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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.
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"We have fifty-three senses? But I can barely
handle five"!
Marlow Shami
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Greetings --
At this moment the rain is falling on two feet of rapidly melting
snow. Fog mutes the dark, varied outlines of trees and shrubs that
border the fields surrounding my home. I think it is important to
ask myself often, how do I experience the healing process with
nature in this moment? How does it feel and how does it work for me?
How does this process contribute to the health of our global home?
My questions are often answered in paradox and metaphor. Nature is
key in the equation. Nature offers us a base line of this simple
unadulterated truth: Healing is found in the experience of feeling
and acting and even thinking from a center point of love.
All these words add up to a reminder as to my mission in life, the
mission of the NaturalSense® e-newsletter, and my
workshops, and private healing practice. Cultivating a deep
relationship with the more-than-human world grows the healing balm
our world needs right now. My wish is that this newsletter helps to
inform and inspire your healing relationship with nature; something
we will all benefit in.
Thank you all, for passing on NaturalSense® to your
friends, family and co-workers. Word of mouth and word via email has
brought many new readers as well as participants in Nature As
Healing workshops, healing circles and private counseling &
healing with nature practice.
With Nature in heart and mind--
Marlow
NaturalSense®
CONTENTS:
* Mission statement
* Essay: We have fifty-three senses? But I can barely handle five!
* Activity: Sensory Reunion
* Marlow's NaturalSense® Calendar
* Resources & Community Events
Mission Statement: NaturalSense® e-newsletter offers
you an 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
as a part of nature, our thoughts, actions, and life reflect the
innate compassion and creative change of the natural world. As a
result we become a part of creating a sustainable world, just as
nature is. This newsletter provides an essay, activity, calendar,
and resource list to inspire deepening your natural healing
connections with Nature.
Marlow Shami M.S. is a Holistic Healing Practitioner,
Teacher, and Writer. She has a private healing practice in
Litchfield, Connecticut. She conducts Nature As Healer workshops,
Nature Heals Meditation Circles, and publishes a quarterly
e-newsletter, NaturalSense®. Her specialty is the
healing connection between humans and the natural world.
In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice,
but compassion. Not me against you, not me straightening out the
present ill, fighting to gain a result for myself or others,
but compassion, a life that goes against nothing and fulfills
everything. ~~Charlotte Joko Beck
Essay ~
"We have fifty-three senses? But I can
barely handle five"!
by Marlow Shami
Late on a winter evening some years back, I was on my way
home from Albany NY. Suddenly, on the thruway entry ramp, I
was struck by an urge to pull over and stop. There was no breakdown
lane, but I honored this urge anyway. My left leg gingerly
reached out the open door touching down on a slick of black ice.
Cars drove by ignoring my waves out the window to slow down. I sat
in the car for twenty minutes watching car after car pass my warning
flails and lights, then hit their brakes at the curve of the ramp
and slide out of control. Why did I stop and why did they not?
“We have fifty-three senses? But I can barely handle five!”
responded a reader of my NaturalSense email newsletter. This comment
got me thinking. How did we learn to think of more support and more
connection as overwhelming? We were not taught or allowed to
experience our natural environment and sensory connections as real
or valuable. I believe the root of the reader’s
misconception lies in how overwhelming our lives are when we operate
with just a few dominant ungrounded senses. This reader assumes the
more senses she learns to use, the more she increases her exposure
to stress via over stimulation. Just the opposite is true.
We are, on the average, exposed to over three thousand
advertising images, sounds and logos a day (see the book Deadly
Persuasion, By Jean Kilbourne). I thought this number excessive
until I started counting one day while driving. Within a minute I’d
counted eight and these were just visual. We are brought up to be
consumers, seeking meaning from outside. You are what you have, or
as CNN says, you are what you know. We consume information and
acquire things in order to be acceptable, or to fit in. To make
matters more challenging, we are taught solutions to problems can be
found quickly.
The other piece of information that contributes to this feeling
of not being able to even handle 5 of our 53 senses is the fact that
on the average an adult spends over 95% of life indoors. The walls
of the buildings we spend most of our lives in are literally cutting
us off from our nature.
Think of a time you have been really thirsty. Recall a hot day
you took a hike and forgot your water bottle. That sense of being
thirsty is real. Just as real as the water that will satisfy it. You
can’t see, taste, touch, hear, or smell it, but it is real. In
fact, the sense of thirst evolved long before our species did.
Thirst is our inner nature seeking homeostasis. The natural world
created this sense and we inherited it. We seek water and stay
alive, hopefully to contribute in life giving ways to the
ever-changing process of global homeostasis. Without this sense we
would not know when our body is dehydrated.
Dr. Michael Cohen, a
leader in the field of ecopsycholgy, breaks down these fifty-three
senses and sensitivities into four categories. I’ll list a few
senses in each category. 1. The radiation senses; like sense
of color, sense of moods and identities attached to color, and sense
of temperature. 2. The feeling senses; sensitivity to gravity, air
and wind pressure, motion. 3. The chemical senses; hormonal sense,
such as pheromones, appetite or hunger for food, water or air. The
mental senses; pain, external and internal, mental or spiritual
distress, sense of self, including friendship, companionship and
power, psychic capacity.
These many senses are the real stuff that feeds our body, mind
and soul. Senses and sensations usually feel alien to a modern
person brought up closeted from the web of life’s sensory
connections. Words and reason are unique senses to our species,
however they are no more valuable than the other 51 senses. In fact
our cognitive abilities need the input of our many other non-verbal
sense. Without this input, it is very difficult to think sensibly.
The rational mind can be our own worst enemy and the guard at the
door of our closet. It is scary to venture out, given our negative
cultural attitudes about nature being wild, primitive and
destructive. We have a lot to undo and reconnect with eh?
That late winter night I honored my senses by acting on them. I
sensed the freezing temperature on my skin as I got into my car, the
quality of the street lamp’s light reflection on the road, my car’s
motion on the road felt a bit different than expected and effected
my sense of balance as I steered the car. I might have sensed driver’s
stress hormones (adrenalin, cortisol) that had driven and slid on
the ramp before I had arrived. As these subtle sensory connections
were made I felt a healthy surge of adrenaline before I stopped the
car. The adrenalin alerted me to my sense of fear, and dread of
injury. Acknowledging the fear even though I had no certain logical
reason to be experiencing it heightened my sensitivity to the subtle
and I made a good decision. Once stopped, my sense of reason put
some of these sensory strings together and I confirmed my suspicions
by placing my foot on the black ice covering the road surface.
Take time to honor your senses. Experience the sensations that
our species was designed for. See how you can ally your dominant
cognitive senses of thinking and reason with the true sustenance
only your multi–sensory self can provide.
POST ESSAY ACTIVITY: Sensory Reunion:
Dear reader, I have a simple activity to offer you. Making a
little time each day to go outdoors creates the foundation for earth
wise healing. Without active and conscious connection to nature,
learning to notice our own personal disconnection is difficult. Try
this simple activity and see what senses become energized as a
result. I suggest you create a consistent time each day to spend
5-10 min. experiencing this activity. The affects are cumulative.
Each sense you enliven awakens your connection as part of the web of
life.
~ Step ONE: Go to an outdoor location that feels
welcoming. Pay attention to what senses are engaged that contribute
to your feeling welcomed. Most likely, many senses will become
apparent as you become involved in the activity. When I go outside
the wind on my face, the texture of the tree's bark, bird’s song,
smells of pine and earth all contribute to my sense of joy.
~ Step TWO: Each time you notice a sensory attraction,
stop for a moment and shut your eyes (only if you feel comfortable
doing so), take a few deep breaths and allow this particular sense's
intensity grow. Know this sensory connection is as real as your arm,
or the ground you walk on. When you feel ready, move on to another
sensory attraction and do the same. Aim for at least two or three
sensory attractions each time you do this daily activity.
~ Step THREE: Take a few moments after the activity to jot
down a few notes about the experience. Keep track of your highlights
all week.
I'd love to hear about your experience. Do this activity for
seven days, jot down the highlights and drop me a line. With your
permission, I may include your experience in an upcoming
NaturalSense e-newsletter or on the NaturalSense website.
RESOURCES AND COMMUNITY EVENTS
April 4-7, 2003-Naropa University's Center for Ecopsychology
presents Ecopsychology Training: Healing at the Heart & Soul of
the World With Dominie Cappadonna and Jed Swift. 1-800-603-3117 or
303-245-4800
www.naropa.edu/ecopsychology
WEBSITES OF INTEREST:
~ Project NatureConnect- Learn more about how you can
enhance your relationship with Nature at this cutting edge website
created by a leading researcher in the field of sensory ecology. Dr.
Cohen created the Natural Systems Thinking Process, a powerful and
effective nature connecting tool. I use NSTP in much of my work. www.ecopsychology.org
~See a great new website: Natural Creative Earth Politics A
Coalition of New Progressives--http://www.reststop.net/NCEP/index.html
~Learn more about how nature heals by visiting the International
Community for Ecopsychology website. List of events, resources,
essays, and links for more depth. www.ecopsychology.org
READERS WRITE COLUMN
From time to time NaturalSense®
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.
MShami@aol.com
Marlow Shami~NaturalSense®
PO Box 33
Goshen, CT 07656
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Copyright © 2003, 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: MShami@aol.com, or
by phone at (860) 491-2067
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