No Limits | The Freedom Blog™
Nature Reboot
Written
by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com
“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain
and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can
ever learn from books.”
John Lubbock
“Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath,
no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.”
George Bernard Shaw
“As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the
forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does
not look like a door, opens.”
Stephen Graham
Do
you ever have days where you are out of energy, out of ideas and out of desire
to keep pushing forward? You’re just empty. Not to mention having no empathy, patience
or room for any of the nonsense we are constantly subjected to?
I
do. Today was one of those days. I just felt drained and tired. I’ve been
involved in too many negotiations, too many meetings and way too much strategizing.
I needed a break.
So
I took a long walk. I went out into the wind. There was a bit of rain coming
down. I just walked. I looked at the clouds, the trees, the birds….. I felt the
rain on my face, the sound of the wind through the tops of the trees……and……
I
remembered who I am.
We
aren’t meant to sit in chairs, in offices or cubicles, in buildings under artificial
light staring at glowing screens. We just aren’t. Not even for an hour let
alone the 8- 10 hours a day that we do. We’re hunters. We need to be moving not sitting. Acting not
thinking.
For
hundreds of thousands of years our ancestors lived in small tribal groups. We
hunted in packs and lived off the land. We lived in forests or the grasslands, among
trees that have been here for over 49 million years.
We
were intimately in tune with everything around us. We could smell the weather.
We could smell game or enemies. We could sense any changes around us. We were
connected.
Although
we seem to have lost that direct connection, that connection has never really gone
away. We’re still connected it’s just that we have refocused our senses towards
screens and cell phones. Towards short sound bites and superficial dialogue.
But
it is imperative from time to time to remind yourself of who you really are.
Even
if you grew up in the city or have never spent time outside camping or hiking,
your ancient heritage is still there…. waiting.
Your
deeper mind remembers who you are. It can take you back to those ancient days
in an instant.
Have
you ever noticed how good it feels to swim in a lake or the ocean instead of a
swimming pool?
Have
you ever thought about why it feels so good and natural to be sitting around a
fire?
Or
how much hungrier you are and how good the food tastes when you cooked it on
that fire?
Get
out. Walk in the wind. Feel your connection.
If
you are in a city, walk in the park.
If
you don’t have a park, just walk and notice the signs of nature’s persistence
in the green weeds growing up through the cracks in the sidewalk or the growth
in a vacant lot.
Feel
it. Own it and remember the things we worry about aren’t real. They don’t
really mean anything. Those problems and worries will end up being nothing. Not
even a memory.
We
are not outside of nature. Nature isn’t something that we have to deal with or
control. We are nature.
So
relax. You are home wherever you are, connected to everything.
Just
remember who you really are.
