Grow Your Multi-sensory Nature
Marlow Shami
Winter 2006.

Greetings friends of Nature--

I hope you are well and experiencing nature's restorative touch in your daily life. Be the touch through the laughter of a stranger, view of your favorite tree, a hint of spring in the air, or the loving embrace of a friend -- drink deeply of these moments and allow them to saturate your soul. These precious gifts can bring meaning, grow faith, and inspire the energy and creativity to reciprocate naturally in surprising and unexpected ways.

This year continues to be a challenge on a global level -- politically, socially, and environmentally. It takes focus, work, and joy, to hold our vision for a just and sustainable world. Our healing practices, and actions -- the very stuff that contributes towards a healthy community, are needed now more then ever.

From my perspective as a nature-based therapist and teacher, we discover powerful medicine and a brilliant collaborator when we listen to what nature is communicating. Being and living as a part of nature takes skill and courage in these times.

My upcoming workshops in CT, MA, and VT are designed to facilitate a deeper connection with Nature and grow the skills to maintain our healing relationship with Nature in everyday life. Take a look at my NaturalSense Calendar below.

Try the Nature connecting activity below. It's a simple and powerful way to energize your unique connection with nature. It will help you enliven your many senses, and make you more receptive to nature's intelligence. Co-creation starts with communication, and nature is always there for us.

Nature's Way Meditations CD is out! If you enjoy or would like to experience nature-based guided meditation visit http://www.anaturalsense.com/meditation_cd.htm. You can experience four different meditations plus a special 5th track -- the instrumental "Homecoming" by award-winning composer Nancy Tucker in this 70 min CD.

I'm looking for people who have been using Nature's Way Meditations CD for chronic pain. Please contact me if you feel comfortable telling me about your experience via email marlowshami@sbcglobal.net. Thanks!

With Nature in heart and mind--

Marlow

NaturalSense
Volume 6 Issue 18

CONTENTS:

* Mission statement
* Favorite Quotes to Contemplate
* Activity: Grow Your Multi-sensory Nature
* Marlow's NaturalSense Calendar
* Resources & Community Events

NaturalSense e-newsletter investigates 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.

The quality of our life is directly related to the quality of our relationship with Nature. This newsletter provides an essay, nature-based activity, calendar, and resource list to inspire the deepening of your natural healing connections with Nature.

Marlow Shami, M.S. is a Nature-based healer, teacher, and writer. She has a private healing practice in Litchfield, Connecticut. She conducts Nature and healing workshops, Nature Meditation Circles, and publishes a free quarterly e-newsletter, NaturalSense®. Her specialty is the healing connection between humans and the natural world.

SOME FAVORITE QUOTES TO CONTEMPLATE

Nature is telling me to take it easy today. I'm healing from the flu. Rather than write an essay -- a process that would take more energy than I have at the moment, I'd like to share some of my favorite quotes. Enjoy!

"Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by the laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. Our task must be to free ourselves from (our) prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." ~~Albert Einstein		"Consciously or unconsciously, people are seeking the healing that can come from interaction with nearby nature. Interaction can no longer be thought of as a luxury. It is a vital, necessary part of being a whole person enjoying optimal health . not only for the healing of patients but also for the healing of the planet through purposefully nurturing the relationship between humans and the natural world." ~~ Irvine & Warber, Alternative Therapies
"Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made personal, merely personal feeling. This is what is the matter with us: we are bleeding at the roots because we are cut off from the Earth and sun and stars. Love has become a grinning mockery because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the Tree of Life and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table." ~~ D.H. Lawrence		"The way out of specialization and professionalism, the isolation they breed, and the unreality that eventually follows upon self-enclosure is to entertain fresh ideas. Today such ideas are blowing in from the world, the ecological psyche, the soul of the world by which the human soul is afflicted, to which the human soul is commencing to turn with fresh interest, because in this world soul the human soul has always had its home." ~~Hillman
"We settled down, developed an ecological superiority complex and bet our evolutionary future on the control of nature...This is not really an "environmental problem." It's a human problem. What needs to be conquered now is not the wilderness, but ourselves. We need to understand that it is civilization that is out of control." ~~Nash, Roderick		"Our excessive disconnection from Nature's attractive and intelligent perfection underlies the insanity of our suffering, greed, and destructiveness. Unadulterated natural systems seldom suffer them. To recover our sanity, we must reconnect our psyche with nature's genius and restore its strength and peace in our consciousness, thoughts and soul." ~~Mike J. Cohen, Ed.D.Project NatureConnect
"Experience of relationship is more likely to generate feelings of being part and parcel of ecological processes, rather than separate and somehow insulated from it. Damage to the whole by the parts is, in a sense, 'experienced' as also damaging the parts, including oneself." ~~ Paul Maiteny		"The choice of where we put our attention is ultimately our most powerful freedom. Our choice of attitude and focus affects not only our perceptions and experiences, but also the experience and behaviors of others." ~~Elizabeth Targ, Jane Katra
"Love! Even by the most rigorous scientific experimentation and analytical logic, it appears that we have come upon nothing less than the driving force of life and the physical universe." ~~ Robert G. Jahn

ACTIVITY: Grow Your Multi-sensory Nature

Steps To Assist You in Deepening Your Relationship With Nature

Based on Michael J. Cohen's Natural System's Thinking Process illustrated in his book entitled: Well Mind Well Earth www.ecopsych.com

Meaningful relationships between friends, family, community members, and countries are based on communication, mutual respect, and dialogue. How do we create this kind of meaningful relationship with the natural world when nature doesn't seem to communicate with words? This activity will help you develop your sense-abilities, nature's nonverbal language. Your senses are a wise and healing inheritance grown from 4 billion years of life/nature's evolution. Sense-abilities are key to the development of sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships with all of life.

STEP 1: Gaining permission to resonate with Nature. Go out doors, take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Take a minute to clear your mind of worries and busy thoughts. Calm and center your self by simply feeling your feet on the ground.

STEP 2: Once you feel centered and present, follow a positive attraction in nature. Choose only natural attractions such as a tree, pool of light, bush or rock, animal or insect.

STEP 3: Once you find a positive attraction stay with the area or entity for a minute or so. If you still feel welcomed, you have gained consent from nature to stay. The feeling of welcome is natures way of communicating to you consent to counsel with this natural attraction. If you do not feel welcomed for any reason, respect this communication from nature. This is nature communicating "redirection. Follow another positive attraction and spend a minute noticing if the feeling of welcome lasts if so proceeds to step 4.

STEP 4: Pick one situation you would like to deal with now. Have you been feeling blue? Are you struggling with a health problem? Is there a Have you been meaning to call that old friend or make a new one? Is there a community project you have been interested in but have not been able to participate in or start?

STEP 5: Once you are clear on the life situation you would like address ask the natural area or entity for counsel on your situation. Be clear about your particular situation/concern as you ask for guidance. You may talk out loud, to yourself or write your question down on a piece of paper.

STEP 6: Quiet your mind and just be present. Drop any expectations; they block receptivity towards nature's guidance. Notice whatever you notice in the natural area (smells, sounds, colors, animals, etc.) and within your self (feelings memories, images).

After five to 20 minutes write down some of the highlights of what you experienced and notice how they address your life situation. Take your time. Trust more understanding may be come apparent the following day, or in a dream, or when you do the activity again another day.

***Make sure you thank the area for joining you in this activity before you leave.
Gratitude feels good! Remember the sense of gratitude amplifies the healing effect of your connection with nature.

~~I love reading about your experiences. If you would like to share your activity experience with me email your comments. Email comments to marlowshami@sbcglobal.net

CALENDAR

March 8, Wednesday, 9-11:45 am -- Nature As Teacher: The Natural Systems Thinking Process at the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society 2006 Conference, "EE Crossings...Connecting with Art, History, Literature, Math and Science." College of the Holy Cross Hogan Campus Center, Worcester, MA preregistration necessary -- www.massmees.org

March 25, Saturday, 1-4pm -- How Nature Heals: The Natural Systems Thinking Process for 9-12 Educators and/or Mental Health & Substance Abuse presented at True Colors XIII: Building Inclusive Communities -- A Best Practices Conference March 24 and 25 at Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT. preregistration necessary WWW.OurTrueColors.org, 1-888-565-5551

March 30, Thurs. 7-8PM -- Nature Based Meditation and Healing. A talk and healing meditation experience at Passiflora Tea Room/Apothecary, 526 Main Street, New Hartford, CT 860-379-TEAS. NC

April 7, Fri., 9AM-4PM, Nature As Healer workshop as part of the Association for Experiential Education 2006 Northeast Regional Conference "Sharpen Your Edge: Tune your Mind, Method, and Message. April 7-9 Bolton Valley Resort, Bolton Vermont. WWW.boltovalley.com. 802-434-6831 cost $100

April 3 and 10, 6:30 - 8:30PM - Held on two consecutive Mondays, Discover Yourself Through Nature's Wisdom, Woodbury Middle School, Woodbury, CT. Preregistration necessary www.foothillsae.org, 1-800-300-4781, $35

May 8 & 15, 6:30 - 8:30PM -- Held on two consecutive Mondays. Growing A Meaningful Life. What's Nature Got to do With it? Hall High School, room C101, West Hartford, CT. Preregistration necessary (860) 523-3535, $29 residents, $39 non-res.

May 17 & 24, 6:30-8:30PM -- Held on two consecutive Wednesdays. Discover Yourself Through Nature's Wisdom, Northwestern Regional High School, Winsted, CT. Preregistration necessary www.foothillsae.org, 1-800-300-4781, $35

May 31 & June 7, 6:30-8:30PM -- Held on two consecutive Wednesdays. Discover Yourself Through Nature's Wisdom, Torrington High School, Torrington, CT. Preregistration necessary www.foothillsae.org, 1-800-300-4781, $35

June 3 & 10, 9:30AM - 12:30PM, Held on two consecutive Saturdays -- Awaken Your Natural Wisdom. The space is wheelchair accessible. $65 for members, $75 for nonmembers of White Memorial. Preregistration necessary call 860-491-2067 or register on line at here.

White Memorial Member Registration $65.00

White Memorial Non-Member Registration $75.00

COMMUNITY EVENTS & RESOURCES

PLAN EARLY! OCT. 4th-6th -- Maggie Spilner, author and was a long time columnist with Prevention Magazine, offers Walking Vacations. Usually 40-60 people gather for walks, fitness classes, entertainment and exploring on foot. Her next Walkers Rally takes place Oct 4th-8th 2006 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Visit Maggie's website to learn more www.walkforallseasons.com.

A Season Of NonViolence Jan 30 - April 4 at the Litchfield Community Center, CT. Call (860)496-9322 for details ~~March 8, 7-8:30PM Drum Circle & Songs of Peace ~~March 15, 7-8:30PM Dances of Universal Peace ~~March 23, 7-8:30PM Forgiveness ~~March 29, 3:30-5PM Department of Peace Initiative ~~April 4, 3:30-5PM Finale

March 15, 10AM-1:00PM United Nations Student NonViolence Celebration, 1st Ave at 45th street, NYC. Nonviolence & Human Rights -- a program designed and presented by young people.

March 15, 7PM Global Climate Change: An Action Plan, Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman St., Hartford, CT. registration (860) 509-9555, events@hartsem.edu. $10.

May 17 - 20, Washington, DC, Spiritual Activism, National Conference to create a spiritual political agenda and train organizers to take it into their communities.
www.tikkun.org/community/spiritual_activism_conference.

RESOURCES

What the Bleep Down the Rabbit Hole...the next evolution...see an all new extended version of "What The Bleep" www.whatthebleep.com

Support Green Businesses: Instead of spending your money at big box stores, spend your money with businesses that respect the environment, workers and the community. More than 2,000 of these businesses are listed in Co-op America's National Green Pages. 800-58g-reen, www.greenpages.org

The Earth Charter http://www.earthcharter.org/ - This document sets out values and principles for a sustainable future.

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. email marlowshami@sbcglobal.net

GIVE A GIFT TO A FRIEND!
Please forward this article to your friends and colleagues, since your recommendation is how NaturalSense® grows. Anyone can subscribe to NaturalSense®. It's FREE. To subscribe or unsubscribe email Mshami@aol.com with your intentions. Make sure to let me know what email address you would like to use for delivery of NaturalSense®.

Copyright © 2006, all rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute NaturalSense® Newsletter as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached. The author of this article is: Marlow D. J. Shami. Contact her by email at: marlowshami@sbcglobal.net, POB 33, Goshen, CT 06756 USA

Create balance and healing by deepening your relationship with Nature.

Marlow Shami
NaturalSense ®
PO Box 333
Goshen, CT 06756
TEL: (860) 491-2067
Email: marlowshami@sbcglobal.net
www.naturalsense.org