Nature Stress Management Power Sensory Love Tool Corrects Mind Dysfunction

About The Senses

“As exemplified by the sensation of thirst, on cellular and molecular levels, sensors (senses and their sensations) in an organism, large(Earth) or small(nanobe), are receptors that are attracted to detect stimuli.

When the information that our senses register is out of balance, they become the main homeostatic driving force for change that promotes life in balance. Their detection process is a fundamental source that functions on mechanical, thermal and chemical levels as it promotes the survival of life.

When they are not blocked or adulterated by nature-disconnecting stories the senses can be depended on as undeniable, self-evident, recovery and balancing tools."

"My lifelong communion with trees allows me to know them without sight or language. The beautiful elucidation of fifty-four senses, below, has given me gorgeous language with which to tell this love story, one I have struggled to share my whole life. I don’t want to ever sound mysterious, or other worldly. For me this communication has just been a fact of life. But how to explain it to others? I still feel there is an element of my understanding that is nameless, and so loving it needs no words. But to have a natural sense, new brain language to describe this experience in a way others can understand, is lovely, just lovely."

"The experience I’m recalling is a trip I took with a friend to Mt Lemmon in Tucson. After a half mile hike back into the forest at the 9,000 foot in elevation level we found a mammoth rock. It was the size of a house and half buried in the earth. We both laid on our brother rock for about 20 minutes. It was a cool sunny (one cloud) day and we were surrounded by a forest of massively beautiful pine trees.

The rock was oh so warm and comforting to embrace as the sun shone on my body.The contrast of the warm rock and the cool breeze was so wonderful. Wind softly blowing in my ears. The ultimate reward was loosing all my stress and anxiety from my entire body. A physical therapist would have charged me $150 to do what nature did for zip.

My senses registered colors, sounds, feelings, aromas, sensations, moods, contracts, textures, sizes, distance. I stopped controlling the world and let mother earth breath for me. I felt the texture of the rock and the sensation of holding up the world on my back. It was weightless and comforting to support. The sounds of the nearby creek and the many bustling creatures were a symphony of natures’ voices all welcoming me to stay as long as wanted. The smell of pine was in the air. All senses were on maximum open channel and I melted into moment with ease.

It was only my natural sensory attraction connections to the natural area that provided these rewards. I have never, in all my years of public or higher education been taught anything about what I just experienced.

"With 20 years experience with outdoor education and adventure based learning, I have facilitated "willow in the wind" activities many times. A person stands stiff in the center of a circle of people, close their eyes and leans over as if to fall down. The people in the circle prop up the middle person to prevent falling and state the name of the natural sense they are attracted to and represent that is supporting the person. Unfortunately, I could not form a group at this time so I decided to improvise as follows:

There is a long circular trail that runs through thickly forested high ground overlooking the Chattahoochee River. I used this trail to replace the circle of humans called for in the classic "willow in the wind" activity, and used natural attractions as the "pushers" and my sensory responses as the "catchers". I respectfully sought permission to do the activity and began walking along a narrow dirt and gravel road toward the trail-head a short distance away. As I walked along the road, slowly cleansing my lens of perception by turning my attention from things artificial to the vast natural area surrounding me, something in my peripheral vision compelled me to stop and look. I saw a large, beautifully formed, yellow and brown acorn, and as I continued to scan the ground , I saw many more. Senses that responded: sense of color; sense of moods and identities attached to colors; sense of season; senses of form and design. Reaching the trail-head, I turned off the road and continued my slow walk sense of motion with senses now more attuned sense of consciousness to the purpose. I had not gone far when once again my peripheral vision alerted me to stop and connect with a small bush growing along side the trail. A single, dime-sized, brilliant red fruit attached to the bush stood out from the muted colors of its background. The fruit's red, thick skin stood open and appeared as a five petaled flower with a shiny red seed attached to the base of each petal. Senses that responded: sense of color; sense of season; sense of moods and identities attached to colors; senses of form and design; sense of emotional place, of community, belonging, support, trust and thankfulness; aesthetic sense; sense of humility, appreciation, ethics; sense of self. Continuing on the trail, I came to a huge, recently fallen, oak tree that lay across the trail and blocked it. Always interested in such scenes, I stopped and started my analysis of the visible evidence when suddenly a close by and unexpected sound of rustling leaves startled me. Looking around for the source, I saw nothing, and turned my attention back to the tree only to be startled again by the same sound followed by another and another. Finally, I had the answer: large acorns sporadically dropping from tall oak trees crashed into the thick layer of dry leaves that covered the ground surrounding me. Senses that responded: sense of hearing; sense of fear; sense of physical place; sense of humor. From this point, the traile climbed steeply to the high ridge top and a view of the river flowing swiftly far below. As I slowly made my way up the steep trail, I realized the activation of yet another sense. Sense that responded: sense of weight, gravity and balance. After reaching the top, I paused to spend a few minutes admiring the view, but before I could focus on the river, a slight motion on the ground near my feet grabbed my attention sense of reason. I stared down at the tiniest snake I have ever seen. Because of its small size, it took awhile to identify it as a snake sense of reason and literacy. Its amazingly tiny forked tongue and lack of legs finally convinced me. Keenly interested in this fellow being, I admired its beautiful color: dark blue with a thin bright yellow line encircling the body just behind the head. Senses that responded: Sense of light and sight; sense of color; sense of moods and identities attached to color; sense of emotional place, of community, belonging, support, trust and thankfulness; senses of form and design. As I looked down at the ancient river below, these same senses remained engaged. From this point, I continued on the trail back toward the road near my starting point.

I discovered that properly functioning senses are essential for a meaningful and appropriately balanced life and require maintenance through frequent and experiential interaction with the natural world. The characteristics of western culture tend to diminish and distort the proper functioning of our 54 natural senses, which in turn distorts the accuracy of our perception and limits our whole life intelligence.

My experience with nature shows me that I am a person who gets good feelings from being outdoors in a natural area and who enjoys exercising my senses by interacting and connecting with natural objects in a natural area. I get pleasure from seeing a tiny snake using its tiny tongue to sense the area around it. I would be deeply distressed to lose my ability to experience being in tune with nature."

"To experience the 54 senses, I hung out with the clouds today.

It began this morning when Dave came back from his run saying that it was going to be a pretty sunrise. Sure enough, he was right. We could not stay content to view it from the inside of the house. So, we bundled up and went out on the deck (sense of season).

The sky was filled with pink multi-dimensional clouds that seemed to radiate out from the mountain tops toward us, above us and all around us (sense of light and moods attached to colors, space/proximity sense, sense of form and design). Absolutely incredible!

"Wow!" I said to Dave. "It seems to be radiating right toward us."(language and articulation sense & sense of self including friendship, companionship, & power)

I couldn't contain myself on the deck and found myself running through the crisp morning air (sense of temperature,) to the top of the ball field behind our house to get a clear view (sense of motion and space and awareness of ones own visibility).

I sang out my thanks and called out my request for permission to do the nature-connecting activity (sense of emotional support, belonging, support, trust, thankfulness). As I twirled on the ball field, arms outstretched, the sky turned from pink to gold (sense of motion, play, pleasure, laughter, place, coriolus sense or awareness of effects of the rotation of the Earth). The rising light danced off the expanding shapes.

I called out loud, "Thank you dear clouds for helping us to feel our connection to all things and to all living beings!!!!"(sense of appreciation, humility, and ethics)

Dave called back from the deck his expressions of appreciation as well.(aesthetic sense, appreciation of beauty)

I felt as if we were being sent a message that we were being watched over and supported. (sense of intuition, deduction, sense of mind and consciousness)

Quote: "Yahweh not only was, or expressed the original desire to be, Yahweh may also be the source of the exclamation 'Yahoo!' We consider God to be the essence of love and life and the word essence can mean 'to be more fully."

When I experience these 53 senses and I write about my experience and share my writing I know I am being supported by nature. This enhances my self-esteem and trustfulness of nature. It re-educates me to the fact that the power that flows through nature, including me, cares....it cares about me. In turn I care about it and act accordingly.

In the trustable space in my mind, I will put an image of me twirling under an expanding pink and gold sky- to remind me of the sense of freedom and awareness of support that comes from dancing in the 53 senses.

Love you guys so dearly. Thanks for giving me your ears and hearts to share with."

Experiential and Literature Observations by Project NatureConnect graduate students, for each of the 53 natural senses, validate the senses, as exemplified in the descriptions of the three, below, none of which is one of the "five senses."

REFERENCES:

Takemura, S. (n.d.). A sense for reading the atmosphere, Retrieved November 8, 2006, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.sensorium.org/linkedsense/library/air.html

Robbins, L. (1994, April). Precipitating factors in migraine: A retrospective review of 494 patients. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 34 (4), 214.

Response to a Link from the book Revolutionary Wisdom

Benefit from Consciously Registering your Fifty-Four Natural Senses While They are Connected to the Unified Life of a Natural Area.