The grounding capacity of nature!
You spend most of your time indoors either behind your office desk, in airconditioned buildings or your car. It is easy to get through an entire day failing to step outside for a moment and actually take a minute. These artificial environments can unintentionally get you in a funk. Here’s 15 ways you can connect back to nature daily, ground yourself and feel so much better every single day.
Here are 15 ways to connect back to nature:
Go for a hike or walk in a park. The time frame, difficulty level or intensity doesn’t matter, just go.
Spend time gardening or growing plants. Look after for plants at your house or office. Start a new vegie patch or plant some flowers you love. Looking after plants and seeing your accomplishment grow is lovely. Putting your hands into soil will also ground you because it literally brings you back to earth.
Visit a local botanical garden. Take in someone else’s green thumb skills. Do some deep breathing, take the shoes off and listen to the environment around you.
Take a beach vacation. Salt and ocean waves are a recipe for happiness. They help you feel cleansed, being in the water enables you to feel lighter and more relaxed. The crash of the waves, the squish of the sand between your toes is relaxing and exfoliating.
Camp in the wilderness. Getting into nature and living a simple life for a few days is glorious. Allow yourself to disconnect. It’s often these wilderness breaks that are one of the few things that help people really connect with themselves these days.
Try bird-watching. See if you can find a story amongst the birds or examine their behaviours, it is often quite interesting to watch what they do and why.
Visit a national park. There are many national parks within Australia and across the globe. These are handpicked parcels of land that have been recognised as necessary untouched environments. This means flora and fauna is likely to be more plentiful and the areas themselves far calmer in activity.
Spend time in a forest or woodland. Check out the ecosystem at work while you visit- how each of the animals use part of their environment, learn how forests and woodlands are being protected and spend some time simply observing what is in the space. Many people go to environments that are unique to only a few places (sometimes even only one place) in the world yet because they aren’t observing it they don’t appreciate just how unique, fragile and beautiful it is. Appreciate!
Go kayaking or canoeing. This is a great way to get exercise endorphins while also enjoying a glide across the water. It will help you to feel calm, focussed and is a different vantage point to view nature. Sometimes new vantage points is all we need for new clarity in our everyday lives.
Watch the sunrise or sunset. The most superb time to reflect on yourself and life. Sunrises and sunsets have this odd way of bringing your a sense of hope and instant gratitude. It’s probably why place all across the world teem with tourists just for that opportune photo (like in Santorini, Greece).
Volunteer for a beach or park cleanup. Sometimes the best way to become grounded is to look at reality. An area messy? Unkempt? Clean it up. It doesn’t have to be yours, you just have to respect that you have the capacity to enjoy environments until they are ruined (which hopefully won’t happen).
Visit a lake or pond for fishing or swimming. Freshwater is cleansing just like the ocean but in a completely different way. Where the ocean calms your tears freshwater provides great clarity to your mind. A deep in a freshwater lake is good as a run!
Observe wildlife from a safe distance. Essentially stop focussing on the world being about humans and think about the other half. It’s a great way to come back to centre.
Attend a nature photography workshop. Learning something new can be incredibly grounding because it requires you to get out of your comfort zone and admit when you aren’t great at something, to be a novice again. Being a novice is very freeing, its also a bonus that it helps keep your ego in check.
Practice mindfulness or meditation in a natural setting. There’s no point doing any of the things above unless you actually set an intention to be present, observe, notice and calm your breathing down in nature. Nature has many ways of making you feel more grounded but it is still a choice you actively choose or not.
What ways do you like to connect with nature? What helps you the most?
