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Project NatureConnect |
THE GLOBAL WELLNESS AND UNITY ACTIVITY
is offered as a public service by the Institute of Global Education
In association with the United Nations Deptment of Public Information
©1999 Michael J. Cohen
In Balance With Earth
sustainable personal and global equilibrium.
Just imagine how life on Earth might be more at peace and in balance if 600 million people learned to deal with the underlying ecological and psychological causes of our increasing personal, environmental and social imbalance. Our runaway stress and abuse problems are not found in natural systems or nature centered people. They result from contemporary society's excessive separation from nature.
Too often, our efforts to sustain unity and wellness on Earth do not meet their goal. Our mentality's estrangement from nature's balanced energies produces our apathy, resistance to change and addictive prejudices. This is far more than a social disorder. It is an ecologically rooted psychological problem, a problem that begs psychological solutions. For young or old alike, applied ecopsychology activities, methods and materials effectively address this challenge. For this reason, we invite you to use, teach and network the activity In Balance With Earth and other introductory activities
In Balance With Earth is a unifying ecopsychology experience for use year round and in conjunction with improving the next millennium. It enables us to create and share moments in nature that let Earth touch us and teach us its peace, balance and cohesiveness. Because the activity strengthens interpersonal and transpersonal relationships, it enables people to reverse destructive tendencies. It is appropriate with friends and family and contributes to the celebration of Earth Day, Arbor Day, most holidays and personal celebrations.
Activity Instructions
Select here for condensed activity instructions
(In Balance With Earth is drawn from the elements of the applied ecopsychology book Reconnecting With Nature: Finding wellness through restoring your bond with the Earth by Dr. Michael J. Cohen. and has been donated for public use.)
Time needed to complete the activity:
Ten minutes
Introduction:Although we are part of Earth and it is part of us, the global life community does not exhibit our personal, social and environmental problems. The Earth community knows how to cooperatively relate in ways that sustain an optimum of life, diversity and beauty without producing our runaway garbage, pollution, war, stress or abusiveness. We biologically inherit this legacy. It is in us. We often call it our deeper ideals, inner nature, or, psychologically, our inner child.
The deteriorated state of Planet Earth's natural environment and people infers that we educate ourselves to separate from or injure the Earth community including people. This activity helps you discover immediate positive outcomes from treating the Earth community fairly, with respect, as an equal or friend rather than as something to further abuse or exploit.
Purpose:
To discover immediate outcomes of treating Earth, nature and our inner nature justly and with respect.
Object:To learn how to obtain a natural area's consent for us to visit it.
To enjoy the benefits from obtaining a natural area's permission to visit it.
The Metaphor:
Bob: What would happen if you walked past a complete stranger and into his house, opened his refrigerator door, took out his sandwich and ate it?
Eileen: He would be frightened, upset and angry. A fight might break out or the police called.
Bob: How could that disruption be avoided?
Eileen: You could first make friendly connnection with the stranger, thank them for listening, communicate your desire, and ask for and obtain his consent for you to enter and satisfy your hunger. A respectful friendship might develop.
Procedure:
This activity parallels the procedures (blue) used above in the metaphor about the sandwich . Follow the instructions below written in red and consider the explanations written in black.
1) Nature enables things to build balanced relationships through natural attraction energies. Notice how you feel right now, then go to something in nature that you like, that you find attractive. A park, backyard, aquarium, even a pet or potted plant will do. Their attractiveness is a tangible sensory connection. It invites, welcomes and consciously, feelingly connects you to them. Just like thirst naturally attracts you to water, or contact with water may make you thirsty, you are biologically built to naturally connect with the Earth community through cohesive sensations, natural "webstring" loves that feel good. The more natural and attractive a natural area or thing is, the more worthwhile the results of this activity. A goldfish or a flower may be better than a wilderness area if it is more attractive to you.
2. Thank the natural attraction that brings you to this area for being there for you. Thank it for safely activating a good feeling in you through this attraction connection.
3. Recognize that as part of the Earth community, justifiably, this natural area or thing desires and has a right to exist, build beneficial relationships and grow, just as you do. Decide that you are going to respect its integrity by asking for its permission to visit it.
4. Silently, aloud or in writing, ask this natural area for its consent for you be there and do this activity there. It will not give you permission to visit if you are going to injure, destroy or defame it, or if it will not be safe for you. In Nature, negative relationships are not attractive; promise this area that you will treat it honorably.
5. Sense the area for 10 seconds or more in silence and respect. Be aware of negative signals from stress, discouragement or danger from it, such as thorns, bees, poison ivy, ticks, cliff faces or unpleasant memories, thoughts or feelings. If they appear, thank them for their "attractive" message to help you find ways to obtain good feeling and rewards safely.
A. When the 10 seconds are up, note that if the area still feels attractive, or has become more attractive. If it has, it has consented to your visit through a multitude of your natural senses.
Proceed to 6.B. If this part of the natural area no longer feels attractive, or is replaced by another attraction, thank it for its guidance and simply select another natural part of the area that feels attractive to you. Then repeat the gaining permission process. Do this until you find a ten second period when a safe attraction feeling remains for a place, color, shape or other natural thing. When this occurs, you have multisensory permission to visit it. In that moment, many additional natural senses are connecting and consenting.
6. As soon as you gain a natural attraction's permission to visit, genuinely thank it for giving its consent.
7. Now: Compare how you feel about being in this mutually supportive moment with how you felt when you first started doing this activity. Has any change occurred because you gained this natural area's consent and thanked it for consenting? Does the area feel better or friendlier to you? Do you find it more attractive or rewarding now than before you received its consent and thanked it? Do you feel better about yourself, more supported by the life community?
Write down what occurred and if you obtained good feelings or rewards from doing this activity, what they were and whether you trust them. Share this information with people close to you or others who are doing the activity.
If you find that thankfully gaining permission to visit a natural area is rewarding, remember that whenever you want to feel rewarded, you can repeat this activity. Remember too, that nature exists in people, we are part of nature. Thankfully asking permission and gaining consent to relate to people's inner nature also provides rewards and helps build good relationships. It is also rewarding if you thankfully request that people seek permission from you with respect to how they relate to you and your nature. Doing this Earth Day activity may help them learn to relate that way.
Learn to trust the process and sensations in this consensus experience because they are safe, supportive, earth linked, sustainable, in balance (multisensory) and they feel good. In them lies hope.
Discussion Question:Earth naturally produces a balanced optimum of life, diversity and beauty without producing our runaway garbage, stress or abusiveness. Do you think it accomplishes this "miracle" by having each thing in nature somehow establish permission to exist with its surroundings?
Select here for condensed activity instructions The Experiences of Others:
Below are some reactions other activity participants have shared with each other. Many additional responses are located in the Archive.
"It was hot. Soon after I asked for permission to visit with the grove of young trees, a gentle, refreshing breeze came through them. It cooled me, and the trees waved their leaves at me. It felt good, like the grove smiled its consent. Thanking the grove strengthened that feeling as does sharing the experience with you now."
"I was attracted to the sound of a raven on the rocks ahead. I stopped and sought its consent for me to enjoy its presence. It began to come closer and closer, increasing my delight and excitement. That was so fun and unforgettable. I feel thankful to that experience and this group"
"My whole attraction to the moss on the rock increased. I felt more intensely than when I first arrived, it felt like a hug from the planet."
"Many times I have forced myself to back away from the deadlines and details of the our super demanding lives and return to nature. In every case I have found the same welcoming feeling of self. In fact, I had to stop today (a particularly stressful day) and gain permission to connect from a beautiful maple tree outside of my office window whose leaves are just popping out of their buds. People often ask me how I stay so calm while they are all running around like crazy. When I try to share the ideas of this activity, so many people look at me as if I was the crazy one."
NOTE: Every week, Project NatureConnect's update email letter gives you short responses to these activities, like those above, from its online course participants.
To receive the weekly email visit"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Natureconnectnews/.
Additional Free Activities:Enrichment:
- Worthwhile information: To read the fascinating validations
of people who helped develop and have done In Balance With
Earth .visit the
archive . Extended results of the activity are shared at
nature/results
- Network internationally: To communicate with others who are
using In Balance With Earth .join
the NatureConnect List by e-mailing the message: INFO NATURECONNECT
to: natureconnect list
- Master Earth connecting
skills. A newly researched
nature connected psychology
restores 53 natural senses for environmentally sound wellness,
social balance and careers. Online books, courses, credit, degrees,
internships. Master the essentials through our online Orientation
Course
- Get involved: Obtain information and updates about
internships, distant learning activities, courses and degree
programs that use In Balance With Earth .and
similar sensory reconnecting activities. Visit our homepage
Reference: An additional 23 applied ecopsychology activities, methods and materials may be found in the self-guiding Ecopress book: The Web of Life Imperative and Reconnecting With Nature: Finding wellness through your bond with the Earth.
Application:
Interject the statement below into discussions and protests about our trespasses against people and the environment.
"What knowledgeable source or authority has given ______________permission to relate to people and the environment in this questionable way? Shouldn't we immediately demand that all persons associated with them now learn why it is necessary to seek permission from nature and people, how to do so, and then actually do it before proceeding any further?
TrainingIn Balance Wth Earth is part of a newly researched nature connected psychology offered by the Institute of Global Education . It restores 53 natural senses to produce environmentally sound wellness, social balance and careers through online books, courses, credit, degrees, internships. The best way to learn and teach this psychology is to take their short, accredited Orientation Course. or Personal Balance and Stress Management course.
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INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION Special NGO consultant United Nations Economic and Social Council
PROJECT NATURECONNECT
Readily available, online, natural science tools
for the health of person, planet and spiritP.O. Box 1605, Friday Harbor, WA 98250
360-378-6313 <email> www.ecopsych.com
ORGANIC ADVANCED ECOPSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION
The Natural Systems Thinking Process
Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director
send email
All programs start with the Orientation Course contained in the book
The Web of Life Imperative.
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