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Project NatureConnect Help increase personal, social and environmental wellness; celebrate Mothers Day as part of Mother's day |
MOTHER'S DAY:
AN EDUCATIONAL WAY TO HONOR YOUR
MOTHER AND MOTHERHOOD,
A WAY THAT IMPROVES THE WELLNESS OF PEOPLE
AND MOTHER NATURE, TOO.
Environmentally Supportive Mother's Day Activities for Therapist, Healers, Teachers, Parents and their clients/students/children.
Useful all year long as a supportive gift for Mothers Day, Valentines Day, Earth Day, Christmas and most other occasions.
Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky,
Hundreds of shells on the shore together,
Hundreds of birds that go singing by,
Hundreds of lambs in the sunny weather.
Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.- George Cooper
1. Introduction:
MOTHER'S DAY FACTS ABOUT OUR OTHER MOTHER
The percentage of our lifetime that mother nature tries to nurture and heal us physically and emotionally, as she does all of nature.
100%
The average percentage of a contemporary citizen's lifetime that is spent indoors, separated from the supportive beauty, wholeness and recuperative powers of mother nature:
95%
The average percentage of a contemporary citizen's thinking that is not connected to and in tune with mother nature:
99.9%
On average, the number of hours in our lifetime that our thinking is in tune with mother nature.
11.6
The estimated percentage of the U.S. population who have had at least one obeneficial or good experience in nature
99%
The percentage of people who think we are part of nature and that the extreme separation of our mentality from nature produces stressful thoughts and feelings in our psyche that lead to disorders.
95%
The percentage who do not use nature-connected sensory activities to help them increase personal and environmental wellness.
99%
The percentage of the 1% who engaged in nature-connecting methods and materials and found that they helped them improve their health and/or life. (Visit this study later).
95%
MOTHERHOOD RELATIONSHIPS AND MOTHER'S DAY:
Organic Psychologists note that we suffer many troubles because our excessively nature-separated lives bewilder us, (Be-wilder meaning: detrimentally separate our mentality from the natural wilderness values of mother earth.)
To our loss, in our bewilderment, on Mother's Day we honor our
human mother but we seldom honor mother nature. Our excessively nature-disconnected mentality fails to register that a mother is an energy that has produced or nurtured anything, a star, a shell or bird; a mother is the source of birth or origin; a generatrix.
We have been trained to overlook that nature perfectly fits the above description, that mother nature is fact, not fiction.
From Mother Nature is born the web of life, the womb where she nurtures all things because they are her children.
--The Web of Life ImperativeChildren are the sum of what mothers contribute to their lives.
--UnknownThe Earth is part of my body. I belong to the land out of which I came. Earth is my mother.
--Too-hool-hool-zuteThe earth is my mother - and on her bosom I will repose.
--TecumsahOur religion keeps reminding us that we aren't just will and thoughts. We're also sand and wind and thunder and rain and the seasons. All those things. You learn to respect everything because you are everything. If you respect yourself, you respect all things.
-- Least Heat MoonIf we want to enjoy the benefits of being whole rather than suffer the woes of destructive discrimination against mother earth and motherhood, shouldn't we include honoring mother nature as part of Mother's Day? Activities, tools and gifts that make this possible are described in 2, below.
For this Mother's Day, break the chains of your nature-separated thinking. Celebrate, use and give the gifts of mother nature to your human mother for Mother's Day. Note that people(s) genuinely connected to nature seldom display our troubles and often, like a good mother, help us reduce them.
A MOTHER'S DAY QUEST:
On this Mother's Day it is imperative that we honor both our human mother and our more than human mother nature, for as Stephen Jay Gould has noted:
We cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and (mother) nature as well - for we will not fight to save what we do not love.
...........As described below, on this Mother's Day we must take into account the cumulative results of our disconnected insensitivity to mother nature and act accordingly on behalf of all mothers and children, no matter their species.
Mother's Day, May 9, 2004:
Studies by UN scientists show levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have jumped abruptly, raising fears that global warming may be accelerating out of control. Global warming may be the biggest long-term threat to life on Earth. Rising temperatures can drive thousands of species to extinction, trigger more frequent floods or droughts, and sink low-lying islands by raising sea levels.A point source that causes global warming is the desensitization of contemporary thinking to mother nature and her welfare. Global warming is not normal to the natural systems that flow through people and Earth.
Mother's Day, May 9, 2004:
Marine "dead zones" are on the increase posing as sinister a development as any in the list of things going wrong with the planet. These oxygen-starved areas of the oceans are devoid of fish and are one of the greatest environmental problems facing the world, warn UN scientists.A point source that causes marine dead zones is the desensitization of contemporary thinking to mother nature and her welfare. Marine dead zones are not normal to the natural systems that flow through people and Earth.
Mother's Day, May 9, 2004:
U. S. Surgeon General Mental Health Report, 2000: Data developed by the massive Global Burden of Disease study conducted by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and Harvard University, reveals that mental illness* ranks second in the burden of disease in established market economies such as the United States.A point source that causes mental illness and emotional disorders is the desensitization of contemporary thinking to mother nature and her welfare. Mental/emotional dysfunctions are not normal to the natural systems that flow through people and Earth.
On this Mother's Day, let us recognize that the mutually supportive regenerative relationship between mother nature and our psyche is well known.
"The human need for nature is linked not just to the material exploitation of the environment but also to the influence of the natural world on our emotional, cognitive, aesthetic, and even spiritual development."
- Edward O. Wilson
Harvard University Pullitzer Prize Recipient (To an American Psychological Assocation National Convention)
"It is quite clear to me after several years in the environmental movement that all physical problems of man's impact on the environment - pollution of the air and waters, the desecration of the land, the contamination of the food chain - all start within the environment of man's mind."
-Maurice Strong
Founder: the United Nations Environment Program
Co-Chair: U.N. Commission on Global Governance
"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"We have repressed far more than our sexuality: our very organic nature is now unconscious to most of us, most of the time, and we have become shrunken into two dimensional social or cultural beings, aware of only five of the hundreds of senses that link us to the rich biological nature that underlies and nourishes these more symbolic and recent aspects of ourselves.".
- Norman 0. Brown
Author of Love's Body
"Until mankind can extend the circle of his compassion to include all living things, he will never, himself, know peace."
-Albert Schweitzer
Nobel Prize recipient
"We are dysfunctional socially and environmentally because we are cut off and isolated from the world of nature and the natural."
-Albert Gore,
Vice-President, United States
"Nurture your felt love for nature. Never deny it. That love is nature's voice, our origins in nature, the eons, the purifying intelligence, beauty and diversity of natural systems sustaining us in their perfection and wellness."
-from The Web of Life Imperative
A MOTHERS DAY HISTORY LESSON:
In 1986 Dr. Michael J. Cohen, author of The Web of Life Imperative, asked, in his keynote address to members of the North American Association of Environmental Education,
"Can you proudly stand up in front of your family, friends and associates and say without fear or shame that you unequivocally love mother nature or mother earth? Any discomforts you or I might feel in doing this are inner signals to us from injured parts of our psyche that destructively limit our freedom of choice. These bewildered, often hurt and hidden authorities in our mentality restrict our freedom to sustain personal, social and environmental wellness. To our benefit, nature-connecting activites help us reduce these psychological injuries and fears."
SUMMARY:
Along with our human mother, mother nature has nurturing and healing powers. Our psyche is deprived of these powers due to our excessive separation from nature. This disconnection contributes to many of our troubles and our inabililty to resolve them. A great challenge to our ability to make sense is that our separation from mother nature leads us to distrust helpful nature-connecting methods and materials.
A MOTHER'S DAY QUESTION:
If a helpful, inexpensive, tool is discovered that strengthens mental, personal and environmental wellness, why would a citizen of industrial society not want to use it and enjoy its benefits, or give it as a gift for Mother's Day?
(Hint: the process uses methods and materials that help people's thinking tap into and make genuine sensory connections with mother nature and her "higher powers."
To enjoy a moving Mother's Day, move the apostrophe in Mother's one place to the right and honor all mothers including mother nature.)
2. Environmentally sound, nature-connecting, therapeutic methods and materials that you may use and give to appropriately honor and strengthen your human mother, mother nature and yourself:
.Project NatureConnect invites counselors, therapists, healers, educators, their clients and the public to use environmentally sound, nature-connected psychology and learning tools. These tools help people enjoy the profound benefits of nature-connected thinking; they help us strengthen our resiliance and enhance life and wellness in harmony with our human mother and mother nature.
I. OVERVIEW: a complete Press Release reports the contributions to environmental and personal health made by Project NatureConnect's Mother's Day activities.
II. A Mother's Day Proclamation to the American Psychological Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, The National Education Association and similar organizations. You can send it anywhere.
III. Links to free, sensitizing personal and environmental natural system wellness methods and materials online.
A. Read an important relationship with nature article and other special scientific reports. They show how the nature-detached thinking we have used for the past century is not able to do the restoration we need to do now.
B. Introduction and sample chapters of The Web of Life Imperative a self-guiding organic psychology book containing nature-connecting methods, materials and activities.
C. Mothers Day Activity Gift a Mother's Day valentine to your human mother and mother nature. Use it on Valentine's day, and Christmas, too.
D. Receive and give inspirational mother nature connecting quotes by email
E. Enjoy the Secrets of Mother Nature Trail online
F. Learn about or contact a Maverick Genius who helps people make genuine contact with mother nature and her restorative powers.
IV. Send us your therapeutic nature experiences for publication and to increase your visibility.
V. Sign our Petition to urge leaders to incorporate nature-connected methods and learning in their lives and organizations.
VI. Scholarship and Grant opportunities for people who care about our relationship with molther nature within and around us.
VII. Learn how to connect with mother nature from an online introduction to the workings and benefits of Organic Psychology.
VIII. Send a written or online message to a friend inviting them to get involved.
IX. Invitation letters sent to world leaders and their responses.
X. Learn about Project NatureConnect: online books, healing, training and degree programs.
* Mental Illness: It is important to appreciate that mental disorders leave no aspect of human experience untouched. They include dysfunction and disorders in: Substance relationships, Moods, Anxiety, Sexual and gender identity, Eating, Sleep, Impulse-control, Adjustment, Personality, Alzheimer's, Depression, Anger, Dependency, Attention-deficit and hyperactivity, Bipolar, Cognitive dysfunction and include Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, Somatoforms disorders, Factitious disorders and Dissociative disorders.
"I think the reason we fear and reject Mother Earth to be a living organism, "Gaia," is because it is the only such organism that we know of and it would have to be protected under the endangered species act."
- Michael J. Cohen
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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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