Page Nine homepage The Global Community Study & Activity Continued from Page 8   ACTIVITY PAGE   "The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right name" - Confuscious   Overview: The activity below enables you to correctly identify and label your senses and feelings for what they are: sensory attraction strings (flowing interconnected strands) of the web of life. It gives your consciousness the opportunity to connect with and speak from its origins in the lifeweb of Mother Earth. The activity requires you to: 1. Indoors or outdoors, reasonably direct your thinking to identify sensations and feelings as you sense them in the moment. 2. Have your thinking reasonably verbalize the sensation or feeling(s). Call it "by its right name: a sensory attraction string(s) of the web of life" 3. Repeat the activity outdoors. Connect with an attraction to some part of nature there, do 1-2 above, and notice what changes may occur. Many people discover that through this activity they begin to experience unifying, supportive global connections and feelings that improve their lives. It can start you on the path to reducing the hidden psychological stress generated by the nature disconnecting stories our society addicts us to. It is designed to help you enjoy the peace, balance and reasonableness of G/G thoughts and relationships.   The Activity: Feed your Psyche: The Hunger and Thirst Box-Lunch Activity 1. When you are hungry for lunch or dinner, take food and drink to a natural area (park, backyard, potted plant) that attracts you. 2. Instead of starting to eat your food, first recognize that all of the web of life also hungers for and eats nourishment provided by the web. Your sense of hunger is a lifeweb string that is known throughout nature in some way , from crystals that grow, to squirrels and oaks that nourish themselves, to storms that build up. 3. Recognize that the lifeweb community nourishes itself in balance. The process by which it eats does not destroy its food supply. Instead, that process supportively communicates so that the eater and eaten continue to flourish and grow. A consensual relationship exists on a community level whereby the preditor and prey mutually benefit in balance. 4. The food you are about to eat is part of nature. It has come from animals that, by consent, eat plants that, by consent, eat water, minerals, air and sunshine. Part of this relationship consists of attraction-strings between them, they "hunger" for each other. An equally important part of this relationship is the consent they give for the relationship to proceed or to stop, in order to support all parties concerned. An example of this can be seen between the 80 million buffalo and the land they lived on. The buffalo ate, deficated, decayed on and trampled the great plains into its most productive, nutritious state of being. There was more meat on the hoof then than the entire cattle industry produces now, topsoil increased, water did not deplete. 5. Connect with the lifeweb. Before you eat your food, consciously, one at a time, seek consent from each of the eight parts of nature whose strings touch you in this moment: Air, Sunlight, Water (clouds, dew, humidity), Rocks, Soil, Plants, Animals and Gravity. Be open to any supportive signals you may receive from them: attractive colors, shapes, motions, temperatures, sounds, stability, music, silence, peace etc. 6. In turn, thank each of these members of the lifeweb for their consent for you to eat and promise to return the favor because you sense, enjoy and appreciate their survival. 7. Repeat this procedure when you satisfy your thirst, a sensory attraction string to moisture. 8. Eat your food and enjoy it. Thank the sensory attraction strings of taste and fulfillment for the contribution they make to your meal. 9. Keep in mind that when you have digested your food and eliminate your waste products, you contribute to the lifeweb community. You change the food you ate into an attractive (to them) nourishing product for other members of the community. Consciously recognize your waste as a gift that you give them with your consent for them to use for their survival. Note that this is the same contribution that they make to your welfare. They thank you with the food and the supportive signals they gave you when you sought their consent for you to eat it (5 above.) 10. When you have finished eating, think about how this meal felt in comparison to a meal you might ordinarily eat indoors. Were there psychological differences, values and benefits for you? Was it worthwhile to make conscious sensory contact with the lifeweb's sensory attraction strings? Please send us your experiences, observations and reactions to this activity so that they may help others who visit our website archives. A response received: "I was emotionally nourished with an uplifting flood of unity and spirit when I ate my box lunch outside and did the activity. In comparison, when I ate lunch inside yesterday, I was in a box, not the lunch."   You may do this same new brain Identifying Sensory Webstrings (NIALS) activity in different ways anywhere. Note that their are three parts to it: 1. Reasonably direct your your new brain to identify old brain sensations and feelings as you sense them in the moment. The old brain continuously senses and feels lifeweb attraction strings during every moment of our lives. They are lost to our consciousness whenever our new brain story does not ask us to pay attention to them. For example, at this moment your webstrings are are producing sensations such as you breathing, sitting , standing, moving, blinking, hearing, remembering, resisting gravity and many others that you may not be paying attention to. At this moment try to consciously experience a webstring sensation or feeling. It may be a love, appreciation, fear or dislike for a plant, animal, rock, food, situation, memory, or person. 2. Have your new brain reasonably verbalize the sensation or feeling. Call it "by its right name." Once you sense or feel something, recognize that that sensation is a lifeweb sensory attraction string in action. Deliberately have your new brain validate that old brain feeling by labeling (identifying) it for what it is: a "natural sensory attraction string(s)" (g/g) If the string is fulfilled you feel comfortable and energized. If the string is thwarted, you feel discomfort and stress. (To learn more about doing this, visit this link to help broaden your ability to recognize sensations and feelings.) If it is helpful, use the following template and fill in the blanks: "I experienced the feeling/sensation of _____________. Then I renamed that feeling/sensation a "natural sensory attraction string" and the thoughts and feelings that came into mind were_______________________________________________   Some examples: "I like the taste of this apple" is the natural sensory attraction string of taste expressing itself and guiding you to eat the apple. "I dislike the taste of this apple" is also the natural sensory attraction string of taste expressing itself and guiding you away from the apple (because the apple may not be ripe or fit to eat.) "I loved that I could get so close to that flower in the warm sunshine." (Fulfillment of the sensory attraction strings of color, smell, distance and temperature occur here.) "I experienced the feelings of hunger and frustration because I did not have enough money to buy the meal. Then I renamed that feeling/sensation a "natural sensory attraction string" recognized that, "My webstring of hunger that would ordinarily be fulfilled by nature is not being fulfilled because I forgot my wallet." "I experienced the feeling/sensation of wanting to hug him.Then I renamed that feeling/sensation a "natural sensory attraction string" and the thoughts and feelings that came into mind were 'The webstrings of community and nurturing are calling and want fulfillment. This feels like the lifeweb is guiding me in a good way and that I belong, I'm part of Earth.' I felt more energetic, whole and connected (g/g). It dissolved my depression for the moment." Considerations: Somtimes we tend to be anxious when we express what we sense or feel because we have learned that we may be rejected for our feelings. However, Eric Hoffa notes: "Each new achievement is a crisis in self-esteem." Rollo May says: "If you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself." If you would like to improve your ability to validate your sensory experiences visit the Great Bear Trail. This activity has helped many people begin to benefit from supportive global connections and feeling strings that help sustain and improve their lives. It starts you on the path to reducing the hidden psychological stress generated by our cultural addiction to nature disconnecting (string frustrating) stories and environments. When our sensory strings are attached to superficial objects or destructive relationships, we feel unfulfilled or destructively betrayed. David Viscott says that "If you don't live in your feelings, you don't live in the real world. Feelings are the truth." In time, does the activity help you sense any greater strength or enjoyment, worthwhile connectedness, unity or belonging to Earth's global community (g/g)? 3. Repeat the activity outdoors. Connect with an attraction to some part of nature there and notice what changes may occur. Note: when you are outdoors you may be already enjoying a natural phenomenon and the activity may then feel like an interruption. However, it usually broadens or strengthens the connection. Outdoors, as with the 'Feeding the Psych" activity above, this activity has further connected participants to additional sensory strings to other parts of the lifeweb. It also brought pleasant memories that this string gave them in the past. Does this happen for you as well? A participant wrote: "During the moment that the strings connected me with the music and color of the breeze in the autumn leaves, I felt a lost, important part of myself come alive." Note that you now own the activity, you can, at will, gain g/g in nature and teach other people to do this, too. If you share your reactions to the activity with others, it helps improve your relationships with them. Note if you sense a difference between fulfilling an attraction string in nature with fulfilling an attraction string with the built environment. For example, do you sense a difference between fulfilling a color attraction with the color of a book in comparison with fulfilling a color attraction with the color of a flower or other natural attraction? What does your sense of reasoning tell you about the effect on the web of life of gaining color fulfillment from one or the other ? How does this make you feel? You may get more out of this activity by reading the experiences of others who have done it. Read the sample activity responses below and in our archive, SUMMARY I: I found that identifying my sensations and feelings as natural sensory attraction strings had value to me. OPTIONAL: On a piece of paper, record the SUMMARY letter above (A: B: C, etc.) along with the numbers (below) that indicate your amount of agreement with the summary statement a) as a stated truth (1-10) and b) as a 0-100 % percentage of your daily time that you think you practice this truth. Note how you feel about the difference, if there is one, between your a-score and b-score. 1.........2..........3........4.........5.........6.........7.........8..........9.........10. disagree..........................so partially agree...........................fffully agree   Sample activity responses: "When I did the activity it took some time to recognize how I like to watch the goldfish in the office aquarium. I became aware that attractions to their motion, color, shape and relationship to each other and the plants pleasantly held my attention. When I validated that these were fulfillments of my sensory attraction strings of the web of life, I felt a sensation of belonging and love for life that extended beyond what I have ever felt before (g/g). It affected my feelings about people, they became more attractive, too." "I felt angry when I was left out of making a decision at the office. The activity made me realize that this feeling signaled a blocking of my attraction string for being part of a community." "Through the activity I found myself feeling profoundly grateful when I identified my strong attraction for my wife as a sensory string of the web of life. It broadened that feeling. I experienced the sun more warmly, the grass under my feet more gently. My respect for nature in general was enhanced. It made my heart open to my surroundings. To survive, our environment, and people, too, need and deserve this kind of recognition". "For the moment, my despair and apathy waned as I felt my senses tell me I belonged, I was part of something vital, Earth. It, and therefore I, was being thwarted. The activity validated and brought gladness to my natural sensory self. It gave important value to the environment, too. A glint of hope appeared," "The importance of making conscious sensory contacts with genuine nature became apparant" Additional responses are found in the archive Additional string activities are located at In Balance With Earth and Letting Earth Teach A description of the 53 sensory attraction strings is found in Chapter 5 of Reconnecting With Nature Thank you for participating in this study to this point. There is a nature connecting gift from us awaiting you here CALCULATE YOUR GBT SCORE   IMPORTANT: SUMMARY SCORE INSTRUCTIONS: If you have been measuring your Summary Statement 1-10 degree of agreement in these special reaction boxes, (or would like to now) select here to use your scores for establishing your Globally Balanced Thinking Score (GBT Score). .     The easiest way to further gain from this and other natural systems thinking process activities is to enroll in a short, online, Orientation Course       THE NEW FRONTIER After you have established your GBT Score:   GLOBAL COMMUNITY CITIZENSHIP Select here to discover your Global Citizenship Potential .   Guestbook: Please share by e-mail, your experience from recognizing one or more of your sensations or feelings as a "natural sensory attraction string(s)". Did it further your connection to nature or yourself? How? Share your experience here. View others' experiences in the archive You may read the experiences of others in our other archives, too. Journal Entries Comments archive Unity archive Survey Archive Results Archive Newsletter Archive Reminder: Select here to compute your GBT Score.   Links: People and places that support the Natural Systems Thinking Process. Add your link here.   About the Author: Applied Ecopsychologist Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D. founded and coordinates Project NatureConnect and the Natural Systems Thinking Process. They are continuing education workshops, distance learning courses and degree programs of Greenwich University and the Institute of Global Education, in association with the United Nations Department of Public Education. He chairs the Department of Applied Ecopsychology/Integrated Ecology on San Juan Island, Washington. For 33 years, he has established and directed degree granting environmental outdoor education programs for the Trailside Country School, Lesley College, and the National Audubon Society. His 8 books and 56 articles include the award winning Connecting With Nature: Creating Moments that let Earth Teach which is included in his 1997 self-guiding book Reconnecting With Nature and Well Mind, Well Earth: 97 Environmentally Sensitive Activities for Stress Management, Spirit and Self-esteem. Dr. Cohen is the recipient of the Distinguished World Citizen Award. Contact: P.O. Box 1605, Friday Harbor WA 98250 (360) 378-6313. Email: nature@pacificrim.net Internet: www.ecopsych.com Return to beginning of Study For previous pages use the BACK or GO of your browser .......... ..........ALTERNATIVES Return to Homepage Directory Sign up for a fun, hands-on, interactive Orientation Course by email. 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