Ice-cream, Farms, Nature and Healing
Marlow Shami  
Spring 2002. 

Greetings NaturalSense Readers--

Spring greetings. A big welcome to new subscribers of the NaturalSense e-newsletter. And a big thank you to all of you for introducing NaturalSense to your friends, colleagues and family. Your NaturalSense connections have brought new faces to my workshops and inspiring emails describing personal experiences of nature's healing effects.

For those of you new to NaturalSense I invite you to subscribe to my nature based activity sent via email. The short activities you will receive are designed to enhance your daily sense of well being. If you are interested in participating, hit reply after typing "YES activity!" into the subject line. Only those who respond will receive the activities.

Best to you with Nature in heart and mind--

Marlow Shami

NaturalSense
SPRING 2002 ISSUE
Volume 2 Issue 7


CONTENTS:

* Mission statement
* Essay: Ice-cream, Farms, Nature and Healing
* Activity: Touching Your Heart in Nature
* Resources

Mission Statement: NaturalSense e-newsletter offers the opportunity to investigate how and why our relationship with nature can be a healing one. The nature of healing is rooted in our relationship with all of life. When we wake up to our authentic self, our thoughts, actions, and life reflect the innate compassion and creative change of the natural world. This newsletter provides an essay, activity, calendar, and resource list to inspire your natural healing connections with Nature.

Marlow Shami is a Holistic Healing Practitioner, Teacher, Photographer, and Writer. She has a private healing practice in Litchfield and New Haven counties, Connecticut. She conducts Nature As Healer workshops, energy healing/meditation circles, and publishes a quarterly e-newsletter, NaturalSense®. Her specialty is the healing connection between humans and the natural world.

ESSAY
Ice-cream, Farms, Nature and Healing

By, Marlow Shami

His words were to the point. The farmer explained that developers approach him yearly offering huge sums of money to purchase his farm. He has refused. He has a commitment to keep the family farm alive. In addition to raising corn and cows, he has created an ice-cream stand. The farmer observed patrons of the ice-cream stand. Often, both parents and children were unfamiliar with the sounds and smells of a farm. Seekers of ice cream unexpectedly discovered the smells, big brown eyes, moos, hay, even the wet cement-floored barn stalls where the cows were milked. These were often first time experiences for these families and it was disconcerting to hear how alien a farm can be for so many. This farmer's story was broadcast on a Connecticut Public Radio program focused on Connecticut's dwindling farm lands.

The story elicited both concern and compassion as I pondered our culture's popular values and world view. How can we expect to preserve Nature and treat our inner and outer nature with respect and care if we are not aware of being a part of Nature? If the cows in the barn are smelly and have nothing to do with the ice cream we enjoy, how can we feel gratitude and relationship with the co-creators of this treat? If we stay indoors 95% of our adult lives (US government statistic from the 1950s...we are inside even more 50 years later), how can we conduct life with an appreciation of how sun, soil, animals, and plants all contribute to life on Earth right down to the oxygen we breathe? If we are taught we are separate from and superior to all other life forms on the planet it makes sense that the above family farm experience is a common one played out in many different contexts. The result of our separation from nature's life support system is a lack of value for the preservation of farms, open spaces and most anything that doesn't look like us.

Our rational minds can help us out of this culturally supported perspective. When we take time to connect the dots between the microorganisms in the soil, the trees, the grass, the sun and rain, the cows and us, we visualize what some call the "web of life." This visualization can begin to awaken a healthy awareness of a world that yearns for our return home.

Our species is part of an elegant, diverse, interdependent life supporting system. All systems need full, (and in our human case, conscious), participation of all parts in order to function. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines a system as...a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole; a group of interacting bodies under the influence of related forces. When one part of a system falls out of sync, no longer contributing in a natural and healthy way, the system as a whole changes.

What happens when I fall and pull a muscle or jar my spine? My body compensates for the injured muscle or my spine's misalignment. If I don't tend the muscle properly or adjust my spine so it is in alignment once again, my body begins to compensate, driven by pain or my lack of self-awareness in resolving the injury. If I don't attend to my injury, my body continues to compensate as best it can. Just like the natural world around us, my inner ecology strives to maintain homeostasis. If I never address the original injury, I end up with additional layers of body problems (and possibly emotional ones), all of which are symptoms of that first injury. The first injury, left unhealed, is that part of our body's system that needs to be addressed. But we become distracted by the layers of symptoms. This story is analogous to the psychic and emotional injury resulting from a culture that taught us to unnaturally disconnect from our native home, Nature.

Certainly, nature is always changing, and so are we. This is the nature of life so beautifully demonstrated by the seasons. We can't change the seasons nor can we change how nature's life giving system works. When we forget or never learn where the ice cream, oxygen, food, or natural beauty come from, we forget a big part of who we are. We lose the opportunity to become far more than the sum of our human parts. We forget our authentic nature, natural rhythm, and ability to change and grow in life supporting ways. As a result, we lose our source of true soulful sustenance. The hunger/emptiness often felt as a result of this disconnection from our natural world and natural self makes us extremely vulnerable to the trappings of a material based consumer culture. It is easy to become distracted by substitutes for authentic sustenance. This issue alone is a topic for a future essay.

Connecting the dots of your own personal experience can be a powerful daily practice. When you sit down to eat a meal, take a moment to ponder where the food came from, how it grew, and what sources of energy and care brought the food to your table. Notice when your body's inner nature asks you to rest, eat, seek companionship, or involve your self in a community or political action group. Honor these urgings/attractions from your inner nature by taking action, be it a nap, a visit with a friend, a healthy meal, or going door to door with educational literature on protecting children from pesticides. Let your rational mind know that these life-supporting attractions are indeed wise guidance. Feel the emotional sense of gratitude that often arises after consciously thanking your inner nature for its guidance.

Most importantly, take yourself outside first thing everyday. Consider this your sacred time to enliven your authentic self. Be radical. Our culture doesn't teach us the value and healthy power gained through taking actions to deepen your relationship with nature. Nature is our original role model and a perfect teacher of what is needed to heal our connection in the web of life. Nature is always available anywhere, anytime. Your intention, love and receptivity are all the tools needed to connect your unique dots in the web of life. It is spring. Make your centering time with nature a joyful one and watch your authentic nature bloom and grow.

ACTIVITY: Touching Your Heart in Nature

Set aside 10 or more minutes for this activity.

~~1. Find a location in a natural area you sense as welcoming. Do this by noticing what attracts your attention in a positive way. You may notice a color that you like, a tree that is beautiful, smell a fragrance that reminds you of a special time in your life, or simply have a good "gut" feeling about the natural area you find your self drawn to. Take your time. Make sure you really feel welcomed. Do this by spending a few seconds to sense if the attraction is the same or even more so. If not, consider this redirection and follow another positive attraction.

2. Take a few minutes to remember a time in your life when you felt totally seen, loved and accepted without judgment or expectation. If you can't recall a time create the experience now. Be that compassionate witness for yourself. Amplify the feelings this memory/creation elicits. Savor these sensations and feelings and say to yourself "I accept this love and compassion."

3. Now focus on the natural area. Get in touch with all the details you find attractive. Describe the details to yourself. You might say "I love the feel of the spring breeze on my face" or, "The trees shadows make lovely patterns on the field. " Your intentionally making yourself present in the moment as you experience your relationship with Nature. Do this with as many positive attractions as you like.

4. Focus on your body now. If you feel comfortable you may gently close your eyes. Image a golden light and/or comfortable sensation of warmth in your heart area, your center of compassion. Experience this positive energy as it moves round and round like a wheel of light/warmth. Comfortably, naturally, experience the energy as it expands through your entire body and out into the natural area you are resonating with. Notice how you feel as this energy deepens your connection to the natural area.

5. Now experience the energy return to you as a gift from the natural area. The energy returns from the heart of Nature to cycle back to itself (remember you are a part of nature) by touching you. Experience resonating with nature until you feel the process is complete. THANK the area before you leave. Gratitude feels great and enhances your healing connection with Nature.

6. Take a few minutes to write down three things you learned during this activity. Writing helps to reinforce your experience. The rational minds like to get stuck in the head...forgetting all the natural senses we have that make us more whole and healed. When we write down what touched us in an activity, the mind learns it needs this kind of input to be healthy and grounded. Non-verbal sensory details massage and awaken our multi sensory potential. When we wake up, we make healthier choices in personal and community life.

RESOURCES:

GREEN ENERGY
Every one in America has a certified option to support renewable energy and help to clean up our states, country and world. Green E The Center for Resource Solutions is an organization that monitors our green options and offers educational materials and resources. The web site provides a map of the USA and allows you to learn what your green options are. For more information call (888)-63GREEN or visit their excellent website http://www.green-e.org

There are 25 states, CT being one, that have had electricity supply deregulated. In CT we have two GREEN alternatives. Green Mountain Energy and Connecticut Energy Cooperative. When you go with a green supplier in CT, you utilize solar, wind, fuel cell, and methane gas from landfills. In CT if you are still with a non-green supplier your energy needs come from the following sources 37% nuclear, 20% natural gas, 18% coal, and 16% oil. I switched last year to the CT. Energy Cooperative. It was easy to do and the minimal cost increase is a small price to pay for helping clean up our air.

Connecticut Green Energy alternatives:
Connecticut Energy Cooperative ... www.powerwithpurpose.com
Green Mountain Energy ... http://www.greenmountainenergy.com

Project NatureConnect- If you would like to learn more about how you might increase you sense-abilities and contribute towards a sustainable way of life/world check the classes, degree programs and resources offered through Project NatureConnect and its affiliates http://www.ecopsych.com


READERS WRITE COLUMN
NaturalSense® from time to time publishes a Reader's Write column. Please don't be shy, email any questions or comments and I'll do my best to respond to them in a future column.

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Create balance and healing by deepening your relationship with Nature.

Marlow Shami
NaturalSense ®
PO Box 33
Goshen, CT 06756
TEL: (860) 491-2067
Email: MShami@aol.com
www.naturalsense.org