present, and perseveres. Nature’s pace is slow. Embodying these qualities is key to bringing healing and harmony to your body. To having a clear mind and a clear life.
Just being in the presence of trees can give you a sense of relief and calm. That’s because you’re stepping into the network of roots and mycelium that is cohesive. Being part of these networks and feeling their being-ness connects you back to expansive Nature.
Often, we search for answers from other people. From buying a product. Or reading more self-help books. But the answers to your questions can be accessed easily and powerfully in nature.
Having the skill and ability to go to nature and to listen deeply, is liberating. Nature becomes your source. The place you return to in order to regulate and remember who you are.
How do I align with nature?
By slowing down. Allowing your mind to down-shift and thoughts to melt. So that you can come into presence in your physical body. Notice the quality of your breathing. Your feelings. And expand from there to connect down into the soil. Up into the sky. To move out of your own sphere to connect with the larger extension of nature around you.
Can you feel the presence of the trees? The mountains? Can you sense into the waves crashing on a beach far away? Aligning with nature allows you to feel your place in the world.
As humans in a complex society, our focus can be myopic. We might have a lot of worries. It’s important to take the time to zoom in to feel our inner experience as well as zoom out to take in the larger webs and relationships of nature. I support people in aligning with nature through ecotherapy techniques.
What is ecotherapy?
Ecotherapy is a nature-based approach to mental health. It’s the practice of nurturing a deep connection to yourself and your nature community. Ecotherapy is an umbrella term that includes various types of therapy in nature such as wilderness therapy, equine therapy with horses, and forest bathing.
Being in nature with presence and intention for healing and growth is transformative. In my therapy practice, I use applied, nature-connection exercises to draw on nature as a source for healing. So that your support network is not just other humans but includes nature relationship. The healing elements of nature are invited in to support you.
For example, for those who are sensitive to others and get overwhelmed easily, it’s very helpful to imagine being a rock. Envision yourself as a solid rock in the middle of a moving river. The energy of others or chaos of externals in your life are like the water. Imagine the water (energy of others or chaos) flowing around you. Effortlessly flowing around you. While you remain solid, calm and steady.
What are the benefits of nature alignment?
Often people come away from intentional time in nature with inner calm. A sense of interconnection in themselves and to the earth. Many develop a strong sense of belonging to a place. Most often, I notice people shift into a place of open clarity. A slowing down and deepening into their inner presence. More trust in what they know, what they feel, and need. What needs to shift in their life. Many feel playful and inspired.
Is it possible to dialogue with nature?
Yes it is possible! My favorite exercise to guide is nature dialogue. Here’s how you can do it. Reflect on a question you have. Something you wonder about it in your life. That you’d like to know about yourself or maybe a decision you need to make.
Hold this question in your heart, and walk out into nature. Find somewhere you’re drawn to. It could be a particular tree or flower or plant. And sit by this nature being.
Ask permission to dialogue with them. Sense if, for example, the tree is open to you. If so, go ahead and ask your question. Then sit quietly and listen. Ask your question gently three times. Pausing after each time to practice listening from your heart. Allow your mind to relax. Notice the response.
Perhaps you hear or see or smell something in response. Maybe you suddenly know or understand or have a flash of insight. Be open to however nature communicates with you. This may be through your senses, an animal or insect that visits, a metaphor, or symbol. Just listen.
How can I experience nature alignment in community?
I offer a number of workshops and groups during the year for ecotherapy, personal healing, and embodiment. Upcoming workshops include Earth Speak.
About the author
Maia Kiley is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice. Certified in ecotherapy from Pacifica Graduate Institute, she leads ecotherapy groups and workshops. And as a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, Maia provides climate-aware therapy for those struggling with climate distress. She also has experience as an environmental activist and is certified in permaculture design from Quail Springs. Learn more at www.maiakiley.com or @the_ecotherapist.
What is Climate-Aware Therapy?
Climate-aware therapy addresses climate distress. If a therapist is climate-aware it means they are comfortable and versed in discussing emotions related to the climate crisis. This includes feelings such as anxiety, hopelessness, fear, guilt, shame, grief, loss, and helplessness. These feelings can be complicated and confusing as many find there aren’t spaces where they can comfortably discuss or express these feelings.
Climate-aware therapy provides a safe space for these feelings to be voiced and felt. This includes the validation of one’s unique experience in becoming aware of climate and ecological destruction. And the impact of this information on the psyche.
If we break down climate distress, we discover that it stems from a love of the planet. Perhaps love of a tree, plants, an animal, or fellow humans. And when what we love is threatened or destroyed, it brings grief. It can be helpful to work with climate distress through the model of stages of grief.
According to Elisabeth Kubler Ross, the five stages of grief include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages are a part of the framework that determines how we learn to live with the loss of a loved one. This model can be expanded to include the loss of place and nature. And it is possible to see how these stages play out collectively and globally as well. Many are still in denial about the severity of climate change. Others are very angry and take to the streets to protest. It is normal to shift from one stage to another in a non-linear way. Grief is not linear.
And of course, fear is also a natural response to a threatened environment. Our survival fear kicks in. The ability for our planet to provide safe, healthy air, water, and food has been compromised.
In a climate-aware therapy session, the client is given the space to grieve. By creating a safe and welcoming space for climate emotions like grief and climate anxiety, relief can be experienced.
Through being in a climate-aware therapy space, individuals can put words to their feelings. In A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, Sarah Jaquette Ray writes about Glenn Albrecht, an Australian philosopher who gives names to the feelings people have about their environments. “Albrecht found that the English language has few words for environmentally induced distress and illness. He coined the term solastalgia – a combination of the Latin word for comfort (solacium) and the Greek root for pain (-algia)-to capture the existential and psychological feelings people have when their environments undergo profound change or degradation” (Ray p 20-21).
Climate-aware therapy provides a foundation of validation. Experiencing strong emotions related to the state of the Earth, is normal. Climate distress is a healthy response to an unhealthy situation. Feeling upset about climate change is a natural reaction. Our internal system is alerting us to a significant problem and danger.
Feeling climate distress can be a lonely and isolating experience. Many find they don’t have spaces or social groups where they can openly and authentically speak or share concerns. Friends or colleagues may react to their message or distance themselves. Climate-aware therapy can support clients in learning how they want to speak about climate distress and climate change in private or public circles. For example, they may want to see if any of their friends feel the same.
Attending therapy sessions specifically addressing climate distress can relieve a sense of isolation. Knowing that others feel the same and learning about people and organizations involved in transformational action, can bring hope and a sense of community. Our society and media system are set up so that it can be difficult to know about all those creating positive change for a healthier Earth. News media especially focuses on stories that include the problem rather than processes of change. Plugging into this web of like-minded people and activists, can bring inspiration.
Through climate-aware therapy, individuals can express their feelings, grieve, and connect to the wider web of people who feel the same. As James Baldwin wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” The effects of facing one’s full climate distress in climate-aware therapy, can ripple out and be supportive to one’s circle of loved ones and community. For some, climate-aware therapy organically leads to aligned actions and a sense of one’s power in a larger movement to tend the Earth.
Nervous System Hacks to Relieve Low-Energy, Fatigue, and Depression Symptoms Now
Do you sometimes feel stuck to your bed or couch? Your body feels heavy. Lethargic. And then the negative thoughts come in. What’s wrong with me? I’m lazy. Pathetic.
And the spiral down begins …
Familiar symptoms of depression may set in: welling sadness in your heart, an apathetic in doing anything. Even moving your arm to get your phone and message a friend feels insurmountable. And then you feel awful about yourself. The cycle has begun …
Perhaps, at the extreme, you find yourself getting sleepy. As if your body is a computer that is shutting down. And you find it harder and harder to keep it on. This may mean that your nervous system has down-regulated.
Ideally, we want our nervous system to be in the middle. In a place where we are calm but alert. We can rest at night and digest our food and enjoy life in the present moment. This area of our nervous system where we can be comfortable and present is called our window of tolerance.
If events and situations (or even our thoughts) are distressing or experienced as too much, too fast then we move out of this window of tolerance. When we move out of this space in an upward direction, we become agitated and anxious. We may even experience panic. This is called up-regulation. Our nervous system senses danger and goes into fight or flight mode.
When we move out of our window of tolerance in a downward direction, we feel sleepy, shut-down, foggy, and checked-out. Our nervous system has down-regulated and switched into freeze mode. This can happen due to physical issues, stress, trauma, or overwhelm. And it may be experienced as a symptom of depression.
Depression is a general term that can include many symptoms including sadness, emptiness, anxiety, difficulty concentrating or sleeping, worthlessness and hopelessness, physical pain, etc. Another way of understanding depression is that feelings get stuck in the body. These feelings are not being processed or released effectively. It’s as if a beautiful, flowing river gets caught in a bunch of sticks, leaves and branches so that it can’t flow anymore. Feelings are meant to be felt, experienced, and then released so that life energy can continue to flow through us.
When we’re down-regulated and feel fatigue, low-energy, or depression this can mean we are not facing our feelings and allowing them to move through and out our body like a healthy, flowing river.
Often, people turn to outside substances to gain energy and try to move out of this state. They drink coffee or watch thrilling TV shows. But this is like putting a band-aid on the stuck-ness. It doesn’t get things moving long term.
I’d like to offer you some holistic solutions that (sometimes) create rapid results. These hacks can move you out of this by shifting your internal state. Therefore, you’re not reliant on anything outside you to feel better. You can generate energy and lift your nervous system yourself. This enables you to move back into wholeness and a sense of well-being.
But first, what is a holistic approach to mental health? Rather than just dealing with symptoms, a holistic approach addresses the root of the issue. Instead of just recommending medications or behavioral changes, holistic therapy goes deeper. And looks at symptoms as clues to underlying core issues.
Take for example a young woman with disordered eating behaviors and negative body image thoughts. I do not just address her issues with food and manage these symptoms. I do not just work with her cognitive thoughts and help her change them. Using depth therapy and a holistic lens, I invite her to become curious with me. We will look at when and why her disordered eating began. What may have been going on in her life then? Perhaps we’ll discover that she developed her eating disorder as a coping skill for unresolvable family tension. And her negative body image as a distortion of the way she sees herself not just physically but as a whole person too. Perhaps it is a reflection of her insecurities and low self-worth.
We will identify her root issues collaboratively - any unresolved feelings, fears, and desires. Then we begin the work to mend and heal these wounds. Through doing this and developing healthier coping skills, she will find she has less and less need for her disordered eating patterns. The better she feels about herself, the more capable and whole, the more she will accept and love her body just the way it is. This is a holistic approach to mental health. One that deals with the roots of the issue, not just the part of the plant that is above the ground, visible to all and soaking up sun. To thrive, our roots need to be strong and nourished and firmly rooted in the earth.
When you are low-energy, fatigued, and depressed for more than just a day or two here and there, there are deeper issues going on. First, you’ll want to rule out any physical issue. Like a vitamin or mineral deficiency. But if you are otherwise healthy, then these excellent (and sometimes rapidly yielding results) tools may be very helpful. You’ll discover as you try them, that there are things you can do to elevate and bring your nervous system back to balance. You will feel empowered when you discover all you need is your body and a connection with nature. You will feel less afraid of feeling down again because you’ll know just what to do to shift back to your window of tolerance.
Try these tools and see how you feel:
1. Stand up and place your feet hip distance apart. Bend your knees a little bit and bounce until you feel your weight securely balanced in your center. Stretch your arms out and inhale deeply, puffing your chest out. Say aloud something along the lines of: Thank you for this opportunity to understand and love myself more deeply. I am awake and present. I am grateful for these feelings and the opportunity to be with them and love them.
2. Stay in this same standing position and lean your weight forward. Now lean a little bit more so that you ride on the edge of losing your balance. Imagine you are opening and leaning into the feelings. Instead of shutting down or becoming numb, you are going to lean into the feelings a little bit. To meet them. This is a somatic experience that brings you into your body.
3. Be present. Stop going into the past or the “what if” future. Just BE in the present for a minute. Breathe.
4. Sit down and journal. Write out your feelings. If you don’t know what you’re feeling wait … and listen. Be patient. Start with the sensations in your body. Heavy, tingly, sadness in my heart…
5. If you still feel stuck and heavy, take a cold shower. See if you can stay in for a minute or two. Or simply wash your face slowly with cold water. Connect to the feeling of the coldness. Allow it to surprise your nervous system and bring it into the present moment. To focus your mind.
6. Put on a fun, upbeat song and dance. Move your body faster than you normally do, jump up and down, shake different body parts to the music, sing along. Need some musical suggestions? End of the Line by the Traveling Wilburys; any old disco song; You Got It by Roy Orbison; Taylor Swift; whatever gets you going.
7. Go outdoors with the game of finding one beautiful thing that captures your attention. Really look. Even if you live in a city. And then take a photo of it. Notice a plant with strange leaves or grasses exploding from a crack in pavement – the strength it took for those shoots to break through cement. Look up at the pattern the clouds make, look behind you and notice a bright color. This is a simple and fun ecotherapy (nature-based) technique to bring you into the present moment and into participation with the beauty of Earth.
8. Take a kundalini class with Kia Miller. Begin to change your energy in order to change your life. There are different physical kriyas (exercise sets) to change your energy – choose one that energizes you rather than relaxes.
9. Talk to someone you trust. This can be a friend, family member, or mentor. Someone who listens deeply to you and is emotionally aware. So that while you share, they don’t interrupt or try to fix your feelings. Share fully how you’re feeling and allow yourself to circle deeper into curiosity of what’s going on for you – like peeling layers of an onion. Allow your friend to be there and support you. Feel their presence even if it’s over the phone.
10. Schedule a session. I often work with clients who feel stuck, low-energy, fatigued, or depressed. In collaboration, we will look at what you’re experiencing and begin to bring understanding to your feelings. I will teach you skills and use somatic techniques to shift from heaviness and shut-down into a place of peaceful kindness toward yourself. We may uncover patterns that have been buried for a long time, feelings you didn’t know you had, and desires that you haven’t put voice to. Through the process of uncovering the root of your low-energy symptoms, you may even become grateful for the symptoms that led you to what you needed most. That led you to the healing and relationships and experiences that you truly desire.
Often people find that through leaning into the muck and sifting through it, they emerge far more awake and alive and clear than before. It is like clearing away cobwebs. What may appear at first as concerning or annoying symptoms become the signs that lead you into your truth, your physical and mental aliveness.