PROJECT NATURECONNECT
Institute of Global Education
Greenwich University
Portland State University
Introductory Course
ECO 501 Educating and Counseling With Nature
There must be the generating force of Love behind every effort that is to be successful.
- Henry David Thoreau
Chapter 18
Strengthening Natural SensesIt was one thing to read the instruction book on how to operate an automobile; it was something else to actually drive one. It took months of repetition to make the new knowledge and physical coordination necessary for driving to become familiar and comfortable. After I finally did it, I read the instruction manual again. It almost seemed irrelevant. My repeated hands-on practice with a supportive instructor made me a competent driver; the written instructions alone did not and could not do this.
To help me deal with the wranglers in my life, I discover and enjoy experiences with NIAL because I learned how to do so. Our society, institutions and leaders never taught this to me, so I was seldom misguided in this respect. For me to make sense of my life, it makes sense not to learn about life relationships from people and organizations whose effects have proven to be irresponsible in too many ways.
I discovered Us in and around me because my parents gave me the choice to do so. "Choose your God and religion when you're mature, when you have a mind of your own," they said. They came by that decision the hard way, for their religious upbringing had resulted in their persecution. They cared more about my well being than they did about wrangling me into religious dogma, so they chose not to expose me to the fate of their grandparents.
I did, however, respect the religion of my birth, because I revered the unconditional love and affection my grandfather gave me. He religiously practiced the old ways. He was a powerful giant, a quiet, gentle, henpecked tailor from the old country who personified, not preached, the teachings of Torah. I found that same love in my parents and their settlement house community friends. That love was not dogma, it just was. I found it flourished in nature centered relationships. I learned to place my own words and labels on it. My labels matched and supported my inner child's nonverbal callings and experiences. They were not the war-torn preachings of others. It was like I was through with taking pills from bottles whose wrappers, when I read them, indicated that I had several additional diseases.
Creating my own labels and stories allowed me to verbally reinforce attractions that I actually felt. Many of them were attractions to the natural world. This process let me more fully enjoy the oneness of nature within and about me. But I had no specific guide or method to follow, so it took me 54 years to explain the nature of Us and NIAL to myself. It won't take you that long. The activities enable NIAL to embrace itself in you and instantly bring the presence of Us into your life.
The wisdom of NIAL says, "It is wise to include my callings in order to gain true wisdom." The activities in this section help anyone further achieve that goal. They help to strengthen our separated and subdued natural senses. The activities enable our strong, but nature estranged senses of reasoning, language and consciousness to seek, heed and honor the multisensory powers of the natural world within and without. They reinforce our ability to gain fulfillment responsibly.
Participants can bring these 8 activities to mind collectively by remembering the acronym SEVMRATC (pronounced sev-mer-rat-see). SEVMRATC is to Sense-Enjoy-Validate-Match-Resonate-Appreciate-Trust and Celebrate NIAL. SEVMRATC urges and empowers some of the our best cultural qualities to validate our natural attractions. This brings natural senses into our awareness.Bring to mind one of the challenges that you must deal with respect to an external or internal wrangler.
Hold the second and third fingers of one hand at right angles to fingers 2 and 3 of the other had to form a frame. Look through the frame at different pictures or snapshots of the landscape and decide which picture seems most attractive. Thankfully gain consent from the area in the attraction picture to help you resolve a conflict that you have with one of the personal internal or external wranglers you thought about. Explain to the natural area that you would like its wisdom to dealing with the wrangler. You would also like to psychologically replace the stress from the wrangler with the beauty and balance of the area. If the area gives you strong lasting permission, consider doing the remainder of the SEVMRATC experiences in it.
What individual in your life can you turn to that helps you deal with wranglers? Does that person further your dependence, need and respect for the natural world?SEVMRATC: Sense-Enjoy-Validate-Match-Resonate-Appreciate-Trust-Celebrate in a natural area that consents to help you do it.
Sense, Enjoy, and Validate are the GO/GG activity process that is described throughout Reconnecting With Nature. By bringing old brain relationships into new brain consciousness, they help us recognize that our reconnections with nature can be: attractive, repeatable, universal, culturally acceptable, validated by others, quantifiable, qualifiable, real, true, believable, logical, trustable, universal, proven, and felt.
In the next 5 chapters we learn to Match, Resonate, Appreciate, Trust and Celebrate to strengthen and broaden the wellness we unleash in the GO/GG process.CWN Connectors that add experiences to this chapter: #37
Write down the three most important things you learned from this chapter and activity.
Write down three G/G statements.
How would you feel having your ability to experience this G/G taken away?
Does this activity enhance your sense of self-worth? your trustfulness of NIAL?
Which wrangler/person, if any, does this activity identify or reeducate inside or outside you?
Share at least one sentence/person that conveys how hearing their experience has enhanced yours.
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in association with United Nations Deptartment of Public Information P.O. Box 1605 Friday Harbor, WA 98250 360-378-6313 www.ecopsych.com Dr. Micheal J. Cohen, Director send e-mail |