Feel Nature: Get Outside Often

We need to get outside, to breathe fresh air, to see the sun, to feel nature. There was a time, when I worked at Microsoft near Seattle, where I never saw the sun. Even now, memories of sitting in a closet-like room with no windows, where I had to walk out a door and look down a long, narrow hallway to the small window a hundred feet away, to even see a peek outside, causes my stomach to twist in knots, my heart to clamp down, my throat to tighten and my head to hurt. To be kept away from the outdoors, to not FEEL Nature on a regular basis, can’t be good!

I knew it back then, in my gut, and it turns out that my desire to feel nature was right! Recent studies are showing that activities such as taking walks outside, sitting in the sun, forest bathing, can all significantly reduce stress, anxiety, hypertension, and many other modern ailments.

My current “office” lets me sit in front of a window and look out over wildflowers, many types of trees, out onto a field of corn, wheat, elderberries, squash, and more. Away in the distance are the stately trees of a 5400 acre Chickamauga National Military Park. Beyond that, Lookout Mountain rises up in the distance. Birds, butterflies and other bugs flit about. Squirrels, rabbits and the occasional deer scamper past my view. The sky changes colors throughout the day, providing a new scene every time I look up from my computer screen (which is fairly frequently!) In short, from my office, I can view nature in all its Northwest Georgia glory.

But that’s still not enough. Why? I don’t completely FEEL Nature.

Be IN the Outdoors!

The studies I’ve read, and the way I sense, verify that, to feel nature, to get the benefits of being in nature, you have to get outdoors. These studies say that as little as 15 minutes outside, or exposing yourself to nature, has a calming, relaxing, healing impact that can last up to two hours!

Here on Spirit Tree Farms, we try to grow a lot of our own food. We try to eat healthy. We make our own elderberry juice. We forage and make teas and salads out of native plants. Yet, too often, we stay inside for long periods of time, content with just looking out the windows at the natural beauty that surrounds us.

That doesn’t seem to be enough.

When I don’t get outside on a regular basis, I can feel my soul, my spirit, my body start to clamp down, start to feel the angst I felt in those days at Microsoft. So I’ve resolved to feel nature more, to get outside, breathe fresh air, feel the breeze, hear the rustling of the leaves, the far-away murmuring roar of the West Chickamauga Creek rushing over the rocks of the prehistoric fishing weir, to smell the musty autumn leaves or the summer’s passion flower blooms, to feel the sun (or the rain or the mist or the night) on my face, to connect to the earth by taking my shoes off and getting grounded.

Even when it’s cold, I can take a few moments to step outside, hold my hands out, yawp at the setting sun, wave to Orion high in the night sky, welcome the dawn of a new day, discover a new plant, bird or bug I’ve never noticed before. I can take that time to really feel nature.

Feel Nature To Get Connected

When I take the time to really feel nature, I can tell I’m connecting with the Universe. And it’s not just reconnecting with the land I’m on here on the Catoosa / Walker County Line, or on a beach, or in the brackish waters of a sleepy river near my Dad’s house in Wisconsin. It’s reconnecting with my purpose, with what God wants me to do. It’s getting back in tune, being in synch, tuning in to a universal harmonic that permeates all because it is around all and in all and through all. To feel nature aligns my heart, head and soul not only with me, myself, but with the greater All.

What benefits will you find
when you take the time
to venture
and feel Nature?