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The Nature Connection

A Technique for Pondering Life's Mysteries, Working Through Conundrums, Solving Problems and Deepening Spirituality

By Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT

Page Three of Three Pages

"In the earliest times, the deep affiliation with the natural world created an ecology of metaphor. The mind had not yet created the tools of rational thought. . . . All things were seen to be related. The natural world and its shifting patterns of change were no more than an extension of the processes that created humans themselves.

"Human minds and human bodies were affectionate toward nature. . . . The natural world was the living context of myth, of survival, and of joy. In fact it was out of the earliest searches for rational meanings that the first myths were born....they were inclusive as opposed to exclusive. The early myths united humans with nature, while the later ones separated humans from nature."

—Bob Samples, The Metaphoric Mind

Placing Ourselves Within a Scene

In 1984 I had an experience which taught me, in a very dramatic way, that pictures of nature can have a profound healing effect on a troubled soul.

Our oldest son, who was then twenty-two, was forced to move out of our house because of his use of drugs and alcohol and his unwillingness to accept help. Even though he was poorly prepared to face the trials ahead of him, we knew that letting him go was the most loving action we could take. As his mother, I had struggled for years to solve the problem and had finally been able to get past the guilt such parents almost always feel. Nevertheless, I was filled with pain and grief and, unable to sleep, went into my husband's study hoping to find some measure of comfort.

On the wall of the study is a Sierra Club poster of a gentle stream high in the mountains. I was looking at it as I asked God to grant me the peace I so desperately wanted. Very shortly I heard myself speaking out loud in a gentle, soothing voice and saying that I was seated on a stone next to the creek in the picture. Lying at my side was an imaginary rope which I had just let go of. It was of infinite length and the other end of it was still being held by my son, who had started down the mountain and was out of view. The voice said that the rope represented the way in which we each had tried to manipulate the other—my letting go of it indicated I was willing to trust my son to find his own path, just as I was finding mine. The voice gently continued and spoke of my husband's action in the picture as well. I soon experienced a level of peace which I could not have imagined possible earlier that day.

What happened in that room? Was it really God speaking through me or did my inner wisdom express itself in a metaphor I could understand? The answer is irrelevant. What is important is the fact that I could clearly sense myself being in the picture. Oh, I knew I wasn't actually transported into a picture on the wall. But I felt as though I were there in that scene. And I experienced the same quiet acceptance of things simply being what they are that I had often felt when sitting next to a stream high above timberline. The experience in my house likewise filled my heart with peace and strength.

Thanksgiving came two months later and we chose not to invite our son for dinner. His absence created a bole in the fabric of our family and reminded me of the pain I had felt earlier. Yet I would need to accept the situation if I were to get through the day and be a pleasant hostess to the rest of the company. So I walked into the study and looked at the picture of the stream. Immediately I felt soothed and comforted. I was reminded of my experience with that picture the day he left and knew it was important for me to release my son for his own journey. The stillness of the picture came in to still my heart.

So if you have already gone through the walk in the woods photos, my recommendation is that you do it once more. This time think about a problem with which you are struggling. It may be a relationship that's in trouble, a boss who doesn't explain what he wants but demands you do it anyway, an unpaid bill and no money left in the account, or any of a thousand and one challenges that life throws in your path.

With that situation in the back of your mind, begin viewing the pictures. Take your time, pausing at each scene and allowing the feelings evoked by the photo to soak into your body and soul. Without struggling to find an answer, simply notice when you are done whether there is a shift in your perspective of the problem with which you began the walk.

And remember that you can take the walk as many times as you'd like. Also, you might even want to imagine there is a special friend or wise person who has come alone with you and from time to time gives you a piece of information you need, some insight you didn't realize you had.

Incidentally, you may want to read an imagery script entitled Finding Serenity on a Walk in the Woods to give you additional idea for how you can experience the walk the next time you use that set of pictures (or even when you have the time to actually enter the real world of nature).

Grounding Your Experience

Frequently we experience an insight, have a shift in awareness, or state our intention to make a change in some habit, but we don't have the will or experience to follow through and make that change a reality. The grounding of the experience you have when taking the online walk in the woods (or when using other photo features on Learning Place Online designed to elicit insight) is, therefore, very important. Otherwise, the whole exercise may be no more than an interesting, new adventure.

Fortunately, there are many ways you can continue experiencing your relationship with nature after you are finished. For example, you can find objects such as sea shells, wood, rocks, seeds, and plants to use as reminders of what you have experienced. (See Using Symbols for Transformation.)

Another way you can ground the experience is to pause at certain times during the day (such as right before you eat, right after you eat, when you wash your hands, etc.). Then deliberately remember the image of the scene and re-experience the feelings you had when you did the exercise.

© Copyright 2003, Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT — Page One