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PROGRAM OUTCOMES:
An online program participant, shares his results from a nature-connecting
activity.
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UNIQUE SCHOOL OUTDOOR LEARNING: NATURE BECOMES THE TEACHER
With one hand wrapped
in a towel and my eyes closed, and then open, I felt my way around
this natural area to see what I could sense.
I discovered:
1. Our disconnection from Nature,
or protective wrapping, is a source of the fears many people
live by because it doesn't allow us to sense the object (sensation,
feeling, person, situation, etc) as it really is. Our disconnected
thinking fills that void and runs wild, creating unnecessary
ideas and scenarios to cause gray areas.
2. The wrapped hand (or even person or sense) feels dulled to
the details of the natural object (or experience). This dullness
makes the wrapped hand stop short and make quick, general assumptions
because it simply can't take the sensations much further.
3. While the wrap acts as a protection in some ways (from sharp
objects, thorns and such), what it is causing the wrapped hand
to miss is much more harmful than an occasional prick or cut
- that's just life! Pricks and cuts happen regardless... eventually
a few will get through the wrapping. Nature is an efficient healer.
The hands in this activity represent the schoice we have in the
way we live. Protectively wrapped with dull senses or exposed,
sensing fully, and living completely. It's easier to get those
few wounds by living fully "sensed," knowing that you're
really living, than to get them without really understanding
why. But if we leave ourselves wrapped, it would seem we are
only shocked with the big nicks. In the long run, the small nicks
will seem like nothing after one or two and better prepare us
for the big nicks.
There is a sense of wonder and expansion that always seems to
occur during these activities. This one was very much the same.
It made me feel inspired to uncover the areas and senses of myself
that are "wrapped" and not be afraid to touch everything
in life. Yes, that means a sense of exposure and possibly a few
bumps and bruises (and surprises) along the way. But, it will
open my experiences in life to noticing the details of senses,
experiences, feelings, and people even more. It will make things
simpler and less analytical to simply notice from the very beginning
instead of trying to always figure out the parts that are dulled.
Actually, that just reminded me of a game that we played in school
class once when I was a kid. Take a shoe box, put some kind of
object inside of it, tape it up well, and give it to someone
to figure out what's in the box. They turn the box around in
all directions, shake it , slow their actions, speed them up,
ask desperate questions, and may eventually guess - either that
or give up in frustration with a laugh. All they can tell is
that the object rolls or slides, that there are edges or corners,
etc. Finally, when they are allowed to take the lid off, they
are either bewildered, exclaim "I knew it!," or "I
should have known." Just like the self-help activity we
completed for this chapter, the box acts as a wrap that takes
away many obvious attributes of an object and leaves only a few
to work with (or muffles the attributes to the point they are
no longer obvious). *Sigh*.... oh, how many times have I self-inflicted
this feeling?!
This activity does enhance my sense of self-worth. It makes me
give more credit to my senses and what I'm (we're) capable of.
We're missing out on 90% of living if we don't recognize this
and learn to reconnect with our wonderful senses - we're the
students in this process and Nature is a patient teacher. However,
we're the ones who have to make the effort to learn, as Nature
is always teaching.
Act now.
Master Organic
Psychology by doing it.
Explore it from our homepage
Read
Additional Student Reports
.
Contact us at 360-378-6313 mailto:nature@interisland.net,
http://www.ecopsych.com
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