#235: Nature's Answers
I remember when I first heard about there being a big movement in Japan called “Forest Bathing”. Groups of people spending extended time meandering through a local wood to experience the healing energy and cleaner air made complete sense to me. Adding work to being outside MIGHT complicate the matter for some, but I’m a big fan, myself. I count myself quite fortunate to be able to stare outside and look at the trees when stumped, or occasionally take work calls with me on a walk through our nearby park. There’s a gentle alertness I’m able to find there that is much less common when I’m inside with no reminder of the natural world. When being outside isn’t possible, I find I can still tap into some of the same energy by using my imagination to put myself in places I’ve visited in the past. I might suggest conjuring up one of your own special spots in your mind as you read Amanda’s piece.
-Corey
NATURE'S ANSWERS
Back in college, whenever I was most overloaded with coursework, it was no question where I’d go to tackle it. Most of my friends would head straight to the library. Instead, when I was swamped, I went to the swamp.
On many stress-induced occasions, I loaded up my backpack, picked up an iced-coffee, and headed to this very spot on campus. There was a table beside a small pond surrounded by cabbage palms, live oaks, and the sounds of lively warblers and murmuring toads.
My fellow students used to turn to me and ask, “How do you not get totally distracted there?”
I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of biomimicry, how we can look to nature and biological entities for answers to human challenges. I was fascinated to learn that human flight was developed largely based on the close studies of the wingspan and movement of birds. Moreover, Velcro was invented as engineer George de Mestral realized that the burrs stuck to his canine’s fur had small hooks at the end of each one. Wind turbines were gleaned from the aerodynamics of humpback whale fins. The narrow profile of Japan’s Shinkansen Bullet Train, running at speeds up to 200mph, was inspired by an engineer doubling as a bird watcher who noticed the tapered shape of a kingfisher’s beak, thus implementing the nose-like cone of this speedy yet also amazingly silent vehicle.
I’m no expert on modern technology or engineering, but I think it’s wonderful that as a highly capable and innovative human species, we owe a massive part of our empirical developments to the natural world that gracefully presents itself to us each day.
I’ve always liked to say we live with the earth, not on it. And I value that sometimes I can mirror the ways of mother nature to ease my soul, especially during periods of distress.
Now usually, I’d show up to do my work feeling the weight of anxiety pressing down on my shoulders and the shakiness from the coffee rifling through my mind down to the tips of my fingers I’d been chewing at. But here in the swamp, I’d flip open my laptop, flick away a few ants crawling near my books, and begin chipping away at the to-do list.
And the truth is, I would get distracted.
The wind would interrupt my typing and softly remind me to look up at the flowing leaves and take a deep breath in. The rustling trees asked me to pause and simply listen. The sunlight gently draped over my skin, feeling like a heated blanket of comfort and reassurance. The activities of living beings in the mossy water beside me stirred up a tranquil energy. The squirrels playfully chasing each other, falling from branch to branch, moved my lips into a smile. The rolling clouds passing overhead told me that everything is temporary. Life is constantly changing and I have so little control over so much.
In a way, it felt like I tapped into my own version of biomimicry on a much simpler, more personal level, as I sat beneath the Floridian jungle that was my college campus.
The many distractions in nature that would effortlessly transpire reminded me to be present and appreciative. They motivated me to be more productive, creative, focused.
These “interruptions” allowed me to feel more connected than ever to our home on earth and all that I get to co-exist with. So I actually welcomed them, knowing very well my mind would get lost… but in nourishing thoughts.
Sometimes just being out in the natural world can help me navigate life’s complexities, giving me the awareness, the healing, and the mental clarity I need to see what’s in front of me a bit more clearly. Sometimes nature has all the answers in simplest form... answers I don’t think I’d find on the bookshelves in the library.
